Abstract:
Deepwater turbidity channel reservoirs are usually located in deep sea areas, where a distant spacing pattern for development wells is often allocated due to the cost constraint of prospecting operation. Consequently, the characterization of such underground reservoir architectures of deepwater turbidity channels with the current overlay method for multi-well models used mainly under dense-well pattern conditions usually achieves a poor precision. Therefore, based on drilling and seismic data of a distant well spacing pattern for deepwater turbidity channel reservoirs of the Akpo oilfield in Niger Delta Basin, West Africa, we introduced a novel method to characterize such turbidity channel reservoir architectures in terms of well-to-seismic integration, and discussed its conception and procedures as well. Reservoir architectures of deepwater turbidity channels can be classified into three orders, channel system, channel complex and single channel. Of which the channel complex can be further subdivided into two suborders, channel complex series and channel complex. Various orders of architecture units differ significantly from each other in scale, thus, a well-to-seismic integration of individual oil measures, sublayers and internal sections within sublayers guided by architecture models should be applied to adapting an architecture model of different orders to downhole data (including dynamic data) and seismic information as well as to fulfilling the characterization of reservoir architectures of deepwater turbidity channels. This study will not only have a significantly economic value in efficiently developing deepwater turbidity channel reservoirs but also be of guiding significance for integrating well data with seismic data to characterize architecture elements.