North Tech Breakfast: Salt Dissolution: Implications for exploration and seismic imaging* - Oct 2nd
Sponsored by Anadarko and Lumina Reservoir, Inc.
Meeting Location:
Anadarko Petroleum
1201 Lake Robbins Drive
The Woodlands, TX 77380
NOTE: You Must be Logged in To Register
Speaker: Clara Rodriguez, Senior Exploration Geologist, WesternGeco, Schlumberger
Co-Author: Professor Christopher A-L Jackson, Imperial College London
Dissolution of salt structures can result in: (i) the development of salt karst features, such as sinkholes and residual mounds; (ii) discordant geometrical relationships between remaining salt and overburden, (iii) the formation of a residual caprock (i.e., less-soluble residual evaporites and carbonates at the crest and the flanks of dissolved salt structures); (iv) deformation within the overburden (i.e., from local disruption of conformable strata, rotation with apparent downlaps to highly chaotic); and (v) the formation of diapiric solution breccias composed by less-soluble residual evaporites and collapsed overburden.
Despite its occurrence in worldwide salt basins and its significant impact on resource exploitation, surprisingly few studies have used 3D seismic reflection data to investigate the processes and products of salt dissolution. Characterizing salt karst, caprocks and related overburden deformation has a range of important implications for exploration and seismic imaging. First, the caprock has the potential to become reservoir rocks and a source of economic minerals. Salt karst and related faulting generate local accommodation, potentially promoting hydrocarbon reservoir deposition and trap development in the supra-salt. In addition, the formation of mega-pores and diagenetic alterations leading to caprock formation negatively impact the sealing properties of the salt and its overburden and increase drilling risks. Hydrocarbon exploration and production entails accurate seismic imaging of salt structures and the complex geometries associated to flanking strata and distorted overburden. Therefore, a suitable seismic velocity analysis and model are required in areas where salt karst, caprock stratigraphic heterogeneities and highly deformed intrasalt lithology are evident and unknown.
The aims of this talk are to integrate 3D seismic reflection and borehole data to: (i) illustrate salt karst and caprock and its impact on the overburden in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico, and (ii) discuss the implications of salt dissolution for exploration and seismic imaging in salt basins.
Dr. Clara Rodriguez is a Geoscientist with 16 years’ work experience in seismic interpretation of sedimentary basins, reservoir characterization and seismic data management. She obtained a PhD in Geology (2017) and a MSc. In Petroleum Geoscience (2007) from the Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. Her first degree is in Geophysical Engineering (2002) from Universidad Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela. In addition, Dr. Rodriguez completed the last year of her first degree as an exchange student in Oklahoma University in Norman, Oklahoma, United States.
Her experience while working for Schlumberger and during her degrees involves projects in worldwide sedimentary basins of the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Norway, United Kingdom, Algeria, Angola, Ghana, Gambia, Namibia and Tanzania. During her PhD research at the Imperial College London, she investigated intrasalt stratigraphy, salt tectonics controls on deepwater sedimentation and the impact and significance of submarine salt dissolution.
Dr. Rodriguez is an author and coauthor in publications in highly-recognized, peer-reviewed, scientific journals including the AAPG Bulletin, Geosphere, Geology and the Journal of Structural Geology. She has also continuously presented her work in worldwide conferences like the EAGE, AAPG ACE, AAPG ICE, University of Texas AGL, BSRG, PESGB, NAPE and Schlumberger WesternGeco Regional Geophysical Conference.
Breakfast will be available starting at 7:00 AM
Technical Talk will start at 7:30