Utilizing a novel quantitative interpretation workflow to derisk shallow hydrocarbon prospects — a Barents Sea case study

F I R S T B R E A K I V O L U M E 3 5 I M A R C H 2 0 1 7 8 5 1 PGS * Corresponding author, E-mail: Laurent.Feuilleaubois@pgs.com Shallow water depth and shallow reservoir targets lead to imaging challenges The thick icecap that formed during the last glaciation over the Barents Sea started melting during the Late Pliocene, causing an isostasic anomaly, which led to a major uplift and erosion of up to 1500 m of sediments in the Haapet area (Henriksen et al., 2011). The current shallow water depth in the Barents Sea is a consequence of this regional uplift. Permian salt formed domes such as the Haapet Dome (Figure 1), causing further tectonic deformation and the lifting of Jurassic reservoirs as shallow as 200 m below the seabed in some locations. Rocks at the seabed exhibit very high velocities above 3000 m/s owing to their deeper burial history. The combination of high velocity sediments and the shallow water setting lead to a lack of small angle reflection data when efficient widespread acquisition templates are used, resulting in significant acquisition footprints (Rønholt et al., 2015). The absence of such near-angle reflection data makes precise AVA analysis of the recorded pre-stack data very challenging and unreliable. Utilizing a novel quantitative interpretation workflow to derisk shallow hydrocarbon prospects — a Barents Sea case study