Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Study - Phase II

Gulf of Mexico Offshore

Since the completion of our Phase 1 project, operators have continued to explore and appraise new deepwater reservoirs. Some of these include Shenandoah, Heidelberg, Gila, Tiber, Rydberg, Leon, Dantzler, Who Dat, Delta House, Big Bend, Gunflint Moccasin, Samurai, Hadrian, Lucius, Caesar, Tonga, Julia, Big Foot, Logan and others.

Consequently, our Phase 2 project will entail updating the Deepwater GOM database to include cores from new discoveries and future discoveries. Some of these will no doubt include even deeper drilling depths and other stratigraphic horizons. Also, with the opening of Mexico there is a possibility of extending the project into Mexican deepwater areas.

Each participating company will be required to contribute either existing or new conventional core and/or rotary sidewall cores for analysis and inclusion into the study. All participating companies will share in the project results and interpretations.

The main objective of the project is to provide operators with critical reservoir characterization and engineering data and interpretations directed at the exploration and exploitation of deepwater GOM reservoirs. Specifically, the objectives are as follows:

• Determine the various depositional facies, depositional environment, and sand body geometries.
• Make an assessment of reservoir quality and the controlling factors such as depositional texture, compaction, diagenesis and timing, temperature, overburden depth, and influence of salt. This is especially important in the Eocene to Paleogene reservoirs and to a lesser extent the Lower Miocene, where it has been observed that reservoir quality is highly variable. This component can be used in the assessment of reservoir quality risk.
• Measure the various petrophysical properties that are critical to formation evaluation and production of the deepwater reservoir rock types. These data on the various rock types will add to our already established “Reservoir Rock Catalog” for the GOM.
• Continue the development of our deepwater GOM “Seal Rock Catalog” for column height prediction (seal capacity) and seal integrity. This can be used in the assessment of seal risk.
• Determine the variations in oil quality in the reservoirs.
• Measure key geomechanical properties for assessments of possible wellbore failure, reservoir compaction, and sand production.
• Extend operator’s regional assessment of the deepwater plays in the GOM and lower the risk for sand prediction, reservoir quality and seal integrity.