PESA WA : Evening talk – From Wells Correlation to Stratigraphic Modelling: Understanding the Complexity of Shale-Plays and Source-Rocks

Hosted with thanks to our sponsors: CSIRO

From Wells Correlation to Stratigraphic Modelling: Understanding the Complexity of Shale-Plays and Source-Rocks

Vincent Crombez

Tuesday 3rd November 6pm (for talk start at 6.45pm)

Cost:

PESA Members:                                $15.00 (Members must Log on to the PESA website to see the member prices)

Non-members:                                 $30.00

PESA Students Members:             Free (registration is essential)

Bookings close 12noon  for venue and catering purposes. 

Abstract

For decades, source-rocks have been considered “black boxes” that generate hydrocarbons. Over the past 15 years, with the increasing interest in our industry for self-sourced reservoirs it has become apparent that we can no longer describe an organic-rich rock by its mean total organic carbon content and hydrogen index. We now know that source-rocks present as many heterogeneities as conventional reservoirs: organic-rich areas in these black boxes generate hydrocarbons, while the more coarse-grained parts act as drains. When exploring for the sweet spots of unconventional plays, or when assessing the petroleum potential of a frontier basin, we want to be able to understand and account for the sedimentary heterogeneities in organic-rich rocks. This talk will introduce a characterisation pathway presenting results from a multidisciplinary study of the Proterozoic Velkerri Formation. Starting with well data, we first seek to understand the stratigraphic architecture of this interval. Then, using geochemical analysis we suggest a conceptual geological model to explain the distribution of the organic content within the stratigraphic framework. Building on this geological knowledge, we simulate the evolution of the basin during the Proterozoic using forward stratigraphic modelling. The resulting model provides us with a process-based sedimentary facies distribution. By running the stratigraphic model multiple times varying the input parameters, we are able to create a probabilistic distribution of the black box properties in the basin and investigate the main geological controls that determine their distribution. The presented workflow results in a geologically plausible distribution of the black boxes’ properties, which can be used to model and constrain hydrocarbon generation and migration at different scales