Rift and rifted margin deep-water depositional systems: Application to Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous rifting on the NCS

Recent NCS hydrocarbon discoveries demonstrate significant value in Late Jurassic- Early Cretaceous syn-rift deep-water reservoir plays (e.g. Fenja, Nova, Syrah, King Lear). There is a great potential to add further value by improving the understanding of the key controls on the distribution and architectures of these deep-water channels and fans in the subsurface, where seismic resolution is limited, through improved identification and prediction of reservoir-trap-seal combinations. In this project aim to unlock this potential, by acquiring new bathymetry and seismic imagery of present-day, active deep-water channels and fans in the Gulf of Corinth to constrain channel and fan geometry, modelling the structural and environmental events that govern these geometries, and applying these lessons to parallel studies of seismic and well data from prioritised syn-rift deep-water areas on the NCS. Novel aspects of the plan are the acquisition of high resolution imagery of modern deep-water syn-rift, axial and transverse deep-water systems, and the use of core from recent IODP Expedition 381 to develop an unprecedented high-resolution chronologic framework within which sediment flux, sea-level and fault controls on these systems are quantified. Tectonic-surface process modelling will be calibrated by these studies of the modern Corinth rift to constrain the impacts of these controls upon sediment routing and turbidite depositional elements at a scale directly relevant to understanding subsurface reservoir quality. NCS subsurface case studies, selected in collaboration with partner companies, will develop workflows that incorporate data on the evolution of syn-rift normal fault networks, sediment source areas and sediment routing systems to best predict the distribution and geometry of their deep-water depositional systems within this source-to-sink context. This will lead to de-risking of reservoir presence, quality, architecture and stratigraphic trapping on the NCS.