Innovations and challenges of sedimentology in oil and gas exploration and development

Abstract

Based on the development of sedimentology and its industrial application, research demands on the sedimentary reservoirs in the oil and gas exploration and development in the future are summarized, and the future key research fields and directions are put forward as well. Recently, sedimentology in China has achieved a number of accomplishments: Lithofacies paleogeography and a new model of sandbody in shallow water delta of depositional basins during significant tectonic movements have been built, expanding the fields of oil and gas exploration. New knowledge of deep-water sedimentary sandbody distribution has sustained significant discoveries in (ultra-)deep water area and lacustrine basin center. New cognition of (ultra-)deep reservoir mechanism extends the depth of oil and gas exploration and development. New progresses on development pattern of organic-rich shale and study of unconventional reservoirs make a series of major breakthroughs in unconventional oil and gas exploration and development. Multi-scale development geological modeling predicts the distribution of remaining oil effectively. New techniques and methods of sedimentary reservoirs provide a foundation for the development of the sedimentology theory and its industrial application. In the future development of sedimentology, it is necessary to make progress in traditional sedimentology, to innovate fine-grained sedimentology and unconventional reservoir geology and to provide a foundation for sedimentary prototype basin restoration, organic-rich shale area evaluation, favorable reservoir prediction and favorable target area optimization, promoting the continuous innovations on sedimentology. Key words: sedimentology, fine-grained sediment, (ultra-)deep reservoir, deep water sediment, unconventional reservoir, reservoir configuration