Reservoir characterization of microbial reef reservoirs at Little Cedar Creek Field, Conecuh County, Alabama
Citation
Koralegadara, Ganaganath, Parcell, William C. (2008). Reservoir characterization of microbial reef reservoirs at Little Cedar Creek Field, Conecuh County, Alabama. In Proceedings: 4th Annual Symposium: Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects. Wichita, KS: Wichita State University, p.57-58
Abstract
Little Cedar Creek Field (LCCF) in Conecuh County, Alabama is the largest Smackover field discovered in the
northern U.S. Gulf Coast in the last three decades. It is now the most productive field in the State of Alabama. The LCCF
gives an opportunity to identify the characteristics of microbial (thrombolite) developments in shallow water deposits and
differentiate it from the nearby reef reservoirs which grow directly on Paleozoic basement paleohighs. Previous studies from
this area have indicated that Jurassic microbial buildups are associated with Paleozoic basement paleohighs. In contrast,
microbial buildups at LCCF apparently developed in shallow subtidal environment without the influence of basement
rockgrounds.
The objective of this project is to examine the microbial reef reservoirs at Little Cedar Creek in order to identify any
relationship between depositional fabric type and reservoir quality distribution. Furthermore this study compares these
nearshore thrombolite facies to microbial fabric types identified at Appleton and Vocation fields, Alabama and will focus on
the types of Jurassic microbial developments in this field and the poor reservoir rock fabric types identified in other fields
and characterized as lagoon, and subtidal facies.
This study will improve the understanding of Upper Jurassic Smackover microbial development, its lithologic
fabrics and controls on reservoir quality. The results will improve the exploration strategy to find other stratigraphic
microbial carbonate reservoirs worldwide. Examining the controls on reservoir quality distribution at LCCF will provide
new insights into this unique and prolific petroleum reservoir facies
Description
Paper presented to the 4th Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) held at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex, Wichita State University, April 25, 2008.
Research completed at the Department of Geology, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Science