WAVE Consortium Project Enters Phase Two
A major project focussed on the Reservoir Architecture and Heterogeneity in Marginal Marine Systems has entered its second phase in partnership with 12 global oil and gas companies.
Wave-influenced shallow marine systems are generally regarded to form good quality, highly continuous reservoirs. However tidal and fluvial processes acting in these depositional environments can introduce significant levels of heterogeneity which can lead to uncertainties in predicting the distribution and lateral continuity of reservoir facies.
The WAVE Consortium aims to better characterise mixed-influence (wave, tidal and fluvial) processes coastal depositional environments and to analyse the potential impact of heterogeneities (shale and cemented zones) on reservoir connectivity and compartmentalisation and how it can be best predicted and mitigated in the subsurface.
Project leader and Professor of Petroleum Geology Bruce Ainsworth (pictured left) said "Phase II sponsors are located globally with major companies including Chevron, Shell, BP, Statoil, OMV, Woodside, Nexen, Apache, BG Group, BHP Billiton, Todd Energy and BAPETCO".
Phase 1 (April 2008 to August 2010) delivered results from three different field areas and defined a new process-based classification system for marginal marine systems integrated into the WAVE Knowledgebase. Predictive aspects of this WAVE Knowledgebase can be used in exploration, development and production settings.
Phase II (from April 2011 to March 2014) aims to focus on further development of the Knowledgebase via improved ichnological data integration, further geometrical data population and focussed fieldwork in Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria, Egypt's Fayoum and Canada's Drumheller. Detailed static 3D reservoir models will be developed from each of these field areas.
Key Phase II deliverables include the completion of the WAVE Knowledgebase population for low accommodation settings; initiation of population of the Knowledgebase for high accommodation settings and fine-tuning of the predictive capabilities to meet the needs of individual sponsors. For further information on this project, contact Professor Bruce Ainsworth at bruce.ainsworth@adelaide.edu.au.
