Controls on reservoir compartmentalization of an Upper Permian tight gas field in Germany and links to a modern analogue in the Western US

This study focuses on the reservoir characteristics of a Permian tight gas field in the Southern Permian Basin, Eastern Frisia, Germany. To improve the understanding of the reservoir, 3D seismic, wireline and core data were compared with a reservoir analogue in the Panamint Valley, United States. Depositional environments of the Permian Upper Rotliegend II include perennial saline lakes, coastal parallel sand belts comprising wet, damp and dry sand flats and aeolian dunes with interdune deposits. Polygonal patterns at different scales were observed on seismic horizon slices in the reservoir intervals and the overlying Zechstein. Outlines of superordinate polygons coincide with interpreted faults. Similar polygonal networks were identified on modern dry lakes in the western United States. The kilometre-long, up to 1.20 m deep open fissures in the Panamint Valley are interpreted to originate from the combined effects of synaeresis and tectonics. Subsequently, the fissures were filled with aeolian sediment. Vegetation growth confined to the lineaments indicates enhanced fluid circulation. Such fissures systems may serve as weakness zones and fault grain and impact reservoir quality in terms of hydraulic connectivity of reservoir compartments. For the Rotliegend reservoirs, original porosities and permeabilities of these zones were reduced to a minimum by enhanced cementation along the fluid migration pathways. Permeability barriers and reservoir compartmentalization, which can be clearly depicted on seismic attribute volumes, are a potential result of this development.