Paleolatitudinal Controls on Depositional Processes and Products: A Reality Check from Global Analogues of Clastic and Carbonate Reservoirs by Jose Guzman, Statoil - 2014 PaleoGIS & PaleoClimate Users Conference

1. Paleolatitudinal Controls on Depositional Processes
and Products:A Reality Check from Global
Analogues of Clastic and Carbonate Reservoirs
Jose I. Guzman and Allard W. Martinius – November 2014
Classification: Open 2014-08-30

2. Outline
• Methods
• Comparison Across Paleolatitudes
− Source Rock
− All Reservoirs
− Clastic Reservoirs (and some examples)
2 Classification: Open 2014-08-30

3. Subsurface Analogues
Oceanic Crust Age
• >1000 fields
• >180 basins worldwide
3 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
Reservoir Analogue Knowledge Base: C&C Reservoirs, Inc, 2014, Digital Analogs
Knowledge System
All GIS Maps and Restorations:
• The Rothwell Group, L.P.
• PaleoGIS
• The University of Texas Institute of Geophysics Plate Model

4. Select Time Slices
4 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
PERIOD NUMBER OF RESERVOIRS
Neogene 222
Paleogene 209
Cretaceous 307
Jurassic 144
Triassic 37
Permian 85
Carboniferous 69
Devonian 57
Silurian 8
Ordovician 30
Proterozoic-Cambrian 24
• Reservoirs and source rocks
sorted by age into eleven (11) time
slices for reconstruction

5. Example: Fields with Devonian Source Rocks
Oceanic Crust Age
5 Classification: Open 2014-08-30

6. Fields with Devonian Source Rocks (Rotated)
6 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
60o
30o
0o
-30o
-60o

7. Sort Data by Paleolatitude Range
• How do we define “High Latitude”?
• Cutoff at >60 degrees would leave some key analogs (e.g., Canadian) out
• Cutoff at >50 degrees may begin to introduce temperate bias
• Compromise reached at >55 degrees! (North or South)
• Mid latitude defined between 20 and 55 degrees due to sample size
• Low latitude <20 degrees (North and South)
• >55 deg (N or S): 83 reservoirs
• 20-55 deg (N or S): 493 reservoirs
• <20 deg (N or S): 512 reservoirs
7 Classification: Open 2014-08-30

8. Comparison Across Paleolatitude Ranges
Source Rock Period and Depositional System
Period
8 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
Depositional System
• ~75% of all source rocks at high latitudes are found in the Cretaceous and Jurassic and ~50% in
marine-shelf and lacustrine environments
• Notable exception: majority of source rocks found in swamp/coastal plain environments are in
high latitudes

9. Comparison Across Paleolatitude Ranges
Source Rock Kerogen Type
Kerogen Type
• Over 50% of all high latitude source rocks contain a Type II-III kerogen mixture
• Type II kerogen can be of marine origin (from algal material) or terrestrial (exinite)
• Type III kerogen is terrestrial (vitrinite) from fibrous and woody plant fragments
9 Classification: Open 2014-08-30

10. Comparison Across Paleolatitude Ranges
All Clastic and Carbonate Reservoirs – Age and BasinTectonic Setting
Period Tectonic Setting
10 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
• ~80% of high-latitude
reservoirs found are of
Jurassic through Paleogene
age but most occur in the
Cretaceous and only a few in
the Neogene.
• One possible explanation
might be the creation of new
oceanic crust and the
formation of new continents
since the Triassic.
• Intracratonic and rift tectonic
settings are dominant at high
latitudes

11. Comparison Across Paleolatitude Ranges
All Clastic and Carbonate Reservoirs – Lithology and Depositional System
Lithology Depositional System
11 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
• Carbonate reservoirs are
notably absent (in this dataset)
at paleolatitudes >55 degrees
and are clearly more abundant
at low (0-20 deg) latitudes
• This is probably due to cutoff at
55 degrees and the bias of the
dataset towards clastic
reservoirs
• High latitude clastic systems
are dominantly coastal/deltaic
and fluvial
• Glaciogenic reservoirs are
under-represented in database

12. Comparison Across Paleolatitude Ranges
Clastic Depositional Environments
Continental Coastal Deep-Marine
At high latitudes:
• ~80% of continental reservoirs are in braided or meandering rivers and in equal proportions
• Shoreline-shelf environments are dominant; estuarine deposits present in same proportion at
mid/low latitude counterparts; fluvial delta systems are the dominant delta type
• Submarine-fan channels/lobes are recognized in >80% of deep-marine reservoirs
12 Classification: Open 2014-08-30

13. High-Latitude Glaciogenic Example:
Ordovician Glaciofluvial Sandstones, Tin Fouye-Tabankort (TFT) Field, Illizi Basin, Algeria
Galeazi et al., 2010
13 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
• Current latitude: 28.3 deg; Restored Ordovician latitude: -68.7 deg
TFT Field
• Illizi Basin: part of the greater Ghadames intracratonic Basin on the Gondwana
supercontinent
• Late Ordovician: major icehouse period
• Recoverable reserves from glacial deposits: 8 TCFG, 840 MMBO and 270 MMBC
60o
30o
0o
-30o
-60o

14. High-Latitude Glaciogenic Example:
Ordovician Glaciofluvial Sandstones, Tin Fouye-Tabankort (TFT) Field, Illizi Basin, Algeria
• Glaciogenic deposits occur within major incised valley that is capped by a regional
MFS; Late Ordovician is marked by two global eustatic sea-level fall events
14 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
Galeazi et al., 2010

15. High-Latitude Glaciogenic Example:
Ordovician Glaciofluvial Sandstones, Tin Fouye-Tabankort (TFT) Field, Illizi Basin, Algeria
Dixon et al., 2008
• Subglacial Facies (ice covered or ice advance): tillites and tractional conglomerates and coarse
sandstones on basal glacial erosion surface (SB?); may contain intra-valley erosion surface
• Proglacial Facies (retreating ice): fine-grained sandstones and mudstones
• These facies are driven by glacial advance and retreat; are these two separate systems tracts?
15 Classification: Open 2014-08-30

16. High Latitude Clastic Shelf
Maastrichtian Shelf Sandstones, Puerto Peter Field, Austral Basin, Argentina
16 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
• Current latitude: -50.9 deg; Restored Aptian latitude: --61.7 deg
Urien, 2001
60o
30o
0o
-30o
-60o
Oceanic Crust Age
• Part of the Patagonian foredeep that culminated at the end of the
Cretaceous
• Part of Cretaceous greenhouse?

17. High Latitude Clastic Shelf
Maastrichtian Shelf Sandstones, Puerto Peter Field, Austral Basin, Argentina
Cagnolatti and Miller, 2002
• Sands: feldespathic litharenites with up to 45% lithic fragments and 20% feldspar (potassium
and plagioclase). How can this mineralogy survive long transport distance and a high-energy
environment? Is this a high-latitude cold episode within the Cretaceous greenhouse?
17 Classification: Open 2014-08-30

18. 18 Classification: Open 2014-08-30
Thank You!