paleolatitudinal controls on depositional processes and products: a reality check from global...

Paleolatitudinal Controls on Depositional Processes and Products:A Reality Check from Global Analogues of Clastic and Carbonate Reservoirs

Jose I. Guzman and Allard W. Martinius – November 2014

2014-08-30Classification: Open

Outline

• Methods

• Comparison Across Paleolatitudes

− Source Rock

− All Reservoirs

− Clastic Reservoirs (and some examples)

2014-08-302 Classification: Open

Subsurface Analogues


• >1000 fields

• >180 basins worldwide

Ocean

ic C

rust

Ag

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Reservoir Analogue Knowledge Base: C&C Reservoirs, Inc, 2014, Digital Analogs

Knowledge System

All GIS Maps and Restorations:

• The Rothwell Group, L.P.

• PaleoGIS

• The University of Texas Institute of Geophysics Plate Model

Select Time Slices


PERIOD NUMBER OF RESERVOIRS

Neogene 222

Paleogene 209

Cretaceous 307

Jurassic 144

Triassic 37

Permian 85

Carboniferous 69

Devonian 57

Silurian 8

Ordovician 30

Proterozoic-Cambrian 24

• Reservoirs and source rocks

sorted by age into eleven (11) time

slices for reconstruction

Example: Fields with Devonian Source Rocks


Ocean

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Fields with Devonian Source Rocks (Rotated)


60o

30o

0o

-30o

-60o

Sort Data by Paleolatitude Range

• How do we define “High Latitude”?

• Cutoff at >60 degrees would leave some key analogs (e.g., Canadian) out

• Cutoff at >50 degrees may begin to introduce temperate bias

• Compromise reached at >55 degrees! (North or South)

• Mid latitude defined between 20 and 55 degrees due to sample size

• Low latitude <20 degrees (North and South)


• >55 deg (N or S): 83 reservoirs

• 20-55 deg (N or S): 493 reservoirs

• <20 deg (N or S): 512 reservoirs


Period

Comparison Across Paleolatitude RangesSource Rock Period and Depositional System

Depositional System

• ~75% of all source rocks at high latitudes are found in the Cretaceous and Jurassic and ~50% in

marine-shelf and lacustrine environments

• Notable exception: majority of source rocks found in swamp/coastal plain environments are in

high latitudes


Kerogen Type

Comparison Across Paleolatitude RangesSource Rock Kerogen Type

• Over 50% of all high latitude source rocks contain a Type II-III kerogen mixture

• Type II kerogen can be of marine origin (from algal material) or terrestrial (exinite)

• Type III kerogen is terrestrial (vitrinite) from fibrous and woody plant fragments

Comparison Across Paleolatitude RangesAll Clastic and Carbonate Reservoirs – Age and BasinTectonic Setting


Period Tectonic Setting

• ~80% of high-latitude

reservoirs found are of

Jurassic through Paleogene

age but most occur in the

Cretaceous and only a few in

the Neogene.

• One possible explanation

might be the creation of new

oceanic crust and the

formation of new continents

since the Triassic.

• Intracratonic and rift tectonic

settings are dominant at high

latitudes


Lithology Depositional System

• Carbonate reservoirs are

notably absent (in this dataset)

at paleolatitudes >55 degrees

and are clearly more abundant

at low (0-20 deg) latitudes

• This is probably due to cutoff at

55 degrees and the bias of the

dataset towards clastic

reservoirs

• High latitude clastic systems

are dominantly coastal/deltaic

and fluvial

• Glaciogenic reservoirs are

under-represented in database

Comparison Across Paleolatitude Ranges All Clastic and Carbonate Reservoirs – Lithology and Depositional System


Continental Coastal Deep-Marine

Comparison Across Paleolatitude Ranges Clastic Depositional Environments

At high latitudes:

• ~80% of continental reservoirs are in braided or meandering rivers and in equal proportions

• Shoreline-shelf environments are dominant; estuarine deposits present in same proportion at

mid/low latitude counterparts; fluvial delta systems are the dominant delta type

• Submarine-fan channels/lobes are recognized in >80% of deep-marine reservoirs

High-Latitude Glaciogenic Example:Ordovician Glaciofluvial Sandstones, Tin Fouye-Tabankort (TFT) Field, Illizi Basin, Algeria


• Current latitude: 28.3 deg; Restored Ordovician latitude: -68.7 deg

• Illizi Basin: part of the greater Ghadames intracratonic Basin on the Gondwana

supercontinent

• Late Ordovician: major icehouse period

• Recoverable reserves from glacial deposits: 8 TCFG, 840 MMBO and 270 MMBC

Galeazi et al., 2010

TFT Field

0o

-60o

-30o

30o

60o



• Glaciogenic deposits occur within major incised valley that is capped by a regional

MFS; Late Ordovician is marked by two global eustatic sea-level fall events

Galeazi et al., 2010



Dixon et al., 2008

• Subglacial Facies (ice covered or ice advance): tillites and tractional conglomerates and coarse

sandstones on basal glacial erosion surface (SB?); may contain intra-valley erosion surface

• Proglacial Facies (retreating ice): fine-grained sandstones and mudstones

• These facies are driven by glacial advance and retreat; are these two separate systems tracts?

High Latitude Clastic ShelfMaastrichtian Shelf Sandstones, Puerto Peter Field, Austral Basin, Argentina


• Current latitude: -50.9 deg; Restored Aptian latitude: --61.7 deg

Urien, 2001

0o

-60o

-30o

30o

60o

Ocean

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Ag

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• Part of the Patagonian foredeep that culminated at the end of the

Cretaceous

• Part of Cretaceous greenhouse?


Cagnolatti and Miller, 2002

• Sands: feldespathic litharenites with up to 45% lithic fragments and 20% feldspar (potassium

and plagioclase). How can this mineralogy survive long transport distance and a high-energy

environment? Is this a high-latitude cold episode within the Cretaceous greenhouse?

High Latitude Clastic ShelfMaastrichtian Shelf Sandstones, Puerto Peter Field, Austral Basin, Argentina


Thank You!

paleolatitudinal controls on depositional processes and products: a reality check from global...

Software

ordovician latitude

opencurrent latitude

southmid latitude

open reservoirs

sample sizelow latitude

fluvialglaciogenic reservoirs

cc reservoirs

continental reservoirs