This 6-day field seminar to superb outcrops in SW Wyoming and NE Utah places a broad spectrum of hydrocarbon productive, non-marine and marine reservoir successions within an integrated sequence stratigraphic context and provides tested approaches for predicting reservoir and seal occurrence. Emphasis is placed on identifying key stratigraphic surfaces in these successions that drive interpretive reservoir prediction.

Lectures, outcrop study and exercises emphasize understanding a basin fill as a dynamic, three-dimensional and largely inter-related succession of deposits. We compare and contrast basinal areas of high subsidence with areas of low subsidence and examine the relative contributions of eustasy, tectonics and sediment supply to the preserved reservoirs. Although participants are taught the key terminology and context of sequence stratigraphic nomenclature, our primary focus is on practical, sensible and tested applications of sequence stratigraphic principles to finding oil and gas.

Sequence stratigraphy, syn-tectonic sedimentation, predicting reservoir and seal or petroleum systems, identifying critical controls on the architecture of a subject basin fill (eustasy, sediment supply and tectonics), outcrop and subsurface examples, correlation and mapping philosophies.

This course is designed to be a pragmatic, “bottom line” oriented approach to understanding basin fills and the petroleum systems within them, without the burden of excessive nomenclature. We will emphasize key controls on sequence stratigraphic architecture, sequence stratigraphic signatures in different subsidence and sedimentation settings, and regional prediction of reservoir and seal facies. We will also focus on critical assumptions often made in sequence stratigraphic analysis and the potentially costly pitfalls of sequence stratigraphic prediction.

Participants are taken from the “thin-skinned” tectonics of the Western US overthrust belt across the foredeep of the Western Interior Cretaceous Basin and onto the eastern flank of the basin where “thick-skinned,” high-angle tectonics dominate. Along this traverse we compare the character of key sequence stratigraphic surfaces and reservoir sandstones as they change in response to changes in sediment supply and subsidence or uplift.

Most clastic depositional environments are covered on this trip, ranging from alluvial fans and eolian deposits, through fluvial and marine deposits, to turbidite fan complexes.

The stops are designed to take the participant through each of the sequence stratigraphic stacking patterns and help the participant to identify the predictable aspects of each component within the basin fill. Each day will start with thematic lectures during breakfast covering the key concepts for that field day.

Exercises in the lecture room and on the outcrops are designed to emphasize the economic applications of these concepts.

Detailed itinerary

The fundamental intent of this course is to show participants a practical and reasonable approach to reservoir systems in their basins of interest, to dissect the fill of those basins into workable components and to use sequence stratigraphic principles to predict, find and exploit hydrocarbon accumulations. We critically address what sequence stratigraphic prediction will accomplish and show participants how to estimate the critical risk factors involved. We show how sequence stratigraphy can be used successfully in both exploration and exploitation, but we also provide examples of pitfalls common to this approach. We link observations and interpretations from outcrop to core, logs, cross sections and to seismic. We document the scale of indicative features and discuss the probability of seeing these features in seismic vs. well-log cross sections. Most importantly we provide participants with tested techniques and new ideas for finding oil and gas.

Photos from previous field trips.                           Click on all graphics for enlarged view.

Dr. Lee F. Krystinik, has specialized in applied sedimentary and stratigraphic analysis to predict clastic reservoirs since he received his Ph.D. in geology from Princeton University in 1981. In 2006, he formed Fossil Creek Resources, a small independent exploration company that uses new technologies in the search for overlooked targets. Krystinik has held positions as Manager of Geology at Union Pacific Resources and Global Chief Geologist for ConocoPhillips. His areas of interest include syn-tectonic sedimentation and other controls on basin-fill architecture, integrated play assessment and cost-effective implementation of new concepts and technology. Dr. Krystinik has been President of SEPM (The Society for Sedimentary Geology), an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer in North and South America, has published numerous papers on various aspects of applied sedimentary geology and has won a number of awards for his achievements in petroleum geoscience. E-mail: rock-doc@sbcglobal.net.

Beverly Blakeney DeJarnett has specialized in applied clastic sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy for the past 20 years. DeJarnett formed BBD Consulting in 1992 and has provided both regional and field-scale sedimentological analyses of clastic systems for clients throughout the U. S. Prior to forming BBD Consulting DeJarnett was a geologist with Union Pacific Resources. In addition to her consulting, DeJarnett works as a research geologist in the University of Texas, Bureau of Economic Geology’s Houston Research Center. DeJarnett has published numerous articles and has received awards for her presentations at national meetings. E-mail bev.dejarnett@beg.utexas.edu.