Targeting reserve growth opportunities in the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin: transferring secondary gas recovery technology to the offshore environment - book 2

The Bureau of Economic Geology's (BEG) Offshore Secondary Gas Recovery is a multi-fiscal-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, whose goal is to research new techniques for defining the structure, stratigraphy, and hydrocarbons in a mature area in the northern Gulf of Mexico and to utilize those multidisciplinary methods to identify additional gas resources, as well as predict regional trends in hydrocarbon accumulation. Phases 1 and 2 of the project work plan (Project Preparation and Data Gathering and Loading, respectively) are completed. Phase 3 of the plan (Data Analysis) is 65 percent completed, with all third- and fourth-order key surfaces mapped in the log data. Sixty fourth-order and twelve third-order sequences have been defined using well data, and key flooding surfaces have been mapped in the seismic volume. Structural mapping of 13 key horizons is completed and provides a structural framework within which to look at production and reservoir development. The sequence framework is complete within and immediately between the two fields and provides a basis for examining hydrocarbon occurrence and distribution. Structural slices of the seismic amplitude data volume have been completed at 4-ms intervals through the data, providing detailed maps of amplitude anomalies associated with quality reservoirs. The process of transforming the seismic attribute volume into a three-dimensional petrophysical volume is progressing, and the addition of an engineer in FY 2001 will initiate development of a fourth-order-level reservoir-flow model within a carefully chosen subset of the data volume.