The study of deep-water turbidite channels(with their wired locations and complicated forming process)has been mostly about their sedimentary mechanism and models.However

the study results could not be effectively applied in actual development of oil and gas fields.We suggest that a combination of architecture model with flow units of the channels be a better solution to the problem for the following reasons:①available architecture division of the channels can be used to guide directly and effectively a hierarchy analysis of seepage barriers and interconnected bodies of flow units in the channels;②existing sedimentary models can be resorted to constraint the distribution laws of the flow units;and③a combination of①and②can be used to guide oil and gas development.We took a deep-water submarine fan reservoir of Niger delta in West Africa as an example to illustrate the idea.Based on available reservoir architecture division

we identified seepage barriers and interconnected bodies and divided the reservoir into 4 types(A

B

C and D)of flow units through multi-parameters-based flow unit identification.We then tried to interprete flow units of single well and study profile distribution characteristics of single channel and plain distribution characteristics of composite channels with the architecture model as a guidance.The results were finally applied to the development of oil and gas fields.The resarch shows that the types and distribution features of flow units of different single channels may vary greatly from one to ano-ther and the distribution of these flow units were controlled by the distribution pattern of different types of single channels.For composite channels

the migration and stacking patterns of the channels systems at different stages led to a difference in flow unit distribution characteristics.