Deep water exploration currently provides one of the key challenges for the Oil and Gas Industry. In these environments stratigraphic and structural control are frequently sparse. This in turn means that the geological model is very sensitive to interpretation assumptions at a time when commercial cost and risk are at their highest.

In order to integrate the key depositional, structural environment, structure development and secondary migration and focus concepts into a single valid model, Midland Valley has developed a set of hydrocarbon systems tools designed to be used in conjunction with the structure development model. These tools are specifically designed to provide additional constraint and input for the sedimentologist / stratigrapher and for the basin modeller by focusing on the structural impact on the system development.

The tools allow sediment accommodation space to be modelled on the palinspastic restored depositional surface and integrated with the gross-depositional environment model. Restored seismic panels can be integrated in both 2D and 3D into the model to help validate and extend the seismic stratigraphic approach.

Spill points and sediment fairways can be identified at the time of reservoir deposition.  Midland Valley have recently collaborated with David Waltham (Royal Holloway, University of London) to provide quantitative modelling of turbidite deposition on restored seabed surfaces.

This provides a prediction of deposit thickness, grain size and sediment sorting. Combining quantitative sediment modelling with restored paaleogeometries resulrs in a powerful way to predict reservoir distribution, thickness and connectivity.

Evolving geohistory of the reservoir and its relation to migration and focusing fairways at critical charge time can be investigated using simple ray-trace methodologies. This provides a key constraint for basin modelling in particular in over thrust, salt canopy, inversion and lateral displacements regimes where the simple back-stripping approach is inadequate.