Francisco da Costa Monteiro

PhD student - Geo

Biography

Francisco da Costa Monteiro graduated with a Master of Science in Sedimentology, Stratigraphy and Geochemistry from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, 2003. He worked briefly with Schlumberger Global Ltd as a wireline engineer before he joined the Natural Resources Advisory Unit at the Office of the President of Timor-Leste from late 2003 to early 2007. Since February 2007, he joined the Australian School of Petroleum in the Reservoir Analogues Research Group (RARG) as a PhD candidate. He is an active member of AAPG and PESA.

PhD research project

Quantification of Depositional Uncertainty in the 3-D Reservoir Modelling of the Greater Sunrise gas-condensate fields: - integration of Sedimentology, High Resolution Sequence Stratigraphy, and 3-D seismic data

Supervisors: Bruce Ainsworth, Tobs Payenberg

Project support: Woodside Energy Ltd.

Scholarship support: EIPRS and the University of Adelaide

Project Description

In the early phase of an oil and gas field development, only limited information about the reservoir is available. Consequently the 3-D reservoir models built for the field may contain numerous uncertainties. One of these uncertainties is the depositional uncertainty.

Reservoir models have, traditionally, been presented in two dimensional cross sections. However, with the increased use of 3-D seismic data, data interpolation between wells can now be achieved with greater confidence adding considerable value to the construction of 3-D reservoir models.

In the Greater Sunrise gas-condensate fields, 3-D reservoir models have been built in order to assess the field reserve as well as to simulate future field production performance. However, the inter-well distances are large (minimum distance between wells is 9 km) and the data between the wells have been interpolated using the 2-D seismic. Consequently, it has resulted in a wide range of sandbody geometry and depositional architecture uncertainty being defined for the field.

The aim of this research project is therefore two fold:

1. To define the geometry of the reservoir sandbodies and depositional architecture, and re-quantify the uncertainties in the previous reservoir models by integrating interpretation of 3-D seismic data with the well data.
2. Incorporate new concepts and models of marginal marine systems to quantify the range of depositional models applicable to the field. The range of depositional architectures will also be transformed into Petrel 3-D reservoir models.