GESGB Aberdeen Evening Lecture – July 2023 (Hybrid)

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Speaker: Sean Kelly – EnQuest

Topic: Kraken: A case for mass sediment injection – an alternative interpretation

Date/Timings: Tuesday 11 July 2023 – 18:00-19:00 (doors open at 17:30)

Venue: Inn at the Park, Ferryhill, AB11 7RX (free parking provided)

Catering: Self-funded bar

Online: The presentation will be available to view via live stream on Zoom. Login details will be sent to registered attendees one day prior to the event.

Kraken: A case for mass sediment injection – an alternative interpretation

Kraken is a heavy oil field located in UCKS Block 9/2b on the East Shetland Platform.  Hydrocarbons are trapped within Heimdal and Maureen sands at around 3900 ft tvd. The field has been developed with four drill centres comprising 14 horizontal production wells and 12 horizontal water injectors, all tied back to the Armada Kraken FPSO.  Previous interpretations of the Heimdal Sandstone Member of the Lista Formation in Kraken have favoured a confined turbidite channel system with relatively low sinuosity and minor fault control.

Recent re-examination of core, log, borehole image data and deep directional resistivity imaging (GeoSphere) in combination with recently acquired Multi-Azimuth (MAZ) seismic data suggests that an alternative interpretation of the Heimdal sands is possible.  Abundant inclined sheets and bowl type geometries observed in Geosphere and seismic data indicate significant sand remobilization and injection – this is also supported from abundant steep bed contacts observed in borehole image data.

The mapped bowl and inclined sheets show a strong spatial affinity with the underlying Maureen Formation sands with locally observed direct contact of the Heimdal injectites with Maureen sands, often associated with the main Kraken Fault.  These relationships and the localised occurrence of the Heimdal sands suggests that all of the Heimdal sands were sourced and injected from a Maureen Formation parent, presumably due to one or more episodes of pressure release and fluid migration.  The various lines of evidence for this alternative interpretation will be presented and compared with previous models.

Sean Kelly – EnQuest

Sean graduated in Earth Sciences from Oxford Brookes University in 1986 and then completed a PhD in clastic sedimentology (“Sedimentological Studies of the Old Red Sandstone of the Munster Basin, Southwest Ireland”) at University College Cork.  He initially worked as a consultant sedimentologist at Geochem and then Z&S Geology (1990-1997), including secondments to NAM Netherlands and BEB Germany.  Sean joined Shell UK in 1997 as a Production Geologist and then later worked in various geoscience technical roles in PDO, DONG Energy, Maersk Oil, Apache and TAQA before joining EnQuest in 2014 as Principal Geologist.  Sean is a passionate geologist and a fellow of the Geological Society of London and is a member of numerous professional societies, publishing a number of papers on clastic sedimentology and reservoir modelling.