Introduction

Deepwater marine depositional systems are one of the most important reservoirs and have given rise to most of the recent conventional discoveries. Turbidite systems constitute an important class of hydrocarbon reservoirs in deepwater settings (Slatt, 2014), and considerable work has published on the characterization of deepwater turbidite reservoirs.

Because of their resemblance to common earth features such as rivers, canyons, and gullies and their strong laterally 2D (though often stacked) nature, deepwater turbidites have inspired signicant study using seismic geomorphology. Posamentier (2006) completed a detailed analysis of a marine depositional system, looking at architectural elements at both shallow and exploration depths. In this work, he analyzed both vertical slices and time/horizon slices of amplitudes to illustrate channels and other elements. Additionally, he showed the value of using seismic attributes such as dip and curvature.

Braccini and Adeyemi (2011) focused upon the use of seismic attributes to map a deepwater turbidite in offshore Nigeria. In this work, they used spectral components, near and far offset limited stack amplitudes, and coherence to visualize both channels and mass-transport complexes. They showed a number of vertical slices of the seismic data, demonstrating the 3D nature of these elements, but they only used the attributes in map views to visualize the lateral extent of these features.

While classical deepwater turbidites have been the subject of considerable study (Deptuck, 2003), significantly less work has been done in the area of hybrid carbonate turbidite reservoirs (Weimer and Slatt, 2006). Carbonates can make an excellent environment for the development of a turbidite system. This is due to their grain-rich facies that can be transported by turbidity flows (Harris and Wright, 1998). Producing reservoirs of this type include the Hasa field in Abu Dhabi, the Fateh field in Dubai, and the Poza Rica field in Mexico.

Another example of a hybrid carbonate turbidite is the Mandu Formation, off the northwest coast of Australia. Figure 1 shows a vertical slice through seismic data acquired in this region taken parallel to the paleo-shoreface. Evidence of channel-forms is clearly seen in this vertical slice, and even a novice interpreter could interpret many though not all of these forms. Figure 2 shows the same slice with a partial interpretation overlaid on the seismic.

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