Who should attend: Geologists, engineers, geophysicists, and other professionals engaged in production and/or exploration of reservoirs that were partly to mostly deposited by river and floodplain processes.

Objectives and content: Fluvial reservoirs abound and are an integral source of the world petroleum supply. These reservoirs are also highly variable and typified by complex internal heterogeneity. This makes their exploration and production a unique challenge. Developing successful predictions of reservoir geometry, connectivity, net/gross, compartmentalization, permeability baffles and other similar parameters needed for effective reservoir development begins with a foundational understanding of fluvial stratigraphy.

The primary objective of this course is to provide a primer on the range of processes that form fluvial strata and to develop from this genetic framework for assessing the stratigraphic architecture of fluvial reservoirs. The course will provide an overview of river processes and primary controls on fluvial preservation. We will use this background as a basis to explain the range of stratigraphic variations observed in fluvial strata from the bedform to the basin scale. From this foundation, we will explore best techniques for reconstructing reservoir stratigraphy from available core, seismic, well-log and outcrop data. 

Topics include:

• Overview of fluvial depositional processes at bed-form through basin scale
• Comparison of fluvial geomorphology in temperate, tropical and dry land settings
• Autocyclic vs. allocyclic controls on fluvial preservation
• Fluvial sequence stratigraphy
• Fluvial architecture and origins, characteristics and time properties of bounding-surface hierarchies
• Sources of heterogeneity, connectivity, and compartmentalization at bed, bar, belt and basin scales
• Predicting reservoir characteristics and geometry from interpretation of core, well-log, seismic and outcrop data
• Seismic geomorphology of fluvial strata