Triassic Regional Rock Physics Study in the Eastern Barents Sea for Prospectivity Analysis

The first block for exploration in the formerly disputed zone between Norway and Russia (PL589) was awarded in 2016 and is located 250 kilometres from the nearest exploration well. The main objectives of the study were to assess the potential prospectivity of the Late Neogene uplifted Triassic targets using rock physics to take into account the impact of the uplift in an attempt to de-risk observed amplitude versus angle (AVA) seismic anomalies identified on pre-stack broadband seismic data at the Triassic level.

The significant uplift during the Late Neogene in the Barents Sea area did not allow for a simple regional rock physics model to be established in order to interpret these anomalies. To address this challenge a regional rock physics model based on 13 wells was built taking into account the uplift to model the expected response at the Triassic reservoir level. This study indicates that porosity might be preserved around the PL589 area in the Triassic and helped classify anomalous channelised sandstones using relative acoustic impedance and relative Vp/Vs properties as potentially hydrocarbon filled.