Thin Bed Descriptors Thin Bed Locales Production Examples

Thin Bed Descriptors
Thin Bed Locales

Production Examples
© 2003 Baker Hughes Incorporated All rights reserved.

Thin Beds: The Eye of the Beholder
Geophysicist:
– Depth-dependent, approx. 30 ft thick
Petrophysicist:
– Thin beds are those beds that cannot be
resolved with conventional tools
Sedimentologist:
– Thin bed => 1-3” 3-10 cm
– Very thin bed => 0.3”-1” 1-3 cm
– Lamina => < 0.3” <1 cm
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Sedimentologist
Sedimentologist::
Thin beds are cyclically deposited

sediments that resemble in thickness and
character those facies deposited above
and below. These are the basic building
block of larger sedimentary cycles
The mechanism for the deposition of cyclic

sediments may or may not be process-
time governed. Thin beds represent a
recurring process-sedimentary response,
and with the exception of condensed
sections and soils, these are of short
geologic duration.
(GJK - 1994)
Length of core 8”,
width of core 3.75”
(AAPG)
Bioturbation destroys primary bedding
Length of core 8”,

width of core 3.75”
Note brightness, indicative of a silty section, Kuecher, 1994

and the well-preserved burrow trail of a clam
Degray Lake Spillway, Arkansas
Note the thin, cyclically deposited units within the larger fining-upward cycle
(GJK)
# $$ % &
"
'
Discontinuous lenticular
bedding
Malacca Straits, Indonesia (GJK)

Lenticular continuous bedding
Tourelle, Gaspe Peninsula, R. Shew

(
Difficult to find laterally extensive outcrops

due to erosion
Examples
– New Zealand (Slatt)
• published “packets” mapped for miles and individual
beds traced for 500’+
• personal communication – one outcrop has individual
beds that can be traced for “miles”
– Chile (Devries and Lundholm, 1994)
• > 800’ lateral extent
– only 2 of 91 beds traced were discontinuous
Fairly common to encounter thin bed
packets with good continuity on a reservoir
or field scale
(JS)
Making sense of patterns in deepwater sediments
Uniform
Sequence
Cycle
Chaotic
Anderton, 1998
Stokes Law:
The settling velocity of suspended particles
in water is directly related to the square of
the diameter of a particle, i.e.,
V = CD2
where V = setting velocity

C = a constant of the difference in viscosity
divided by g
D = the diameter of the given particle, assuming
this particle is spherical in shape and coarser
than very fine sand
(GJK)
Schematic of ) Environments
Exaggerated
vertical scale
Alluvial
Fans
Desert Lake
Barrier Bay Dunes Braided Delta
Island Stream
Beach
Meandering Lake
Delta Stream
Turbidite
Channels
Tidal
Shoals Continental
Coastal
Deep Continental
Sea Shelf
Fan
Continental
Slope Bigelow, et al., 1987
$ ' *
(GJK)
+ % ( ', -
South Island, NZ (GJK)

$ * *
. / ( ' 0
(GJK)
1( ' 2
(Image courtesy of Coastal Studies Institute, LSU)
2 )
(Image courtesy of Coastal Studies Institute, LSU)

3 4 '!567
Feeder Channel
Debris D-B Slumps
Flows CGLS.
Slope into Basin

Conglomerates: Thin bedded turbidites
Inverse-to normally Upper on levee
graded Terrace Fan Pebbly ssts.
Graded-bed
Massive sst.
Graded-
stratified Braided
Mid Fan
Supra Fan Lobes
Incised
Proximal channel
Classical turbidites
New suprafan
Lower Fan lobe
Basin
Plain Thin bedded
No relative scale implied
$
Channel abandonment:
hemipelagic shales and
extensive thin sheet sands
Sand in-fill of available

topography during sea-level
rise
Slope re-organization: lateral

and longitudinal slump
sources
Incision, erosion, by-pass and

lenticular lag deposits
% *
Bedform geometry
– layer cake bedding
– injected sands
– diagenetic modification
(cementation)
– primary bedding preserved?
Grain sorting?
Horizontal or dipping beds?
Permeability - invasion?
(Slide courtesy of Baker Hughes Aberdeen/JS)

*
Proximal levee Higher net sand; thin bedded; cut-and-fill; mud-

lined scours; climbing ripples; good connectivity;
high angle and variable dips
Distal levee Lower net sand; thin bedded; interbedded
sand/silt; good continuity; low angle
and uniform dips of beds
Channel margins Complex – slumps, discontinuities, mud-lined;
good to poor connectivity
Slatt, 2000
+ # &' 2 '% 8 2
(ENI core, OMNI Labs)

9 4
Glacial/Lacustrine Thin conductive or

(varves) resistive streaks
Lacustrine (thermal Grain size variation
stratification) Paleosols
Fluvial
Delta fringe
Shelf
clastic/carbonates
(Tempestite
stormbeds
Deep marine levees
and outer fan sheets
(GJK/JS)
2 . (
.
GR approximately 1.5 ft
SP approximately 2 ft
INDUCTION approximately 2-5 ft
LATEROLOG approximately 3 ft
DENSITY LOG approximately 2-3 ft
NEUTRON LOG approximately 2 ft
ACOUSTIC LOG approximately 2 ft
(GJK)
2 . ( % :
. 9 *
HIGH DEFINITION INDUCTION approximately 1.5 ft

HIGH DEFINITION LATEROLOG approximately 1.5 ft
IMAGING TOOL approximately 0.03 ft (0.2-1.0 cm).
(GJK)
9 * ;
3 ft * ++ 1m (3 ft)
' %
)$
30 cm (1 ft)
4 "
' (
” !$
%& 10 cm (4”)
!
#
!" Log scale
3 cm (1.2”)
0.4”
1 cm
Laminae
0.3 cm
Be 0.1 cm
dT
hic
kn
es
s o lu tion
res
Log
2 ( 1 * *
These tools have vertical resolution less than 1 cm

Surfaces in wellbores
,
0 180 360
Shallow
Dip
,
Steep
Dip
3 , 1 * <
Resistivity Image Acoustic Image Acoustic Image Resistivity Image
Typical Austin Chalk
Static Normalization
Static Normalization Star Images
STAR Images 0 Dips 360
0 STAR 360 STAR
5 6 H 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 H 4
(GJK)
2 $ )
(GJK)
) *
2.5m 25m
Vertical Scale
2.5mm 25cm
*
(GJK)
0
Depth Statically Core Dynamically
Normalised Photos Normalised
Flame
structures
Lewis Shale, Baggs, WY (GJK)

'
Channel
scour and
fill
Lewis Shale, Baggs, WY (GJK)

% ) / =
Note the stringers of oil, grain size-dependent
(GJK)
1 + . * .
Traditional Approaches
Do mud log cuttings indicate pay?
Do shallow-reading tools exhibit activity?
Does drill time plot exhibit noise?
Is the resistivity slightly greater than shale?
Is the resistivity of the prospective section
slightly higher than a known water-bearing
section?
Do porosity tools approach and separate?
Does the image log indicate thin beds?
(GJK)
Modeling
The forward model
Real &
synthetic log
Thin Bed Modeling Case Study
" > 'φ ? 'φ ?!@'( ? @ ' ? ?"
'% !A!
% 1
0
/
-.
(MP)
9 B
# & C D
Areal extent/ connectivity determine

reservoir drainage area, pressure support,
sweep and recovery efficiency
Factors for continuity
– Depositional: Many environments provide for
the widespread deposition of thin beds
– Post deposition: Less certain but you may have
indicators (seismic, well correlations, and
pressure tests)
(JS)
9
4 '
40’
9 4
Sub-seismic faulting
Reservoir baffles
40’
9 4 *
*
40’
Reservoir barrier –
limited
drainage. Development
may require
additional wells
= . E.
bedding
Sandstone
Sandstone
2600 psi
Borehole
Sandstone
3600 psi
(Schlumberger? Image courtesy of Baker Hughes, Aberdeen)

= ' 3 % 8 2
1500’ WD
140 miles SE of New
Orleans
1984 discovery of a
gas field with thin oil
rim
Much soul searching
to go forward (4 wells +
3 STs needed to evaluate
the discovery)
Shew et al., 1994

)
2 2 @ ! ( ' = ' 3 % 8 2
Turbidite channel
and levees
Note similar GOCs
but dissimilar
OWCs in the two
levees
Kendrick, 2000
) 4 * F* *G
Kendrick, 2000
$ #I J 6 7 , @ ) "&
!55!
• Tested cored interval
1.5’
• 100 of 270 gross feet
• 49 NFS
• 1400 individual
sands separated by
mudstones or grade
into silty sands
• All sands < 3” thick;
average = 0.5”
• Tested 29 MMCFPD +
950 BCPD
• Analysis indicated
1700 md-ft tested
and 520 acres in
communication
• Sand H ? 27%
Sw ? 26%
Kendrick, 2000 4 ?@
Tahoe lessons
Proved high productivity and great lateral

continuity for (very) thin beds
Initial interpretation of upward thinning
with best quality sands at base incorrect
Experienced stratigraphically varying
pressure depletion
– Upper levee beds continuous – even across
channel
– Lower levee beds, although thicker, were less
continuous
(JS)
) *
<
Turbidites – levees and distal sheets

Deltaic subaqueous levees, delta fringe
Fluvial levees, overbank
Crevasse splays
Lacustrine varves and thin sands
Glaciofluvial
Eolian
(GJK/JS)

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Thin Bed Descriptors

Thin Bed Locales

© 2003 Baker Hughes Incorporated All rights reserved.

Thin beds are cyclically deposited

The mechanism for the deposition of cyclic

Length of core 8”,

Note brightness, indicative of a silty section, Kuecher, 1994

Malacca Straits, Indonesia (GJK)

Tourelle, Gaspe Peninsula, R. Shew

Difficult to find laterally extensive outcrops

where V = setting velocity

South Island, NZ (GJK)

(Image courtesy of Coastal Studies Institute, LSU)

(Image courtesy of Coastal Studies Institute, LSU)

Slope into Basin

Sand in-fill of available

Slope re-organization: lateral

Incision, erosion, by-pass and

(Slide courtesy of Baker Hughes Aberdeen/JS)

Proximal levee Higher net sand; thin bedded; cut-and-fill; mud-

(ENI core, OMNI Labs)

Glacial/Lacustrine Thin conductive or

HIGH DEFINITION INDUCTION approximately 1.5 ft

These tools have vertical resolution less than 1 cm

Lewis Shale, Baggs, WY (GJK)

Lewis Shale, Baggs, WY (GJK)

Note the stringers of oil, grain size-dependent

The forward model

" > 'φ ? 'φ ?!@'( ? @ ' ? ?"

Areal extent/ connectivity determine

(Schlumberger? Image courtesy of Baker Hughes, Aberdeen)

Shew et al., 1994

Proved high productivity and great lateral

Turbidites – levees and distal sheets

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