By Razik Shaikh, Consultant Geologist, Direct Geosolutions

The PESGB Carbonate Reservoirs seminar took place on the 21st March 2018 at the PESGB Training Centre in Croydon and was very well attended. The scope of the seminar was to provide a ‘refresher’ to geoscientists who may have ‘lost touch’ with carbonate petroleum geology while at the same time deliver an introductory framework for junior members of staff who may have less exposure to subsurface carbonate geology.

The seminar was very well led by Trevor Burchette along with Roger Davies, Ian Sharp and Ian Jarvis. The presenters were able to seamlessly introduce the topic of Carbonate Geology in terms of the basic difference between carbonates and clastics as well as describing their depositional settings and sequence stratigraphy. The presentations also included specific case studies of modern and ancient carbonate systems as well as the importance of their petrophysical properties. It was very clear that the presenters were very passionate and knowledgeable about the topics being discussed. The course material included an edited (due to copyright reasons) hard copy set of the slides and lunch plus coffee/tea were provided.

What went well? As one would imagine, it would be extremely difficult to squeeze in a review of Carbonate Reservoirs in just one day – and in fact this was the case as the course did over run slightly – which in my opinion was not a bad thing. The seminar was set up as a series of back to back lectures which would provide an introductory framework to the subject during the morning, allowing the afternoon for specific case studies and exercises. I felt that this method worked very well, as one was able to rejuvenate and update concepts prior to applying them in action on the case studies. The use of logs and thin section photomicrographs to define the position on a carbonate ramp was a very good way to reinforce the depositional models being presented.

What could improve? The fact that so much was crammed into just one day a significant amount of carbonate geology was either skimmed over or missed out (eroded maybe?). From the Q&A sessions it was obvious that some additional information on core analysis (both Basic and SCAL) would have been useful. Also a section on the application of carbonate facies (with associate property distribution) within static models would have added value as well (however, I suppose that this in itself is the topic of a totally different PESGB seminar?).
So, in summary, the seminar did ‘exactly what it said on the tin’. It was a good refresher, very well presented with some interesting case studies.