Sediment Provenance Studies in Hydrocarbon Exploration & Production Meeting Summary (December 2011)

5-7 December 2011

The aim of the three-day Sediment Provenance Studies in Hydrocarbon Exploration & Production conference was to showcase the wide variety of provenance techniques available, using examples and applications from all aspects of research. High-quality papers were presented by reservoir modellers, field geologists, sedimentologists, mineralogists, petrologists, geochemists and geochronologists on numerous provenance themes using case-studies varying in scale from the hydrocarbon field (Clair Basin, North Sea) to an entire continent (North Africa). The attendance of geoscientists from a wide range of disciplines was unusual for this type of meeting, and seeded excellent discussion and many new potential collaborations.

Seven diverse keynote presentations were given: the conference opened with a timely reminder from by Bill Heins (Exxonmobil) that the “Whom, why, what, when, where and how?” questions need to be considered before any provenance work is undertaken. Andy Carter (Birkbeck College/UCL) gave a thought-provoking presentation on data presentation and its limitations. Robert Hall (RHUL) described the numerous insights that sediment provenance studies have provided in southeast Asia, and this overview set the scene for the session on southeast Asian that followed. Steve Bergman (Shell) presented an Alaskan perspective on source-to-sink studies emphasising the importance of extra-basinal sources (volcanic eruptions). Rick Tobin (Maersk Oil) presented his keynote by web-link from Houston, a first for the Geological Society. Rick showed examples of an unexpected relationship between sediment provenance and reservoir properties in the Gulf of Mexico. Andy Hurst (University of Aberdeen) described the value of heavy minerals and mineral geochemistry for detailed correlation reservoirs between wells. During the final keynote, the audience travelled ~7000 km down the Nile with Eduardo Garzanti (Milano-Bicocca University) learning from the modern sediment delivery system.

The conference programme covered a diverse range of presentations including regional case-studies, modelling, heavy minerals analysis, isotopic dating (zircons, rutiles and k-feldspar) to collection techniques, and novel approaches such as drainage capture analysis. There was also a second web-link presentation, from Keith Sircombe (Geosciences Australia, Canberra). Several presentations focused on new developments or adaptations of existing techniques such as Qemscan, Raman Spectroscopy, SEM-CL, petrography, or simply the way the data from detrital zircons are plotted.

Many of the presenters shared their memories of working with the late Maria Mange. A special publication dedicated to Maria is planned from this conference.

The take home messages from this meeting was that there are many more techniques to sediment provenance than the near-ubiquitous detrital zircon dating, and rarely is a single technique enough on its own.
The conveners would like to thank Maersk Oil and Statoil for their generous support.