Provenance and Diagenetic Studies of Sandstone Reservoirs

Introduction

This GLOMACS Provenance and Diagenetic Studies of Sandstone Reservoirs training course is aimed at giving oil industry geologists a detailed introduction on provenance, diagenesis and reservoir potential/distribution of sand bodies/sandstone reservoirs. 

The training course will thus provide petroleum geologists with conceptual and practical tools (microscopy work) to understand the genetic history of the sandstones, in relationship with petrophysics and paleogeography.

If the provenance of a sediment and transport distance to the basin can be predicted, other relevant physical parameters of the sediment, the reasons of mineralogical vs. textural maturity and climate can be estimated. Emphasis will also be put on sedimentary basin fill processes, diagenesis vs. stratigraphy and QFL composition vs. tectonic settings. A wide range of examples of current oil/gas reservoirs from different basins in the world (e.g. siliciclastic reservoirs from East and West Africa) will be discussed and analysed in detail, in order to build a summarizing database of provenance rock-types useful as analogue data for future exploration studies. 

This training course will highlight:

• Laboratory techniques for provenance studies of sandstones reservoirs
• Litho-types vs. provenance and tectonic settings
• Diagenetic paths of sandstones at different QFL composition
• Porosity/permeability evolution of sandstones vs. burial
• Mapping grain size distributions vs. potential source areas

Objectives

By the end of this training course, participants will learn to:

• Utilize analytical techniques for provenance analysis
• Assess sandstone petro-types by provenance features
• Understand the link between diagenesis and QFL%
• Determine sandstone provenance and diagenesis vs. tectonic settings
• Develop a model of analogue petrographical datasets for exploration studies

Training Methodology

This training course will be structured in oral and practical sessions, with PowerPoint presentations and didactic material/exercises. Examples of techniques and microscopy work utilized for the assessment of provenance, diagenesis and reservoir quality (e.g. Qemscan, diagenetic logs, grain size profiles, etc.) will be provided during the training course.

Organisational Impact

Organizations sending their employees to attend this training course will benefit by:

• Having employees able to identify the types of sandstone reservoirs vs. provenance/tectonic settings
• Having employees with a working knowledge on the methods of provenance analysis
• Having employees able to apply concepts of provenance/diagenesis for single well to multi-well correlations
• Having employees able to assess the link between reservoir quality and rock composition
• Having employees able to apply provenance principles to regional exploration studies
• Having employees able to interpret the variation of sand composition vs. stratigraphy and areal distribution

Personal Impact

The participants in this training course will learn to: 

• Collect provenance and diagenetic datasets from sandstone reservoirs
• Improve methods of laboratory work for the analyses of siliciclastic sequences
• Apply stratigraphic, depositional and diagenetic concepts to sandstone suites from exploration studies
• Able to perform “Launch & Learn” sessions on the studied topics at their own company (i.e. transfer of knowledge)
• Having a set of exercises, didactic material and papers for self-training sessions
• To enrich their CV due to the attendance and successful completion of the training session