Origin and timing of sand injection, petroleum migration, and diagenesis in Tertiary reservoirs, south Viking Graben, North Sea

Petrographic, fluid-inclusion, and carbon and oxygen stable isotope studies of Tertiary injectite reservoirs in the south Viking Graben of the North Sea allow an understanding of the origin and timing of sand injection, petroleum migration, and diagenesis. Injection from shallowly (<400 m; <1300 ft) buried Paleocene and Eocene unconsolidated sandstones occurred at the end of the Eocene, probably in response to earthquake activity. Liquid oil was already present in the parent sands prior to injection and leaked from the injectites to the seabed. Upward-migrating oil and basinal brines mixed with downward-invading mixed meteoric-marine pore fluids in the injectites, causing extensive biodegradation of the oil. Biodegradation of oil provided the driver for early carbonate cementation in injectites, causing diminished reservoir quality. However, early carbonate cementation also sealed off the injectites as potential escape routes for petroleum from the underlying parent sands. Oil (and gas) continued to migrate into the reservoir (parent) sands upon increased burial, causing a mixing of high-API oil with the early charged, extensively biodegraded low-API oil. The study of early diagenetic imprints reveals the evolution of injectite reservoirs, which forms the basis for understanding how to explore and develop them.