Subsurface Consultants & Associates, LLC

Instructors: Roy D. Adams, Ph.d. & Frank W. Stapor, Ph.D.
Course Length: 5.5 days
Course CEUs: 4.4

Course Description
Often overlooked due to its proximity to the wave-dominated depositional systems of the Book Cliffs, the Cretaceous Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale provides world-class outcrops through a classic fluvial-dominated deltaic depositional system. The Ferron deltaic system reveals the complex response of delta morphology and progradational style to changes in accommodation, sedimentation and basin topography in a foreland basin.

The Ferron Sandstone provides an excellent analog for exploration, development and production of hydrocarbon-containing deltaic systems worldwide. The Ferron also exhibits classic examples of the interaction of tectonics and eustasy on sequence-stratigraphic geometries of sandstone and shale in a deltaic system. This complex influence can be recognized at regional (exploration) and local (production and reservoir characterization) scales.

A 5-day field course provides hands-on experience in describing, identifying, interpreting and analyzing data from marine and non-marine deltaic facies. Combination of well log and core data with measured sections and photomosaics of outcrop allows participants to integrate and relate outcrop data with subsurface data. Equal emphasis is placed on local and regional aspects of the Ferron Sandstone and participants are shown how to integrate local data into a regional interpretation.

The course concentrates on processes inherent in a deltaic system; recognition in well log and core of depositional facies; vertical and lateral continuity, relationships and changes within and between depositional facies; potential reservoir, source and seal and integration into a sequence stratigraphic framework. Evidence for and against several competing sequence stratigraphic interpretations of the Ferron are evaluated. The final day will be at the Utah Geological Survey's Utah Core Research Center in Salt Lake City. Cores taken within 0.5 miles of the outcrops are integrated into our outcrop observations made during the course.

Who should attend
Exploration, development and production geologists, geophysicists, engineers and managers who require hands-on experience with fluvial-dominated reservoir systems.

Course Content

Four days of fieldwork will be supplemented by evening lectures
Outcrop sections and photomosaics will be described and interpreted for several locations across 60 miles of outcrop and will emphasize differences and similarities in geometries and composition from base to top of deltaic sequences
Emphasis will be on relating outcrop observations gathered from outcrop sections and photomosaics to well logs and cores
The interplay of tectonics and eustasy in modifying sequence stratigraphic models of deltaic systems are linked to development of potential reservoir, source, and seal in deltaic systems
Lectures, outcrop exercises, and core description are designed to provide knowledge and skills necessary to work effectively with fluvial-dominated deltaic deposits
Course notes and "Regional to Wellbore Analog for Fluvial-Deltaic Reservoir Modeling: The Ferron Sandstone of Utah" (AAPG Studies in Geology, No. 50), Edited by T.C. Chidsey, Jr., R.D. Adams and T.H. Morris will be provided to each attendee

Fluvial - Dominated Nearshore Depositional Processes and Systems (Western US)

Fluvial - Dominated Nearshore
Depositional Processes and Systems (Western US)