Origin of complex mound geometry of Paleocene submarine-fan sandstone reservoirs, Balder Field, Norway

Jenssen, A. I.; Bergslien, D.; Rye-Larsen, M.; Lindholm, Rosanne M.

doi:10.1144/0040135

Cited by 49 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…These soft-sediment deformation processes have directly affected at least ten significant hydrocarbon accumulations within an area of ~500,000 km 2 in the Central and Northern North Sea (e.g., Forth/ Harding, Alba, Balder, Gryphon fields: Alexander et al, 1993;Jenssen et al, 1993;Newman et al, 1993;Timbrell, 1993;Dixon et al, 1995;Lonergan and Cartwright, 1999;Lawrence et al, 1999;MacLeod et al 1999). Nevertheless, the traditional interpretation of North Sea Tertiary deepwater sandstone bodies is based on the assumption that reservoir distribution and heterogeneity reflect a primary depositional origin.…”

Section: Qwurgxfwlrqmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, sand remobilization processes can result in significant changes to the reservoir geology, as summarized below ( Fig. 1 Jenssen et al, 1993;Rye-Larsen, 1994); development of pod-like sandbodies (e.g., Balder and Alba Fields); vertical intrusion of clastic dikes and sills above the reservoir (e.g., Forth/Harding, Frigg, Gryphon and Alba Fields; Newman et al 1993;Dixon et al, 1995), and sand intrusion up faults along the reservoir margins (Alba Field, Lonergan and Cartwright, 1999;MacLeod et al, 1999).…”

Section: Remobilization and Its Effect On Reservoir Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first seismic-scale examples of clastic intrusion described in the North Sea were from the Balder and Forth/Harding fields (Jenssen et al, 1993;Dixon et al, 1995;Fig. 3).…”

Section: Seismic Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Balder field the km-scale, sub-circular and mounded sand geometries are interpreted as being related to the interaction of several processes (Jenssen et al 1993), most (5) breaching and injection of the uppermost sands (Balder Formation) into the top seal mudstones during the early Eocene. Once the seal was breached, a pressure differential was generated in the Balder sands and the sands flowed from one area to another, probablyexploiting the original depositional topography and generating new, injection-related mounded geometries, with localized sand volcanoes and smaller-scale dike and sill complexes in the overlying mudstones (as reconconstructed from core observations).…”

Section: Balder and Forth/hardingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Remoblization and Injection in Deepwater Depositional Systems: Implications for Reservoir Architecture and Prediction

Lonergan¹,

Lee²,

Johnson³

et al. 2000

Deep-Water Reservoirs of the World: 20th Annual

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$EVWUDFWSeveral productive Paleogene deepwater sandstone reservoirs in the North Sea show evidence of having undergone post-depositional remobilization and clastic injection, which can result in major disruption of the primary reservoir distribution (e.g., Alba, Forth/Harding, Balder, and Gryphon fields). Case studies of deepwater sandstones from UK Quadrants 9, 15, 16 and 21 are presented to illustrate the wide spectrum of remobilization features, which range from centimeters (e.g., core-scale) to hundreds of meters (e.g., seismic-scale). Most common are clastic injection structures such as dikes and sills. Sills of massive sand, over 20 m thick, have been identified. Intrusions associated with the propagation of syn-to early post-depositional, dewatering-related polygonal fault systems in adjacent deepwater mudrocks are also common. The scale of the clastic intrusion and remobilization has significant impact on reservoir architecture and production performance, including changes in (a) original depositional geometries; (b) reservoir properties; (c) connectivity, (d) top reservoir surface structure, (e) reservoir volumetrics, and (f) recovery/performance predictions.There are several prerequisites for sandstone intrusions to form: the source sediment must be uncemented, and the 'parent' sand body must be sealed such that an overpressure with a steep hydraulic gradient can be generated. The seal on the overpressured sand body must then be breached for the sand to fluidize and inject. The stress state within the basin, burial depth, fluid pressure and the nature of the sedimentary host rock all contribute to the final style, geometry and scale of intrusion. At shallow depths, within a few meters of the surface, small irregular intrusions are generated, more commonly forming sills, whereas at greater depth larger and more continuous dikes and sills form clastic intrusion networks. Field examples from the Ordovician in Ireland, and Panoche Hills in California are used to illustrate the control of burial depth/ stress on intrusion scale.Earthquake induced liquefaction, tectonics stresses and build-up of excess in-situ pore pressure are the most commonly cited explanations for the occurrence of clastic intrusions. However, our work suggests that the largescale, 'catastrophic' sandstone intrusions within the North Sea Paleogene, which remobilized hundreds of cubic meters of sediment, probably require the presence of fluids migrating from deeper within the basin (e.g., gas charge) to drive the injection. Deepwater sand bodies within the North Sea that appear most susceptible to remobilization occur in mud-dominated successions and include (1) narrow, elongate channel or gully-filled sands (i.e., non-

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Section: Qwurgxfwlrqmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Remobilization and Its Effect On Reservoir Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first seismic-scale examples of clastic intrusion described in the North Sea were from the Balder and Forth/Harding fields (Jenssen et al, 1993;Dixon et al, 1995;Fig. 3).…”

Section: Seismic Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Balder and Forth/hardingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Remoblization and Injection in Deepwater Depositional Systems: Implications for Reservoir Architecture and Prediction

Lonergan¹,

Lee²,

Johnson³

et al. 2000

Deep-Water Reservoirs of the World: 20th Annual

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“…To the south, three large-scale channels can be seen extending eastwards from the East Shetland Platform into the Beryl Embayment. These fed clastics into the South Viking Graben, where thick sands were deposited in basin-floor fans confined by the Utsira High to the east (Jenssen et al 1993). There is evidence for incision in the Beryl Embayment, where Heimdal sandstones fill channels cut into lower Lista slope mudstones (Mudge & Jones 2004).…”

Section: Balmoral/heimdal Sandstonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional controls on Lower Tertiary sandstone distribution in the North Sea and NE Atlantic margin basins

Mudge¹

2014

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Widely distributed deep-water fan sandstones of early Tertiary age form the reservoir for one of the most successful and prolific plays in the North Sea and NE Atlantic margin. Stratigraphic interpretation of a large well database provides the basis for mapping sand distribution and depositional environments in these two hydrocarbon provinces. Sand thickness maps for five Paleocene-Lower Eocene plays illustrate the intimate relationship between pre-existing structural features and sand distribution and facies in the North Sea. Large-scale depositional environment mapping gives an insight into the similarities and differences between basin evolution and sand distribution in North Sea and NE Atlantic margin basins. Both provinces were affected by the same succession of pre-break-up and syn-break-up tectonic and magmatic events that led to early Eocene continental separation and the formation of the NE Atlantic. The impact of these events was muted within the North Sea, which was protected from Paleocene rifting on the NE Atlantic margin by the Scotland-Shetland hinterland and from Paleocene-early Eocene volcanism by its more distant location. However, it was the combination of tectonic and thermal uplift of this clastic source area that contributed the large volumes of sand that accumulated in both these provinces.

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Facies Anatomy of a Sand‐Rich Channelized Turbiditic System: The Eocene Kusuri Formation in the Sinop Basin, North‐Central Turkey

Janbu

Nemec

Kirman

et al. 2007

Sedimentary Processes, Environments and Basins

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This study focuses on a basin-floor turbiditic system in an Eocene foredeep basin, using facies analysis supplemented with micropalaeontological and ichnological data. Sediment dispersal processes are interpreted from sedimentary facies, and the morphogenesis, spatial relationships and stratigraphic distribution of facies associations are used to reconstruct the behaviour and morphodynamic evolution of the turbiditic system. The case study sheds more light on the development of submarine channels and related patterns of overbank sedimentation in narrow foreland basins, and contributes to a better understanding of the geological history of the Central Pontides.The lower to middle Eocene Kusuri Formation in the Sinop Basin, north-central Anatolia, is a succession of siliciclastic turbidites ~1200 m thick, well-exposed on the Turkish Black Sea coast. The deposition occurred in a west-trending foredeep trough of the Central Pontides, ~30 km wide and > 150 km long, and involved a deep-water axial dispersal system supplied with coarse sediment by a fluvio-deltaic feeder draining the emerged adjacent foreland of the Eastern Pontides. Sedimentary facies include hemipelagic 'background' mudstones, thin muddy turbidites and 'classic' Bouma-type turbidites, a wide range of non-classic turbidites attributed to low-and high-density sustained currents, and gravelly debrisflow deposits. These facies form four major associations:1 mudstones interspersed with thin turbidite sheets; 2 broad depositional lobes with thickening-upward bedding trends; 3 poorly defined wide palaeochannels, solitary sinuous palaeochannels and multistorey palaeochannel complexes; 4 packages of thin overbank turbidites with tabular, wedge-shaped or sigmoidal bedding.The first assemblage forms the lowermost and uppermost part of the Kusuri Formation, whereas the others occur in its middle main part. The poorly defined palaeochannels are 20-25 m thick, typically overlie the depositional lobes and are themselves overlain by the sinuous palaeochannels, 20-30 m thick and ≤ 400-500 m wide, which suggests that the former channels tended to evolve into the latter. The sinuous channels show lateral accretion (point bars) indicating meander-bend expansion combined with a marked downstream translation, and their depth/width aspect ratios are much lower than those of many modern submarine channels. The multistorey complexes of sinuous palaeochannels are 100-160 m thick and estimated to be ≤ 3-5 km wide. The vertical stacking of multistorey channels is attributed to the growth of syndepositional blind-thrust anticlines on the basin floor. The overbank facies assemblages indicate basin-wide flows (tabular bed packages),

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Origin of complex mound geometry of Paleocene submarine-fan sandstone reservoirs, Balder Field, Norway

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

Remoblization and Injection in Deepwater Depositional Systems: Implications for Reservoir Architecture and Prediction

Remoblization and Injection in Deepwater Depositional Systems: Implications for Reservoir Architecture and Prediction

Regional controls on Lower Tertiary sandstone distribution in the North Sea and NE Atlantic margin basins

Facies Anatomy of a Sand‐Rich Channelized Turbiditic System: The Eocene Kusuri Formation in the Sinop Basin, North‐Central Turkey

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