University of Saskatchewan – Carbonate Reservoir Analogs: Sedimentology and Basin Analysis as Tools for Reservoir Characterization
Event Details
Date: September 23, 2026
Time: 3:30 – 4:30 PM (CST)
Format: In-Person and Virtual (Zoom)
Location: University of Saskatchewan, Geology Building, Room 255
Hosting Organization: University of Saskatchewan, Department of Geological Sciences
No registration required.
Event Summary
The progressive depletion of highly porous clastic oil and gas reservoirs and the declining availability of easily accessible conventional resources led to an increasing focus on carbonate reservoirs, particularly from the 1980s onward. Carbonate reservoirs are inherently complex because they result from carbonate production, accumulation, transport, redistribution, and subsequent diagenetic modification. Additionally, the organisms responsible for carbonate production have evolved and undergone major extinction events through geological time, resulting in fundamentally different carbonate depositional systems throughout Earth history. These processes strongly influence the distribution of porosity and permeability, resulting in highly heterogeneous reservoir properties both spatially and temporally. Carbonate production and deposition are further controlled by environmental factors such as light, temperature, nutrient availability, and interactions with siliciclastic systems as well as changes in accommodation space driven by eustasy and tectonics. Subsequent diagenetic processes during burial and exhumation stages can generate or destroy porosity, making the prediction and characterization of carbonate reservoir systems particularly challenging. This presentation explores the application of carbonate sedimentology and basin analysis to reservoir characterization, using Miocene carbonate outcrops in northwestern Venezuela as reservoir analogues for the world-class Perla gas field in the Gulf of Venezuela. The case study illustrates how the integration of depositional models through facies distribution and stratal architecture, palaeogeographic reconstructions, biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, and the evaluation of the accommodation history can improve the understanding and prediction of carbonate reservoir heterogeneities.
Presenter
Eduard Albert is a geologist and sedimentologist with international experience in academic research and teaching, oil and gas exploration and production, geological consulting, and the mining industry. His expertise includes carbonate sedimentology, basin analysis, sequence stratigraphy, organic geochemistry, and petroleum systems.
Disclaimer: The views expressed during this event are those of the hosting organization and do not necessarily represent the views of APEGS.