Abstract
Correlation of hydrocarbon reservoir sandstones is one of the most important economic applications for heavy mineral analysis. In this paper, we review the fundamental principles required for establishing correlation frameworks using heavy mineral data, and illustrate the applications of a wide variety of heavy mineral techniques using a number of case studies from hydrocarbon reservoirs in the North Sea and adjacent areas. The examples cover Triassic red-bed successions in the central North Sea and west of Shetland, which have been subdivided and correlated using provenance-sensitive ratio data and mineral morphologies; Middle Jurassic paralic sandstones in the northern North Sea, correlated using garnet geochemistry; Upper Jurassic deep water sandstones in the northern North Sea, discriminated using rutile geochemistry and detrital zircon age data; and the “real-time” application of the technique at well site in Devonian-Carboniferous fluvio-lacustrine sandstones of the Clair Field, west of Shetland.
Highlights
One of the most important practical economic applications of heavy mineral analysis is the correlation of sandstones that host reserves of oil and gas
We demonstrate the application of a variety of heavy mineral approaches to a number of different hydrocarbon reservoir successions in the North Sea and adjacent areas (Figure 1)
The Culzean discovery well (22/25a-9Z) is especially significant because it yielded relatively rich and age-diagnostic palynoflora assemblages, enabling the heavy mineral stratigraphy in the Quadrant 22 area to be tied into the biostratigraphically-based subdivision of the Skagerrak Formation into the various sandstone and mudstone members defined in wells from
Summary
One of the most important practical economic applications of heavy mineral analysis is the correlation of sandstones that host reserves of oil and gas. There are many situations where biostratigraphic data lack sufficient resolution, for example due to unfavourable depositional conditions (such as non-marine or paralic settings or very rapid sedimentation in marine environments) or deep burial alteration causing degradation of the biostratigraphic signal. In such cases, alternative methods are required [2,3]. Heavy mineral correlation belongs to the third of these categories It is one of a family of provenance-based tools that includes chemostratigraphy [4,5], Sm-Nd isotope stratigraphy [6,7] and clay mineral stratigraphy [8,9]
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