Oil & Gas Geology ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (3): 521-538.doi: 10.11743/ogg20230301

• Petroleum Geology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Predictive stratigraphy: From sequence stratigraphy to source-to-sink system

Changgui XU1(), Chenglin GONG2,3   

  1. 1.China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC),Beijing 100010,China
    2.China State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting,China University of Petroleum (Beijing),Beijing 102249,China
    3.College of Geosciences,China University of Petroleum (Beijing),Beijing 102249,China
  • Received:2023-02-16 Revised:2023-04-12 Online:2023-06-01 Published:2023-06-05

Abstract:

Predictive stratigraphy with the ability to predict sedimentary fills and high-quality reservoirs has been widely applied to basin analysis and hydrocarbon exploration, and has undergone the evolutionary process from sequence stratigraphy to source-to-sink system for reservoir quality prediction. In response to the challenge of predicting favorable play elements (i.e. reservoir and seal), geologists of ExxonMobil established the sequence stratigraphic methodology and theory. To answer why the sequences do not necessarily control sandstone development and lowstand systems tract does not necessarily result in fan deposits, the geologists adopted the source-to-sink hypothesis in predicting high-quality reservoirs, creating the source-to-sink-based sandstone mapping methodology. The present study reviews the status quo of sequence stratigraphy and major advances in application to marine and lacustrine sequences, and introduces major progress in the application of source-to-sink-based methodology to predict high-quality reservoirs in both continental-marine and continental-lacustrine systems. A source-channel-sink-diagenesis coupling technique to predict high-quality reservoirs is proposed in the study to solve the difficulty encountered in exploring why the source-to-sink system serves to control sandstone development, but not necessarily determine reservoir formation.

Key words: source-channel-sink-diagenesis coupling, predictive stratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, source-to-sink system, reservoir prediction, hydrocarbon exploration

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