Geomodeling of aeolian reservoir analogues: A virtual-outcrop based study of the jurassic page sandstone formation

Page Sandstone Formation (Bathonian - Bajocian) outcrops around Lake Powell have been studied as reservoir analogues to deeply buried gas bearing aeolian (Rotliegend) reservoir in NW Germany. The study is based on an extensive virtual outcrop model gathered using terrestrial LIDAR combined with ground based and UAV (drone) acquired images. A petrophysical dataset was collected and integrated with eleven traditional outcrop logs. The Virtual Outcrop Model encompasses a c. 1 km2 cliff-outcrop volume (with the Page Fm. extending up to 55m thick locally). Page Fm. deposits represent the downwind migration of smaller aeolian bedforms superimposed on larger both slipfaceless and sinuous crested compound dunes. Hierarchal complexity which includes 8 lithofacies distributed in a framework with at least 4 orders of bounding surface provides an excellent opportunity to develop multi-scale modelling techniques for aeolian reservoirs. Geocellular models have been built to satisfy the macro, meso and micro scale heterogeneity. Ongoing work is focussed upon developing mesoscale models using the refined depositional model to inform a series of process based using bedform forward modelling software (after Rubin, 1987). The modelling focusses upon populating with the petrophysical data and used to determine Representative Elemental Volumes for the different scales of heterogeneity within the system.