Sedimentologic and sequence-stratigraphic characteristics of wave-dominated deltas

• Published in: AAPG Bulletin
• Main Authors: Hampson, GJ, Howell, JA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Association of Petroleum Geologists 2017
• Subjects: Science & Technology; Physical Sciences; Geosciences; Multidisciplinary; Geology; SHOREFACE-SHELF PARASEQUENCE; CRETACEOUS BLACKHAWK FORMATION; STRATIGRAPHIC-BASED ANALYSIS; WESTERN INTERIOR BASIN; BOOK CLIFFS; FACIES ARCHITECTURE; RESERVOIR CONNECTIVITY; DISCONTINUITY SURFACES; WASATCH PLATEAU; CENTRAL UTAH; Energy; 0403 Geology; 0914 Resources Engineering And Extractive Metallurgy; Barents Sea; Norway; Trinidad; Morton; Plateau Central; Husmo
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/44658; https://doi.org/10.1306/011817DIG17023

Wave-dominated deltaic strata form prolific hydrocarbon plays in many mature basins across the world. Examples include the Jurassic Brent Group play in the North Sea, offshore UK and Norway (e.g., Husmo et al., 2003), Eocene Jackson Group and Oligocene Frio Formation plays, Texas, onshore USA (e.g., Fisher et al., 1970; Galloway and Morton, 1989), and Tertiary plays in the Niger Delta province, offshore Nigeria (e.g., Evamy et al., 1978), the Baram Delta province, offshore Brunei (e.g., Rijks, 1981), and the Columbus Basin, offshore Trinidad and Tobago (e.g., Sydow et al., 2003). Wavedominated deltas also form key exploration targets in frontier basins (e.g., Triassic Snadd Formation, Barents Sea, offshore Norway; Klausen et al., 2014, 2016). The overall architecture of many wave-dominated deltaic reservoirs is determined by their sequence stratigraphic framework, together with their structural configuration. Sequence stratigraphic frameworks contain elements such as shoreface-shelf parasequences bounded by flooding surfaces, and fluvio-estuarine complexes that fill incised coastal valleys developed at sequence boundaries. The internal facies distributions and stacking patterns of such elements are ordered, which aids prediction of reservoir character and behavior. Outcrop analogues of wave-dominated deltaic reservoirs display aspects of ordered stratigraphic architecture across a range of spatial scales that are equivalent to those observed in core, well-log and seismic data, and can therefore be used to support interpretation of their subsurface counterparts.