The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the Brazilian Association of Petroleum Geologists (ABGP) recently hosted a successful Geoscience Technology Workshop entitled “GTW Brazil 2014: Stratigraphic Traps and Play Concepts in Deep Water Settings,” held at the Windsor Barra Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This workshop, co-hosted by the Asociacao Brasileria de Geologos de Petroleo (ABGP), followed the 12th Brazilian Licensing Round in 2013, which opened 240 exploration blocks in frontier areas across Brazil’s emerging and matured basins. The event aimed at providing participants with a greater understanding of geological and geophysical attributes of stratigraphic traps in deep-water settings along with equatorial margin exploration analogs.

Over the last decade there has been a significant increase in hydrocarbon exploration and development initiatives in deep water settings globally. This has led to multiple oil and gas discoveries, with most fields in deep water basins consisting of four-way or combined three-way closures. With significant discoveries around the African margin a renewed focus has been placed on stratigraphic traps across the equatorial margin. The two day workshop was divided into four session themes that focused on the elements necessary for success in stratigraphic traps and play concepts of deep-water settings. Each session comprised of multiple technical presentations followed by discussion forums targeting issues, problems, future opportunities and directions forward. Opening the plenary session on day one, Carol Cain McGowen, Manager of the U.S Sections & International Regions Development, AAPG, gave the welcome and introductions to all participants. This was followed by opening remarks and updates by President-elect of the AAPG Latin America Region, Victor Vega, who co-chaired the event with Sylvia M. Couto Dos Anjos, President of the ABGP and Honorary Chair, Mario Carminatti of Petrobras.

Following the program agenda session one set the scene for the workshop by focusing on case histories and global analogs. This included presentations and discussions starting with an overview of stratigraphic traps in deep water described by presenter Paul Weimer, Ph.D., as “the road less travelled” in exploration geology because of their high risk. Ben Maxey and Rafael Pinto of Noble Energy gave an excellent presentation on their success with the Big Bend, a salt withdrawal basin located within the Eastern Mississippi Canyon protraction area of the Gulf of Mexico. This talk went on to demonstrate how integrating 3D WAZ seismic data has provided enhanced imaging adjacent to and under salt as well as emphasizing how DHI interpretations, velocities and pore pressure analysis was critical to the assessment of column height and seal analysis. Dorie McGuinness of Kosmos Energy then gave a well delivered presentation on Cretaceous fan plays of the African Transform Margin and analogs from the Cretaceous play of the Jubilee Field. Session one closed with a presentation by Stephen Johnson, Ph.D., of Shell Exploration on new frontiers of South Atlantic Basins where he went into detail on subtle traps and their success offshore West Africa.

Session two deviated from case studies and global analogs and targeted evolving concepts on stratigraphic traps. David Lackenby of BP Uruguay Exploration discussed the stratigraphic trap potential in a deep water depositional system- the Pelotas Basin, offshore Uruguay, which came into focus with the highly successful Uruguay Ronda II. Emphasizing on the importance of analogs, the presentation addressed key tectono-stratigraphic drivers of the play including, hinterland tectonics, stratigraphic architecture, deep crustal controls and sediment input points. Anthony Sprague, Ph.D., of ExxonMobil provided an excellent insight to outcrop based, integrated, core to seismic scale, stratigraphic and depositional models for deep water reservoirs. This talk reiterated the use of high quality data and interpretations from the exploration phase, development programs to production regimes. Hugh O’Riely of Tullow Oil followed with his interesting presentation on current initiatives offshore Suriname in their deep water block, situated in a sub-basin of the underexplored Suriname-Guyana Basin on the West Atlantic Transform Margin. Wrapping up the session, Cesar Cainelli, Ph.D., of Barra Energia then discussed the predictive power of depositional paradigms when chasing sand-rich turbidites and effectively demonstrated how paradigm imprint attributes on seismic sections can be used as evidence of turbidites and utilized to calibrate and constrain targets.

To set the scene for day two, a session dedicated to stratigraphic traps in Brazil touched on analogs from the Brazil Equatorial Margin frontier exploration initiative in deep water stratigraphic plays. Richard Tozer, Ph.D., of BP Brazil Exploration delivered key insights to significant oil discoveries along the equatorial margin of Africa where Upper Cretaceous deep water fan reservoirs are charged by a prolific Middle Cretaceous marine source rock.  Analogous sections offshore French Guyana was subsequently shown to possess favourable trapping geometries. On a more localized scale, Ricardo Defeo de Castro of Petrobras presented on stratigraphic traps of turbidite fields in the Campos Basin of Brazil. Jose Daudt Ph.D., of BP Brazil then gave an informative presentation on the Pelotas Basin, south Brazil, highlighting high frequency forced regressions and its influence on stratigraphic trap generation. The session was concluded by an overview of stratigraphic traps of the Alagoas Basin, north-eastern Brazil, by Jose A. Cupetrtino, Joao Claudio and Roberto C. R. Cunha of Petrobras-Exploration.

The final session of the GTW was dedicated to the role of technology in defining stratigraphic traps. This session commenced with a presentation by Brian Horn, Ph.D., of ION on the regional interpretation and distribution of deep water reservoirs in East Africa and predictive tools for identifying potential traps. Overall his talk established the ability to place depositional elements into a time-stratigraphic framework which enabled temporal and spatial reservoir distribution prediction and an understanding of potential stratigraphic trapping configurations across a basin. This was followed by a presentation by David M. Jones of Anadarko on seismic stratigraphic interpretations of a prolific deep water reservoir using high quality 3D in the Rovuma Delta, Mozambique. Andreas Laake of Schlumberger provided yet another innovative approach and technique in his talk which focused on mapping deep water mass transport deposits from colour seismic processing. He addressed current issues with mapping and characterizing deep water mass transport deposits with traditional geophysical methods because of rapid vertical and lateral lithological and depositional changes. His approach utilized the SRGB method where seismic data was shown to reveal details on channel-levee-overbank systems which often represent lateral and vertical seals. To wrap up the presentation program Jose Eustaquio Barbosa of Statoil, Brazil went into detail on state-of-art extra deep Azimuthal Resistivity and novel inversion techniques that they have incorporated to improve reservoir definition and delineation of channel sands while drilling. Susan Smith Nash, Director of Education and Professional Development, AAPG, then honoured participants with the closing remarks and final recognitions before the GTW was called to a close.

The goal of this GTW was to develop new knowledge of stratigraphic traps and play concepts in deep water settings and this target was met. As promised this was quite a fulfilling event which was well planned and executed by the organizing committee, translators and sponsors. Researchers and industry practitioners participated in lively discussions, sharing both best practices and personal experiences in applying the geosciences to the challenges of exploration, appraisal, development drilling, reservoir characterization and simulation. Each session was followed by in-depth discussions where participants split into teams comprised of experts and researchers from different backgrounds and companies. This format was the ideal platform for generating solutions and identifying future directions for the oil and gas industry by taking a step back and acknowledging the importance of incorporating a sound geological framework with new technologies in maximizing reservoir recovery and de-risking plays. Overall the workshop encompassed much more than what is highlighted here in addition to generating future opportunities, strengthening ties, promoting knowledge sharing and the development of the geosciences.