Porosity characterization utilizing petrographic image analysis - implications for identifying and ranking reservoir flow units

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POROSITY CHARACTERIZATION UTILIZING PETROGRAPHIC IMAGE ANALYSIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR IDENTIFYING AND RANKING RESERVOIR FLOW UNITS, HAPPY SPRABERRY FIELD, GARZA COUNTY, TEXAS

A Thesis by JOHN MORGAN LAYMAN II

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE

May 2002

Major Subject: Geology

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POROSITY CHARACTERIZATION UTILIZING PETROGRAPHIC IMAGE ANALYSIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR IDENTIFYING AND RANKING RESERVOIR FLOW UNITS, HAPPY SPRABERRY FIELD, GARZA COUNTY, TEXAS
A Thesis by JOHN MORGAN LAYMAN II Submitted to Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Approved as to style and content by:

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Wayne M. Ahr (Chair of Committee) ______________________________ Thomas A. Blasingame (Member)

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Steven L. Dorobek (Member) _____________________________ Andrew Hajash, Jr. (Head of Department)

May 2002 Major Subject: Geology

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ABSTRACT
Porosity Characterization Utilizing Petrographic Image Analysis: Implications for Identifying and Ranking Reservoir Flow Units, Happy Spraberry Field, Garza County, Texas. (May 2002) John Morgan Layman II, B.S., James Madison University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Wayne M. Ahr

The Spraberry Formation is traditionally thought of as deep-water turbidites in the central Midland Basin. At Happy Spraberry field, Garza County, Texas, however, production is from a carbonate interval about 100 feet thick that has been correlated on seismic sections with the Leonardian aged, Lower Clear Fork Formation. The “Happy field” carbonates were deposited on the Eastern Shelf of the Midland Basin and consist of oolitic skeletal grainstones and packstones, rudstones and floatstones, in situ Tubiphytes bindstones, and laminated to rippled, very-fine grained siltstones and sandstones. The highest reservoir “quality” facies