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Model Solutions to Examination

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Date:

Subject: Petroleum Geoscience

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

No. Mk.

1. Complete the sections above but do not seal until the examination is finished.

2. Insert in box on right the numbers of the questions attempted.

3. Start each question on a new page.

4. Rough working should be confined to left hand pages.

5. This book must be handed in entire with the top corner sealed.

6. Additional books must bear the name of the candidate, be sealed and be affixed to
the first book by means of a tag provided

PLEASE READ EXAMINATION REGULATIONS ON BACK COVER

1
2
 Model Solutions to Examination

SECTION A

A1 The age of the Earth is estimated to be approximately 4,500,000,000

years.

A2 Stratigraphy is the study of the temporal and spatial relationships of

sedimentary rocks in a given area. Stratigraphy determines the suc

cession of rock strata, usually represented by a stratigraphic/geological

column.

A3 Igneous rocks have crystallised from a melt as it has cooled. Metamor

phic rocks are produced by heating (igneous, sedimentary or other

metamorphic) rocks under pressure leading to recrystallisation. Meta

morphic means changed.

A4 Radiometric age dating uses the regular decay of radioactive elements

(nucleides of e.g., Rubidium) found in minerals to provide absolute ages

of rocks.

A5 A source rock in petroleum geology describes the rock unit which has

sourced the hydrocarbon. Usually a marine, organic-rich shale (oil) or a

coal (gas).

A6 Secondary oil migration describes the migration of hydrocarbon (usually

oil) in a carrier bed between the source kitchen and the reservoir under

buoyancy or occasionally hydrodynamic drive.

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 yyyy
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rce
Sou Trap
Kitchen

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ri e r
Car
il
ry O
condation
Se Migra

A7 A stratigraphic trap is one in which the trapping mechanism for the

containment of hydrocarbons is provided by a stratigraphic change

(lateral facies change, unconformity).

A8 Exploration Risk Analysis assigns probabilities of success for the key

elements of a petroleum play - reservoir, source, seal, trap and timing.

The exploration risk is the product of the risks in each element.

A9 Permian Rotliegendes Sandstone is a reservoir unit in the Southern

North Sea. The reservoir is red-coloured, aeolian sandstone of

Permian age and is usually gas bearing.

A10 Unconformity is a break in the stratigraphic record and is expressed

as angular relationship between formations and missing section through

erosion.

4
 Model Solutions to Examination

Deposition

Non-deposition Deposition

Uplift

Non-deposition

Non-deposition Erosion

Deposition

Non-depositional Angular Parallel

A11 Aeolian Sandstone is a sandstone deposited by wind processes in an

cient deserts. Aeolian sandstones contain dune and interdune inter

vals.

A12 Trough-cross bedding is a feature of sediments deposited from strong

unidirectional currents. Lamina are deposited on the dipping faces of

sub-aqueous dunes as they migrate. Is common in fluvial reservoirs.

5
 b a

A13 Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary is a time marker between two geological

periods. It is a time of mass extinsions in the fossil record.

A14 Plate boundary is the edge of a lithospheric plate which may be conver

gent or divergent

CONVERGENT CONVERGENT

Trench

Granite
DIVERGENT

Asthenosphere Lithosphere

Crust Continental Oceanic

A15 Hangingwall and footwall are terms used to identify the sides of a

fault with respect to fault dip.

6
 Model Solutions to Examination

Hangingwall

Footwall
Hangingwall

Footwall

Normal Fault Reverse Fault

A16 Strike-slip fault is a fault along which predominantly horizontal move

ment has taken place

A17 Sub-seismic faulting are faults in reservoirs that have small throws

(<20m) and are below the resolution of seimic data and therefore can

not be imaged.

Horst Graben

A18 Horst is the term used to describe an upthrown block bounded by

normal faults. A graben is a downthrown block between two sub-

parallel normal faults.

7
 A19 Seismic events are mapped in two-way reflection time. To work out

the depth to a horizon a velocity model for the section above the

horizon is needed. Depth is one-way time times the velocity.

A20 Is the ability for the top and base of a layer to be identified in the

subsurface. Resolution thickness depends on the frequency, contrast

and depth of the bed but is commonly taken to be 1/4 seismic wave

length.

A21 The isochore is the vertical thickness of a layer penetrated in a verti

cal borehole. An isopach is the true stratigraphic thickness of a layer.

A22 Semivariogram is a statistical measure of autocorrelation. Used to

determine presence of correlation of permeability and the correlation

length (range). Used in geological modelling.

A23 Permeability heterogeneity. The variation about the mean of the per

meability in a reservoir about the mean. Permeability heterogeneity is

measured by the coefficient of variation, the Lorenz coefficient or

the Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient.

A24 Net pay is the interval of hydrocarbon-bearing rock which passes clay,

porosity and oil saturation cut-offs. These are often <40%, >10%,

>40% respectively.

A25 Monte Carlo Method is a statistical method for producing a distribu

tion of an unknown property (e.g., oil-in-place). Cumulative distribution

functions of rock volume, porosity, and saturation are sampled ran

8
 Model Solutions to Examination

domly and combined to give one value of hydrocarbons-in-place. Multi

ple random realisations allow a distribution to be built up

SECTION B

B1 (a)

800
19
83
700 25

75 10
600
75
500 100

27 33
400

300 50
76
50
200
50
44
100 21
91
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
(i) Mechanical
E
Contouring

800
19
700
83
10
600

500 100

27 33
400

300 100
50
76
200
44
100 21
91
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

(ii) Manual
Contouring

9
 Need a top structure map in depth

(from Seismic and well control, dipmeter)

Need the spill point or hydrocarbon contact to give closure

(log, RFT data)

Net:gross ratio

Delta Plain

Facies map (from cores/logs) Delta Channel

Delta Plain

0
0.5
Net:gross map (from Log)
0.75 0.5
0

10
 Model Solutions to Examination

Acoustic impedance map (from seismic)

Acoustic Anomaly

Porosity

Facies map (from cores/logs)

Net:gross map (from Log)

Acoustic impedance map (from seismic)

20
10

11
 B2 (a)
N 10
Arith. Av 174
Geo. Av 107
Har. Av 53
Mode 100
Median 110
sd 164
Variance 26820
Cv 0.94
No 88
P 59

This is a short interval therefore the 10 plugs are unable to capture

the variability (Cv=0.94). At least 88 samples (approx 1 per 3cm) would

be needed to estimate average ±20%. As it is 10 samples give us a

tolerance of 59% or ±103mD. That means we can be 95% confident

that the true arithmetic average lies between 72 and 277mD. The

variability may also be underestimated.

Well testing would assume the arithmetic average (layer parallel flow)

or geometric average (random permeabilities) 174 or 107mD respec

tively. We would need to account for the uincertainty in the averages

when making the comparison.

12
 Model Solutions to Examination

(b)

x k(x) h=1 h=2 h=3 h=4

1 100

2 120 400

3 350 52900 62500

4 490 19600 136900 152100

5 50 193600 90000 4900 2500

6 44 36 198916 93636 5776

7 120 5776 4900 136900 52900

8 100 400 3136 2500 152100

9 360 67600 57600 99856 96100

19 10 122500 8100 12100 1156

n 9 8 7 6
Sum 462812 562052 501992 310532
g(h) 25712 35128 35857 25878
g(h)/Variance 0.96 1.31 1.34 0.96

13
 Semivariagram
1.50

1.25

Sill
1.00
Gamma / Variance

0.75

Nugget
0.50

0.25

0.00
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00

Lag

The semivariogram can be interpreted as pure nugget. Normalised

value of 0.96 at lag 1 suggests the data are completely uncorrelated

(i.e., random). This would suggest the geometric average is most appro

priate.

An alternative interpretation is that there is layering with a hole

somewhere around 5m. In the case of layering this would suggest an

average close to the arithmetic might be more appropriate.

14
 Model Solutions to Examination

B3.

Answer:

(i) It is clear that the new well should be drilled as far east as possible

to gain the greatest oil column, but it cannot be drilled too far east, or

it may miss the truncated edge of the sandstone. The primary problem

is to correctly identify the truncation point of the sandstone layer

(see iii below).

Well A position 2.2 km

elevation
unit of base thickness velocity TWT (int) TWT multiples
(m) (m) (m/s) (cum)
water -400 400 1500 0.533 0.533 1.067 1.600 2.133
shale 5 -1000 600 1800 0.667 1.200
shale 4 -1800 800 2070 0.773 1.973
chalk -2200 400 1750 0.457 2.430
shale 3 -3000 800 2300 0.696 3.126
shale 2 -3050 50 2400 0.042 3.167
OWC -3055 5 2200 0.005 3.172
sandstone -3075 20 2200 0.018 3.190
TD -3090 15 2450 0.012 3.202

Well B position 9 km
elevation
unit of base thickness velocity TWT (int) TWT multiples
(m) (m) (m/s) (cum)
water -200 200 1500 0.267 0.267 0.533 0.800 1.067
shale 5 -800 600 1600 0.750 1.017
shale 4 -1600 800 1850 0.865 1.882
chalk -2000 400 1750 0.457 2.339
shale 3 -2800 800 2000 0.800 3.139
TD -2825 25 2450 0.020 3.159

The form of the seismic line can be determined by locating, in time,

the positions of the main stratigraphic boundaries. This is done by

determining, in time, the locations of the boundaries at each well.

15
 WEST EAST
Position (km)
0 2 4 6 8 10
well A well B
0.0
positive water
0.5 reflection
shale5
1.0
water-bottom
TWT (sec)

1.5 shale4 multiples

negative
reflection
2.0
chalk
2.5
shale3
3.0 shale2
sandstone unconformity
shale1 "wedge"
3.5
dips to the right
problem

The reflections from surfaces where the velocity increases with depth

will produce peaks, and the reflections from interfaces where the

velocity decreases will produce troughs.

(ii) On a time section, the unconformity will appear to dip east

(slightly), whereas it really dips to the west. The sedimentary units

that actually have constant thicknesses will appear to thicken to the

east (because of the slower velocities). Water-bottom multiples may

make it difficult to be confident of the interpretation. This may be

especially true since the multiples have the same dip direction as the

sandstone.

(iii) This is the “wedge” problem, where a unit of rock pinches out.

Given the depth, it is likely that the high frequencies will have been

lost, so the vertical resolution is probably about 10-20 m. Since the

16
 Model Solutions to Examination

sandstone is only 25 m thick, it is probably difficult to be sure of the

top and bottom reflections even away from the truncation. It is likely

that the position of the truncation can only be bounded, not deter

mined.

B4 (a)

The oldest rocks are of Devonian age. Carboniferous was eroded or

non-deposited in the area. Permian Sandstones deposited on an

unconformity. Permian Sandstones onlap on the Western Flank of the

field and are overlain conformably by salt.

Triassic shales are limited to the Western Flank. No Lower or Middle

Jurassic rocks are preserved. Upper Jurassic sandstones are de

posited over the salt on an unconformity on the western flank. Lower

Cretaceous shales are deposited in a series of basins on the western

flank. Cretaceous limestone was deposited over the whole area fol

lowed by a thick Tertiary sequence.

(b)

Three reservoir rocks are described.

The oldest and deepest (Devonian) sandstone comprises thin (3m)

sanstones, erosional based, upward-fining, cross-bedded, rippled,

occasionally coarse based, interbedded with fine-grained sandstones -

silts with mudcracks and rootlet layers. Red colour and sedimentary

structures indicate continental braided fluvial environment

17
 The Permian Sandstones are fine to medium red sandstones, thick

(10m) fining-up with large scale cross-bedding. Sandstones are inter

bedded with rippled fine sandstone. Large nature of crossbedded

units and red colour suggest a continental aeolian environment.

The Jurassic sandstone is characterised by a single coarsening-up

sequence from a marine shale. Sandstones include low-angle cross-

bedding to trough cross-bedding and are bioturbated. The unit is a

single prograding shallow marine shoreface sandstone.

(c)

The structure is predominantly a NE-SW trending horst block

(faulted anticline) bounded by a graben to the NE. The dominant

faults are NE-SW with subsidiary N-S and NW-SE trends. The main

fault bounding structure moved in Early Cretaceous times.

Stratigraphic distributions suggest these faults were active since

Devonian times. The NW-SE faults are active from Triassic to Lower

Cretaceous times. Faults cutting the structure have throws of ap

proximately 100m. The throw on the bounding faults is not deter

mined but is likely to exceed the 250m oil column. Dip is approxi

mately 250m in 1000m towards the SW.

End of Paper

18