Presentation Title: Insights and Emerging Questions slides/2… · Presentation Title: ... • Concave scroll patterns • Wedge shape ... thief zone (if gas was trapped there will

Presenters name:

Milovan Fustic

Presenters title:

Principal Research Geologist

Heavy Oil Technology Centre www.statoil.com

Presentation Title:

The Athabasca Oil Sands

Deposit From Basin to

Molecular Scale - Recent

Insights and Emerging

Questions

Acknowledgements:

Individuals:

Statoil: Rudy Strobl, Bryce Jablonski, Allard Martinius, Eirik Vik,

Torgrim Jacobsen, David Garner, Kevin Keogh, and all oil sands asset

team geoscientists and engineers.

Nexen: Dale Leckie, Bill MacFarlene, Chris Seibel, Rick Maguire,

Darren Hinks, Lori Skulski, Paul Bessette, Dale Vanhooren, Mike

Rogers, Ketema Amare, Shin Ma, Mathew Smith, Sabita Makoong,

Jonah Couzen, Dragana Todorovic-Marinic…

PRG: Steve Larter, Barry Bennet, Thomas Oldenburg, Haiping

Huang, Jennifer Adams, Kim Noke, Denis Jiang …

U of C: Steve Hubbard, Derald Smith, Ron Spencer, Cynthia Riediger,

Gerald Osborn, Michelle Spila, Len Hills, …

Albian: Yonnus Idris, Alex Paul, Tim Loyd …

Shell: Robert Mahood, John Innis, Mark Caplan …

CSPG community: Martin Fowler, Brian Zaitlin, Daryl Wightman,

Andres Altosar, Jen Russell- Houston, Mike Ranger, Shahin

Dashgard, Bob Dalrymple, Ian Kirkland … ERCB: Fran Hein

• Medal of Merit

• inviting me to give a talk on recent

publications

Presenters name:

Milovan Fustic

Presenters title:

Principal Research Geologist

Heavy Oil Technology Centre www.statoil.com

Presentation Title:

The Athabasca Oil Sands

Deposit From Basin to

Molecular Scale - Recent

Insights and Emerging

Questions

• review recent literature & works in progress related to:

petroleum systems

reservoir architecture

OBJECTIVE

interplay through time & space

OUTLINE Charged Oil

Characterization

Migration Processes

Petroleum Entrapment

Trap Domains

Trapping Processes

Reservoir Architecture

Depositional Processes

Subsurface Characterization

Products

Anaerobic Biodegradation

Origin of Gas and Lean Zones Subsurface Characterization

Vertical Compositional Gradients Subsurface Characterizaiton

mini stories

from basin to

molecular

scale

Hein and Marsh, 2008

Meyer and Attanasi, 2003; Meyer et al., 2007

• 1.7 trillion barrels of oil

RBBO=81.6% (with current technologies)

Athabasca Oil Sands Deposit in Time, Space and Numbers

99%

1% 28.6%

71.4%

Source: ST98-2013 Alberta’s

Energy Reserves 2012 &

Supply/Demand Outlook 2013–22

Source: ST98-2013 Alberta’s Energy

Reserves 2012 & Supply/Demand

Outlook 2013–22

Stratigraphy and Depositional System

Sequence-stratigraphic model and detailed facies models for the Athabasca-Wabiskaw-McMurray

succession of oil sands showing the successive stacking of deposits from different systems tracts

separated by major unconformities and disconformities. Hein et al. (2013).

Origin of Natural Bitumen – Petroleum System

Adams et al 2006

Recent Findings:

• Petroleum Charge:

low maturity (heavy oil)

• Petroleum Alteration:

dominated by anaerobic

biodegradation

Adams et al 2006

Severe degradation with

~ 2/3 of original oil is lost !


symbol for microbes

Light

1 2 3

Moderate

4 5

Heavy

6a 6b 25-norhopanes

7 Very Heavy

8 NO 25-norhopanes

9 Severe

10

hopanes diasteranes heavy aromatics Biodegradation

Ranking n-alkanes isoprenoids steranes

also TT & TeT

terpanes

also PeT

not affected by

biodegradation –

can be used as

thermal maturity

parameters !


good not bad not tasty

Low Maturity Oil – Geochemical Evidence

Concept: low maturity oil is

pushed away from the source by

more mature oil ?

Not generating GAS !!!

aromatization zone

selective diet !

• thermal maturity tool (TAS/(TAS+MAS)

• intact in the Athabasca !

oil maturity map

“The impermeable Clearwater Fm. shales clearly acted as the cap for the trap. But how the

reservoir was laterally confined is a matter of conjecture …” Grant Mossop, 1980

• updip seal formed by rapidly degraded oil

Challenge:

anaerobic processes are slower than

aerobic (>20MY needed for oil to

convert into bitumen in Athabasca)

fresh oil may have acted as a natural

“solvent” rather than holding the

arriving oil.

fresh oil may bypass biodegraded /

immobilized bitumen

Conclusion: cessation of the orogeny

caused oil migration to stop and in

subsurface we may see “frozen in place”

moments of reservoir charge.

Origin of Natural Bitumen – Petroleum Entrapment

6 trap domains:

1) 4-way anticline – mega trap

285 by 125 km

2) NE – onlap trap

3) Four peripheral trap domains

Bitumen outline from Crowfoot

et al., 2012 (ST98-2012)

4-way

anticline


The 270 m paleostructure contour marks

the lower limit of the NE trap domain

where it touches the northern trap domain

The 300 m paleostructure contour marks

the lower limit of the central trap domain

(spill point)

Sequential entrapment among major trap domains


300m.

270m.

Sequential

Entrapment

among

reservoir

compartments

(physical process )



modified after Arouri et al.,

2012: Late Jurassic Arab-A

oils from oilfields in the

Summan area.

Results: Compartment A contains

more mature oil than Compartment B !


. Bench 260 m. modified from Fustic, 2007

Summary - Hierarchical order of traps:

1) basin-wide seal are Clearwater Fm. shales

2) large 4-way anticline contributed to entrapment

in the central part of the Athabasca

3) stratigraphic onlaps to the West & possible to

the East have contributed to the entrapment

4) reservoir compartmentalization played an

important role in oil entrapment in all segments

of the Athabasca EXCEPT in the NE domain

where high energy deposits within the Firebag

Valley formed path for oil migration.


Bitumen outline from Crowfoot

et al., 2012 (ST98-2012)

4-way

anticline

Stratigraphy and Depositional System

Tidally

Influenced

Fluvial

(open) estuarine

Fluvial

1) open estuarine / sub-tidal deposits 2) tidally influenced point bar deposits

• very heterogeneous reservoir

Wightman & Pemberton, 1997 Wightman & Pemberton, 1997

Depositional System

LPB: trough cross-bedded sand

porosity: 30 – 36 % (~ 33%)

k: > 7000 mD

UPB: inclined heterolithic stratificaiton

porosity: 0 – 36 %

k: nil to > 7000 mD

LPB AC UPB

Fustic et al., 2012 based on principles of Wightman and Pemberton, 1997 and Smith 1985

Depositional System and Reservoir Architecture

Process: Lateral Accretion

Product: Point Bar Deposit (LPB + UPB + AC-fill)

8 ms below McMurray Top – courtesy of Nexen

Depositional System and Reservoir Architecture

Hubbard et al., 2011 Wightman & Pemberton, 1997

• Deposits on

downstream limbs are

preferentially preserved

• narrow range of dip

orientations

basinward

• downstream translation

/ migration is a

dominant process

in modern rivers !

• rarely documented in

subsurface

Depositional System – Downstream Translation

• IHS dip determination from seismic geomorphology and proved by dipmeter



Summary: majority of basin-ward oriented IHS strata explained as a product of

downstream translation processes diminishes need for maintaining other interpretations

and/or employing alternative concepts.

8 ms below McMurray Top – courtesy of Nexen

Depositional System – Counter Point Bar Deposits

Hubbard et al., 2011

(Smith et al., 2009)

• Downstream from

point bar

• Silty IHS

• Concave scroll

patterns

• Wedge shape

architecture

• narrow range of

IHS dip

orientations

• predictive model

for reservoir

sand

determination

Point

Bar

Counter

Point

Bar

Depositional System – Counter Point Bar Deposits

Depositional System – Processes & Products - SUBSURFACE

SLICE MAP

interpreted based on

integrated core, log,

dipmeter, seismic

and process

sedimentology

concepts (15 steps

development) Courtesy of Statoil

Canada Ltd. and PTTEP

• from processes to products & from products to processes

Depositional System – Processes and Products - SUMMARY

Courtesy of Statoil Canada Ltd. and PTTEP

Courtesy of Statoil Canada Ltd. and PTTEP


linking dep. processes & hydrodynamics to rock record process sedimentology


• Hydraulic parameters calculated

from seismic slices

• Quantification of flow parameters for

each discriminated LA sets

=> Channel discharge varied over time

Labourdette, 2011


More realistic distribution of

facies is achieved

linking dep. processes & hydrodynamics to rock record process sedimentology

Labourdette, 2011

Anaerobic Biodegradation – Processes and Products

identified naphtoic acids, polar lipids,

methanogens, isotopes evidence of an existing

microbial life in present day McMurray basal waters

1) Athabasca charged with low maturity (heavy oil)

2) Petroleum Alteration: anaerobic biodegradation

methane producing micro-organisms

(until now known only under anaerobic conditions)

produces vertical compositional gradients

( lighter oil at the top and heavier at the bottom of the oil column)

micro-bio-geo-chemical equations







“ It has been roughly 3000 days since our field trip together … In

Newcastle we recently sacrificed 3000-day microcosms that were set

right up after our field trip. We have obtained carbon isotope ratios for

the methane from all systems that were methanogenic … ”

Casey Hubert, Nov. 13, 2013.

Top Gas and Top Water in S.

Athabasca, Hein et al., 2003


Gas is microbially

produced !!!

Why gas-pools are

relatively small ?

What is the origin of top

water ?

interpretation of the interplay through time and space of depositional

setting and biodegradation processes and products



Sequential

Entrapment

among

reservoir

compartments (physical process)

micro-bio-geo-

chemical

processes

+

Water

Oil

Biogenic Gas

Fustic et al., SAGD Fundamentals, CSPG


SAGD Fundamentals

Water

Oil

Mudstone / non-reservoir

- vertical and lateral seal -

Biogenic Gas


micro-bio-geo-chemical equations

SAGD Fundamentals

a) Well A no significant IHS

top water and top gas zones have residual bitumen (oil stain, Sw < 100 %)

thief zone and potentially “leaky” reservoir steam losses

b) Well B IHS well developed

lean zone have residual bitumen (oil stain, Sw < 100 %)

thief zone (if gas was trapped there will steam go through(?)/steam losses(?)

c) Well C IHS is not developed, charged oil forms dendritic pattern

Well A Well B Well C

Implications to Reservoir Characterization

every compartment is an independent “bio-reactor”

Sedimentology & Biodegradation– Subsurface INTEGRATION

2D Cross Sections

Geobody Interpretation in 3D

35 m

Sedimentology & Biodegradation– Subsurface INTEGRATION

Geobody Interpretation in 3D 1. Constrain statistics to

geobodies

2. Create cellular grid and

populate each geobody with

lithofacies, porosity,

permeability, Sw etc.

Sedimentology and Petr. Systems - INTEGRATION

Sandy IHS

2D Cross Sections

35 m


1) Athabasca charged with low maturity (heavy oil)






Head et al. , 2003


will gradient exist if vertical barrier separated reservoir ?

Distinguishing Barrier from Baffles in Subsurface Reservoirs

Is that a

BARRIER or

BAFFLE ?

Study Area:

• 2 wells interpreted to be separated in

upper parts by 35-40m thick mud plug

• in lower 40 – 50 meters they are not

laterally separated

Fustic et al., 2011


Barriers or Baffles in Cores :


Barrier !

Fustic et al., 2011


very selective diet not tasty ! not bad !

implications to SAGD – positioning SAGD well pairs:

• scenario A place horizontal as low as possible to recover thick continuous reservoir

• scenario C develop separately two stacked reservoir compartments


Applied vs. Buried in Literature Concepts

Athabasca Oil Sands Deposits are not only a globally

important resource but also an amazing playground & natural

laboratory to observe & test many geoscience ideas.

Instead of the Conclusion

learning with data

“through time and space”

and from basin to field

and even molecular scale

is a wonderful journey

Instead of the Conclusion

Individuals:

Statoil: Rudy Strobl, Bryce Jablonski, Allard Martinius, Eirik Vik, Torgrim Jacobsen, David Garner, Kevin Keogh,

and all oil sands asset team geoscientists and engineers.

Nexen: Dale Leckie, Bill MacFarlene, Chris Seibel, Darren Hinks, Lori Skulski, Paul Bessette, Dale Vanhooren,

Mike Rogers, Ketema Amare, Shin Ma, Mathew Smith, Sabita Makoong, Jonah Couzen, …

PRG: Steve Larter, Barry Bennet, Thomas Oldenburg, Haiping Huang, Jennifer Adams, Kim Noke, Denis …

U of C: Steve Hubbard, Derald Smith, Ron Spencer, Cynthia Riediger, Gerald Osborn, Michelle Spila, Len Hills,

Albian: Yonnus Idris, Alex Paul, Tim Loyd … Shell: Robert Mahood, John Innis, Mark Caplan …

CSPG community: Martin Fowler, Brian Zaitlin, Daryl Wightman, Andres Altosar, Jen Russell- Houston, Mike

Ranger, Shahin Dashgard, Bob Dalrymple, Ian Kirkland … ERCB: Fran Hein

Instead of the Conclusion … and way more importantly I was and I am privileged to work

with many wonderful people whose ideas and insights are

embodied in shown slides. I sincerely thank all of them for it as

well as for many fun moments together.

Thank You !

Depositional System – Processes & Products – FUTURE WORKS

Develop a program / tool for forward stratigraphic

modeling for the prediction of stratal architectures that

are known to develop in tidal - fluvial successions

associated with point-bar development.

Applied vs. Buried in Literature Concepts

• Time Lapse Geochemistry / Production Allocation using Biomarkers

Documents

Presentation Title: Insights and Emerging Questions slides/2… · Presentation Title: ... • Concave scroll patterns • Wedge shape ... thief zone (if gas was trapped there will