Abstract
Abstract The Mariner Field is located on the East Shetland Platform in UK Block 9/11, 320 km to the NE of Aberdeen. The 9/11-1 well was drilled in 1981, discovering oil in the Paleocene Heimdal Sandstone Member and the Paleocene Maureen Formation. The deeper Maureen Formation was deposited on a submarine slope as canyon fill, and overspill canyon sands and debrites. The Heimdal Sandstone Member was deposited above the Maureen Formation on the same inherited, but younger, submarine slope system as deep-water slope channels, and is encased within suspension-deposited Lista Formation claystones. These slope channel sands have undergone post-depositional remobilization and sand-injection processes, leading to the complex sandstone geometries identified and mapped on seismic data. During a 36-year period, 28 exploration, appraisal and production test wells were drilled in UK Block 9/11, but only now is the field finally undergoing development. The long interval between discovery and development is due to several key issues, including the fact that development of heavy oil is technically and commercially challenging, and that the seismic imaging of the Heimdal Sandstone Member has been difficult or not possible until recently. These challenges are being overcome and the Mariner Field started producing in August 2019.
Published Version
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