Characterization of effective permeability in heterolithic, distal lower-shoreface sandstone reservoirs: Rannoch Formation, Brent Group, UK North Sea

Abstract

The reservoir properties of distal lower-shoreface and distal wave-dominated delta-front deposits, which consist of sandstone beds with locally scoured bases and mudstone interbeds, are poorly understood. The lower Rannoch Formation (Middle Jurassic Brent Group) forms an interval of such heterolithic sandstones in many North Sea reservoirs, and is used to illustrate a workflow for rapid estimation of reservoir properties and their sensitivity to key parameters. Mudstone-interbed thickness distributions in cored reservoir successions are compared to the thickness distribution of sandstone scour-fills in an outcrop analogue(s) in order to identify mudstones with the potential to form laterally extensive barriers to vertical flow. Effective k v / k h at the scale of several typical reservoir-model grid cells (200 × 100 × 20 m) is estimated in intervals bounded by these mudstone barriers via a simple analytical technique that is calibrated to previously documented reservoir-modelling experiments, using values of sandstone proportion measured in cored reservoir successions. Using data from the G2 parasequence (Grassy Member, Blackhawk Formation, east-central Utah, USA) outcrop analogue, mudstones bounding 3–8 m-thick, upwards-coarsening successions in the lower Rannoch Formation may define separate stratigraphic compartments in which grid-cell-scale effective k v / k h is estimated to be 0.0001–0.001 using a streamline-based analytical method.