1887
Volume 37, Issue 6
  • E-ISSN: 1365-2117

Abstract

[ABSTRACT

The UK Central North Sea Chestnut field was discovered and appraised between 1985 and 1987 and brought online in 2008. The 23‐year delay between discovery and production reflected the modest size of the accumulation combined with a poor understanding of the reservoir sedimentology and challenges associated with seismic imaging of the Eocene‐aged reservoir sandstone. The original reservoir interpretation as a series of discrete turbiditic terminal lobes of depositional origin was disputed when a detailed core re‐interpretation highlighted abundant evidence for sandstone injection. The ramifications of this were profound as the implication was that the reservoir units, which straddled multiple palynologic zones, could represent a well‐connected remobilised sand complex, as was being observed in outcrop analogues, rather than a series of poorly connected discrete lobes. The re‐interpretation was also being corroborated by pre‐production dynamic observations that confirmed good reservoir connectivity despite legacy seismic data showing a patchy, disconnected reservoir system. The field potential was gradually unlocked as subsurface teams embraced this new interpretation and applied new technologies to reservoir evaluation techniques. Enhancement of seismic processing, recognition of the presence and implications of large‐scale sand injection and remobilisation, and integration of these observations with dynamic reservoir data gradually increased confidence in the updated subsurface models. Updated modelling more accurately defined reserves, dynamic behaviour and field potential. The result was that through a better understanding of reservoir architecture, applying learnings from analogue datasets and a focused multidisciplinary approach to field evaluation a poorly understood stranded asset evolved into a highly successful five‐well development recovering 27 Mmstb (million stock tank barrels) of oil—far exceeding even its pre‐development sanctioned reserve base of 7 Mmstb. More fundamentally, the learnings and experience gained from the Chestnut field contributed to the enhanced understanding of the geologic characteristics and dynamic behaviour of injectite reservoirs, which represent a prolific hydrocarbon play and are present throughout the UK and Norwegian Tertiary stratigraphy.

,

The Chestnut case study highlights how the identification of injectite features on core combined with other multidisciplinary subsurface datasets unlocks a stranded oil field and provides valuable insight into the characteristics of North Sea Eocene remobilised sandstone complexes.

]
Basin Research © 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers and International Association of Sedimentologists © 2025 International Association of Sedimentologists and European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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2026-01-18

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Unlocking the Chestnut Field: An Early Example of Realising the True Potential of Marginal, Complex Sand Injectite Fields Through Challenging Conventional Sedimentological Concepts and Focused Investment in Subsurface Data and Technology
Basin Research 37, e70069 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1111/bre.70069
/content/journals/10.1111/bre.70069
/content/journals/10.1111/bre.70069
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