Modelling Deepwater Turbidite Lobes Using Surface Based Moeling Tool

Abstract

Summary Turbidite lobes represent the distal end of the deepwater depositional system. They differ from their relatively proximal channel levee system in their geometry and sand continuity. Conventional methods used to model the turbidite lobes they suffer from a number of major flaws. Of particular concern is that the object modeling fails to reproduce the less erosive and compensational style of body stacking observed in turbidite lobes. When these inconsistencies are propagated into the reservoir property models, the true horizontal and vertical connectivity typical of lobate systems are not properly captured. A new lobe modeling tool developed within Shell by the Clastic Research Team gets around many of these issues by using a surface based approach. In this method, the reservoir model is built by creating a series of bounding surfaces which represents the tops and bases of the constituent lobes inside the reservoir unit of interest. This approach allows the lobes to switch according to the available accommodation space and thereby create the compensationally stacked, low erosion, geometries typical of lobate systems.