Deepwater Sandstones: New paradigms, new frontiers: Energy Group

It has been 30 years since the publication of GSL Special Publication No. 94 'Characterisation of Deep Marine Clastic Systems'. At that time the move to explore and develop deepwater reservoirs in present day deepwater settings was beginning to gather pace, but many significant deepwater discoveries were still to be made. Prevailing paradigms about process and product were changing as workers in the field focused on developing an understanding that a wider range of processes beyond classical turbidity currents were responsible for depositing and shaping deepwater sandstone deposits.

Thirty years later depositional models and process understanding has evolved significantly, leading to the successful deployment of concepts that have driven exploration to integrate new ideas including the role of mass-transport complexes and a wider range of particulate sediment gravity flow processes. A much deeper understanding of post-depositional remobilisation and it's role in shaping subsurface architectures and influencing fluid flow and petroleum recovery has also emerged. Vast deep-water discoveries have been developed and now accumulated significant production history, providing a wealth of data sets that have dramatically improved characterisation of deep-water systems. Tertiary reservoirs have been extensively developed, and today the focus has shifted decisively to older Cretaceous systems around the circum Southern Atlantic margins. Continued advances in geophysical technology, seismic data acquisition and processing, including 'AI/ML' driven interpretation tools, have contributed to our ability to visualise, map and characterise these systems in the subsurface.

Thirty years on from this key Society publication new paradigms and frontiers are being explored in the field. This symposium aims to showcase developments, insights and case studies from the last three decades and bring together geoscientists and practitioners working on deepwater sandstones from across academia, industry and government organisations.

Call for abstracts now open

The call for abstracts for this conference is now open until Monday 29 June 2026. 

For further information, please contact: energygroup@geolsoc.org.uk