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1 Rohöl-Aufsuchungs A.G., Schwarzenbergplatz 16, A1015 Vienna, Austria; present address: Shell International Exploration and Production, Kesslerpark 1, 2288 GS Rijswijk, Netherlands; m.deruig{at}shell.com
2 Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305; stevehub{at}pangea.stanford.edu
Menno de Ruig studied geology in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. in 1992 and then joined Shell International. He worked as an exploration geologist and seismic interpreter in the United Kingdom North Sea and for Woodside Energy in Australia, including projects in Indonesia and Mauritania. From 2001 to 2005, he worked on the Austrian Molasse and Eastern Europe for Rohöl-Aufsuchungs A.G. in Vienna and is now back at Shell as the exploration geology team leader for the Caspian Sea.
Stephen Hubbard received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in geology from the University of Alberta before working at Shell Canada for 2 years on the oil sand deposits of Alberta. In the fall of 2001, he commenced a Ph.D. at Stanford University, studying deep-water foreland basin deposits in Austria and Chile. He has recently accepted an assistant professorship in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Calgary.
Oligocene–Miocene deep-water deposits of the Puchkirchen and basal Hall formations contain the main gas reservoirs of the Austrian Molasse Basin. A new seismostratigraphic model, based on a 2000-km2 (772-mi2), regional, three-dimensional (3-D) seismic data set, has fundamentally changed our understanding of the depositional processes and reservoir distribution in this classic deep-water foreland basin.
Regional 3-D seismic attribute maps, calibrated by nearly 350 wells, reveal that sedimentation occurred primarily within the confines of a large (3–5 km [1.8–3.1 mi] wide by >100 km [>62 mi] long), low-sinuosity channel belt that occupied the Molasse Basin foredeep. The channel fill consists predominantly of turbiditic conglomerate and sandstone, as well as chaotic slump and debris-flow deposits. Overbank areas are characterized by fine-grained turbiditic sandstone and mudstone. Incised canyons and ponded slope fans were active along the southern basin margin; lateral tributary channels intersected the axial channel belt in the north. Significant accumulations of gas are stratigraphically and structurally trapped in channel thalweg and slope-fan sandstones, with more modest amounts in overbank lobe and tributary-channel deposits.
Basin geometry had a profound effect on the architecture of the channel belt and subsequent sediment distribution. Large-scale deep-water channel systems are poorly documented from foreland basins; the depositional model developed for the Puchkirchen Formation was made possible through the use of high-quality seismic data and an extensive drill-core database. The depositional model may be a useful analog for other elongate, deep-water basins, especially those that lack extensive, modern data sets.
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