Important Reservoir Factors

o Gross thickness
The total thickness of the reservoir interval

What we like best:

Very thick

o Net-to-Gross ratio
The fraction of the gross reservoir thickness
representing porous reservoir rocks

o Porosity
As fraction of the total net reservoir

o Permeability
Impacting the production rates that can be
achieved

o Geometry of reservoir bodies:

Affecting connectivity, and influences the
production rate & recovery factor
3. Reservoirs

High net/gross
massive sandstones
High porosity
much room for HCs
High permeability
high production
rates
High continuity, and
no baffles
3

Reservoir Factors are controlled by:

o Depositional environment
From terrestrial to deep marine

o Rate of sediment input

High sediment input
Lack of sediment input

Progradation
Carbonate deposition

o Relative sea level

Rise
High
Fall
Stable

Regression and accumulation in accommodation space

Progradation into the basin
Non-deposition or erosion and by-pass to deep water
Lateral fill of accommodation space

N.B Steep slopes narrow shelves with fans & sediment by-pass

o Post-depositional structuration
Faulting
Uplift
3. Reservoirs

Differing subsidence rates (accommodation space)

Erosion and unconformities
4

Depositional Environments

3. Reservoirs

Clastic Depositional Systems

Clastic Depositional Systems

Clastic Depositional Systems

Sequence Stratigraphy for Dummies

Sequence stratigraphy is the study of stratigraphic sequences in a
time framework linked to variations of (relative) sea level.
All cycles in sedimentation result from changes in accommodation
space in a depositional setting.
Relative sea-level can be subdivided in 4 phases:
Rising High Falling Low
In the sedimentary record we can recognise 3 Systems Tracts:
Transgressive Systems Tract fast rising sea-level
Highstand Systems Tract slow rising (late) and high sea-level
Low Stand Systems Tract falling and low sea-level
Each phase may contain all facies from shallow to deep, but they are:
spatially different, and
have different onlap geometries

3. Reservoirs

A very good website with information and illustrations

about sequence stratigraphy can be found at:
http://www.sepmstrata.org/seqstrat.html

Eustatic Sea-Level Cycles

1st Order Cycles
> 50-100 MY cycles
Resulting from large scale volume changes of
ocean basins related to break-up and formation
of supercontinents

2nd Order Cycles

3-50 (10-100) MY
Probably caused by changes in oceanic spreading rates

3rd Order Cycles

0.5-3 (1-10) MY
Foundation of Seismic Stratigraphy depositional sequences
Possibly caused by glacio-eustatic cycles and/or variations in intra-plate stresses

4th and higher Order Cycles

<0.5 MY
Local autocyclic causes, such as delta switching
Milankovitch cycles (Precession: 19-26ky, Obliquity: 41ky, Eccentricity: 95, 125,
400ky)
JdJ

10

Sealevel
Phanerozoic
coastal onlap
curve
The light blue line is
the 1st order sea-level
curve
The coastal onlap
curve has 2nd order
cyclicity
Note the flat tops of the
coastal onlap curve
3. Reservoirs

Vail onlap
curve

First-order
sea-level
cycle

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Facies change within a depositional sequence

Four main parameters influence distribution of facies
belts:
1. Eustacy
2. Subsidence
3. Sediment supply
4. Climate

Climate

Sediment supply
Eustacy

Subsidence

After Bally et al.

JdJ
12

Eustacy, Relative Sea-level, Coastal Onlap

Summation of input functions

Input functions

Rising

Rising
C

time

B/C

hiatus

hiatus

Falling

Falling
A

D/E

hiatus

Relative changes
of sea-level

Relative changes
of sea-level

eustacy

time

Coastal onlap curve

F/G

Stratigraphic
Recorded time

A symmetric sea-level curve results in a a-symmetric coastal onlap curve

3. Reservoirs

13

Changes in sediment supply rate

JdJ
14

Coastal Onlap & Transgression / Regression

Rising sea-level

Falling sea-level

Time of sea-level fall

Stillstand

ss
egre

ion

Slow sea-level rise

Low sediment input

High sediment input

Tran
s
Fast sea-level rise

B.W. Ross
3.After
Reservoirs

gres
s

ion

15

Prograding depositional sequence

Coarsening upward progradational (regressive) sequence of

fan-delta complex:
Marly shales at the base (slope deposits)
Coarsening/shallowing upward sands (coastal-fluvial/alluvial)
Arrow indicates shaling-out sand unit in distal direction: clear
example of facies change within a single depositional sequence
3. Reservoirs

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