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Stratigraphic well correlations for 3-D static modeling of carbonate reservoirs

¹ Laboratoire de Géologie des Systèmes et des Réservoirs Carbonatés, case 67, Université de Provence, 3, Place Victor Hugo, F-13331 Marseille Cedex 03, France; jean.borgomano{at}univ-provence.fr
² Laboratoire de Géologie des Systèmes et des Réservoirs Carbonatés, case 67, Université de Provence, 3, Place Victor Hugo, F-13331 Marseille Cedex 03, France; Francois.Fournier{at}univ-provence.fr
³ Laboratoire de Géologie des Systèmes et des Réservoirs Carbonatés, case 67, Université de Provence, 3, Place Victor Hugo, F-13331 Marseille Cedex 03, France; Sophie.Viseur{at}univ-provence.fr
⁴ Mærsk Olie og Gas AS, Esplanaden 50, DK-1263 København K, Denmark; rij{at}maerskoil.com

Jean Borgomano obtained a Ph.D. in carbonate geology in 1987 from the University of Provence in Marseilles, France. In 1988–2003, he worked at Shell as a senior carbonate geologist in various exploration and production Shell companies. He is currently a professor at the University of Provence and the director of the Geology of Carbonate Systems and Reservoirs Laboratory. His research focuses on the geological characterization and numerical modeling of carbonate reservoir architecture and properties.

François Fournier received his M.Sc. degrees from the Nancy School of Mines, France, and from the Institut Français du Pétrole and a Ph.D. in carbonate sedimentology from the University of Provence in Marseilles, France. After a short experience in oil companies as an exploration geologist in France and Angola, he joined the Geology of Carbonate Systems Laboratory, Marseilles, France, as a lecturer in 2005. His research focuses on the relationship between sedimentology, diagenesis, and seismic reflections in carbonate reservoirs.

Sophie Viseur is a numerical geologist working as a researcher at the University of Provence. She received her Ph.D. from the Nancy School of Geology in 2001. Her primary interests are in geostatistics for channel simulations and their application to hydrocarbon exploration and production. In recent years, she has worked in developing methods for the integration of outcrop data and geological concepts into 3-D carbonate architecture models.

Lex Rijkels is a reservoir engineer with Maersk Oil in Copenhagen. He is interested in linking field development decisions to the resolution of geostatistical and production data. He has worked on fractured and carbonate reservoirs, faulted fluvial sandstones, tight gas-condensate chalks, and a range of primary to tertiary recovery developments. He started his career at Shell on the Carbonate Team and on a business unit in Damascus.

ABSTRACT

The principles and purposes of stratigraphic well correlation in carbonate sedimentary systems are defined and discussed within the context of static reservoir modeling. The challenge of well correlations is to relate the heterogeneities measured at core and well scales to the spatial heterogeneities at reservoir and flow unit scales. The introduction of a priori knowledge in the process of stratigraphic well correlation is critical to support the stratigraphic rules and to establish a coherent geological and petrophysical concept. The links between well correlation and geostatistics are discussed with regard to the stationarity hypothesis and property trend analysis. We stress that wells are incomplete and biased samples of the geological reality, which is not dependent, unlike the dynamic reservoir behavior, on the well numbers, location, and spacing. Stratigraphic rules are applied as a function of the well spacing relative to the geological reality. A simple trigonometric method, combining angle of base profile, paleobathymetry, and well spacing, is introduced to check the validity of the well correlation in carbonate ramp-like systems. Two models, based respectively on outcrop and subsurface with seismic data, are discussed in detail to show the combined influence of the data set, sedimentary systems, and diagenetic transformations on stratigraphic well correlations.