Seismic attribute delineation of lineaments and reservoir compartmentalization: An example from the Devonian Dollarhide field, Central Basin Platform, west Texas

Reservoir compartmentalization of the Dollarhide Field has to be understood in order to optimize recovery of remaining reserves. Porosity and permeability heterogeneity is a function of the interaction of stratigraphic and structural elements such as fractures, faults, subcrops and channels. Diagenesis and dissolution play an important role on the heterogeneity of the reservoir. Some of the reservoir-scale features are small and beyond the resolution of conventional seismic. Research is being conducted on the use of 3D seismic attributes to better delineate reservoir parameters important for fluid flow models. This paper presents our current understanding of the lineaments of the field after using some computed 3D seismic attributes. Coherence with two passes of edgepreserving smoothing has been a helpful attribute. The Dollarhide Field is a north-south trending asymmetric anticline bound by major reverse faults on its east flank. The anticline is associated with a northeast striking, rightlateral, strike-slip fault, and it is cut by an en-echelon system of northeast striking, right lateral, synthetic, Riedelshear faults. Conjugate, northwest striking, antithetic shear faults have been identified on the downthrown block of the field. Some lineaments in the upthrown block with the same trend could have the same origin. The structure was formed during the Late Paleozoic orogeny as the result of the collision of North and South American plates, when the Central Basin Platform was uplifted. The structure is truncated at its crest by the unconformity at the base of Early Permian carbonates. Subcropping belts of carbonates, cherts, and shales show the configuration of the structure before Early Permian times. Reactivation of pre-existing faults may have occurred during Early Tertiary Laramide orogeny. When compared with porosity-thickness maps of the reservoirs, the subcrop pattern and conjugate shear faults show a strong correlation with porosity trend segmentation.