An Integrated 3-D Seismic Facies Analysis of Productive Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary Formations of the Willows-Beehive Bend Gas Field, Sacramento Basin, California: ABSTRACT

Abstract

An integrated seismic facies analysis of the Willows-Beehive Bend gas field, using three-dimensional seismic data has led to improved identification of reservoir facies, depositional environments, and reservoir parameters. These three-dimensional data were interpreted together with cores, time-based wireline logs, synthetic seismograms, and six regional two-dimensional seismic lines. The three productive formations studied include (1) the Eocene Princeton Gorge fill, which represents a submarine canyon fill; (2) the Upper Cretaceous Kione Formation, which is composed of shelf and deltaic facies; and (3) the mud-rich Upper Cretaceous Forbes Formation, which represents deep water slope and submarine-fan facies. The Princeton Gorge fill consists of an upper shale-dominated facies and a lower sand-rich channel-dominated facies. These channel fills are sinuous, 0.4-0.8 km wide, trend north to south, and have the best reservoir quality of the field. Two facies are recognized in the Kione Formation: a sand-rich deltafront facies and a mud-rich prodelta facies. The delta-front facies shows west to east progradation across the survey area and has good reservoir quality. The prodelta deposits are transitional into the prograding shale-dominated slope deposits of the upper Forbes Formation. This slope facies contains shale-rich submarine-canyon and gully fills that trend northwest to southeast are 0.8-1.6 km wide,more » and locally contain sinuous sandy channel fills. The middle Forbes Formation consists of two turbidite facies: middle submarine-fan channel/levee complexes and lower fan depositional lobes. The channel/level complexes are sinuous, trend north to south, and are approximately 0.8-2.4 km wide, whereas the depositional lobes are 3-4 km in diameter.« less