An Interactive 5-Day Training Course
Microbial Carbonate Reservoirs
Microbialites and Pre-Salt Reservoirs
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Duration
5 Days
Price
$ 3,500
Starting From
15 Mar 2027
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Microbial Carbonate Reservoirs
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Microbial Carbonate Reservoirs - GG-MICRO-PEA27
| Code | Date | Time | Duration | Location | Currency | Early Bird Fee Per Person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GG-MICRO-PEA27 | 15 - 19 Mar 2027 | 10 AM CST | 4 Hours Per Day |
Online |
USD |
3500 |
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Microbial Carbonate Reservoirs
Description
Microbial carbonates are built by microbial communities trapping, binding and precipitating carbonate rather than by skeletal organisms, and the rocks they produce have fabrics and pore systems unlike skeletal carbonates. They have moved from a specialist stratigraphic interest to a major reservoir category because the pre-salt discoveries of the South Atlantic placed very large volumes in microbial and associated lacustrine carbonates, and because microbial intervals are recognised as reservoirs in Precambrian and Palaeozoic sections elsewhere.
This training covers these rocks from formation through to development. Microbial carbonate processes are established first: microbial mats, biofilms, trapping and binding, microbially induced precipitation, and the environmental conditions that favour microbial over skeletal carbonate production. Fabrics and classification follow, covering stromatolites, thrombolites, leiolites, dendrolites, laminites and spherulitic and shrubby fabrics, together with their recognition in core and thin section. Depositional settings are then developed for marine peritidal, hypersaline and lacustrine systems, with attention to alkaline lake systems and their chemistry. The South Atlantic pre-salt is treated in detail: basin development, rift and sag stratigraphy, the Barra Velha and Coqueiros intervals, reservoir fabrics and their distribution. Porosity systems follow, covering primary growth framework porosity, dissolution porosity, silica and dolomite diagenesis, and the difficulties in predicting them. The training closes with characterisation methods, seismic expression, and development problems including carbon dioxide handling and injectivity.
Microbial carbonate fabrics do not follow the facies logic that works in skeletal carbonates. There is no energy-driven grain size trend to read, no straightforward shallowing-upward succession to identify, and the standard Dunham classification applies awkwardly at best. The rock texture reflects microbial community type, water chemistry and precipitation rate, and lateral variability can be extreme over short distances. A core description scheme designed for skeletal carbonates applied to a microbial interval records very little of what controls its reservoir properties.
Porosity in these reservoirs is partly a growth framework and partly diagenetic, and both are difficult to predict. Primary porosity can be exceptionally high where microbial growth created an open framework, and it can be preserved to considerable depth where early cementation stabilised the framework. Dissolution of less stable components creates further porosity. But silica cementation, dolomitisation and late calcite can occlude it all, and these diagenetic events are controlled by fluid chemistry histories that are not imaged on seismic and not predictable from geometry. Nearby well results again carry most of the predictive weight.
The pre-salt reservoirs demonstrate how little conventional carbonate reasoning transfers. They formed in alkaline lake systems with water chemistry unlike seawater, producing spherulitic and shrubby calcite fabrics and magnesium clay deposits with no close modern analogue. Reservoir quality is extremely heterogeneous, high permeability intervals support very high well rates, and the main development issues are injectivity, high carbon dioxide content in the produced fluid and the management of early breakthrough through high permeability pathways.
Finally, characterisation of these reservoirs depends more heavily on core and image logs than most carbonate work does, because the log response of these fabrics is not well established and because the heterogeneity is at a scale logs average over. Full diameter core, borehole image logs, nuclear magnetic resonance measurement and well tests together produce a workable characterisation; log interpretation alone does not.
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
- Explain microbial carbonate formation processes and the conditions that favour them
- Identify and classify microbial carbonate fabrics in core and thin section
- Distinguish stromatolite, thrombolite and associated fabric types and their significance
- Interpret marine, hypersaline and lacustrine microbial depositional settings
- Describe the South Atlantic pre-salt stratigraphy and reservoir intervals
- Characterise porosity systems in microbial carbonates and their diagenetic modification
- Design core description and data acquisition programmes for these reservoirs
- Interpret the seismic expression of microbial build-ups and pre-salt reservoirs
- Assess reservoir quality distribution and its prediction uncertainty
- Evaluate the development and injection challenges of microbial carbonate reservoirs
Organisations sending participants to this training will:
- Build capability in a reservoir category holding very large volumes
- Improve core description and data acquisition in microbial intervals
- Reduce reservoir quality prediction errors from inappropriate carbonate analogues
- Improve characterisation of extremely heterogeneous reservoirs
- Support entry into pre-salt and other microbial carbonate plays
- Improve recognition of microbial reservoir potential in existing acreage
Participants will:
- Recognise and classify microbial carbonate fabrics confidently
- Interpret microbial depositional settings and their controls
- Understand pre-salt reservoir stratigraphy and character
- Assess porosity systems and their diagenetic modification
- Specify appropriate data acquisition for these reservoirs
- Build specialist capability in an expanding reservoir category
- Carbonate reservoir geologists and sedimentologists
- Exploration geoscientists working on pre-salt and microbial plays
- Petrophysicists evaluating microbial carbonate reservoirs
- Reservoir modellers working on heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs
- Reservoir engineers working on pre-salt and microbial carbonate fields
- Operations geologists describing microbial carbonate core
- Experienced geoscientists extending into specialist carbonate settings
Module 1 - Microbial Carbonate Processes
- Microbial mats and biofilms
- Trapping and binding of carbonate sediment
- Microbially induced and influenced precipitation
- Extracellular polymeric substances and their role
- Cyanobacteria and other microbial communities
- Water chemistry controls on microbial carbonate
- Alkalinity, salinity and nutrient conditions
- Competition with skeletal carbonate producers
- Microbial carbonate through geological time
- Precambrian dominance and Phanerozoic restriction
- Modern analogues and their limitations
Module 2 - Microbial Fabrics and Classification
- Microbialite classification schemes
- Stromatolites: laminated fabrics and their types
- Thrombolites: clotted fabrics and their recognition
- Leiolites and dendrolites
- Laminites and crinkly laminated fabrics
- Spherulitic calcite fabrics
- Shrubby and arborescent fabrics
- Travertine and tufa fabrics
- Associated magnesium clay deposits
- Core description schemes for microbial carbonates
- Thin section petrography of microbial fabrics
- Distinguishing microbial from abiotic and skeletal fabrics
Module 3 - Marine and Hypersaline Microbial Systems
- Peritidal microbial systems and their zonation
- Intertidal and supratidal microbial mats
- Hypersaline lagoon and salina settings
- Microbial build-ups in marine settings
- Precambrian and Palaeozoic microbial reefs
- Microbial carbonate after extinction events
- Mud mounds with microbial components
- Associated evaporite deposition
- Marine microbial reservoir examples
- Reservoir character of marine microbialites
Module 4 - Lacustrine Microbial Systems
- Lake types and their carbonate production
- Alkaline and soda lake chemistry
- Saline lake and playa settings
- Microbial build-ups in lake margin settings
- Spherulitic and shrubby precipitation in alkaline lakes
- Magnesium clay formation and its reservoir effect
- Lake level fluctuation and its stratigraphic record
- Clastic influx and its effect on carbonate production
- Associated lacustrine source rocks
- Rift lake settings and their evolution
- Lacustrine carbonate reservoir examples
Module 5 - South Atlantic Pre-Salt
- South Atlantic rift development and conjugate margins
- Pre-rift, rift and sag phase stratigraphy
- Santos, Campos and Kwanza basin settings
- Coqueiros and equivalent rift lacustrine intervals
- Barra Velha and equivalent sag intervals
- Reservoir fabrics in the sag section
- Magnesium clay and silicification effects
- Overlying Aptian salt and its sealing function
- Salt tectonics and its structural effect
- Source rocks and charge in pre-salt systems
- Pre-salt stratigraphic correlation and its difficulties
- West African conjugate margin equivalents
Module 6 - Porosity Systems and Diagenesis
- Growth framework porosity and its preservation
- Interparticle and intercrystalline porosity
- Dissolution porosity and its origin
- Vuggy and cavernous porosity
- Microporosity in microbial fabrics
- Early cementation and framework stabilisation
- Silica cementation and its reservoir effect
- Dolomitisation in microbial carbonates
- Late calcite cementation
- Magnesium clay dissolution and alteration
- Porosity permeability relationships in microbial reservoirs
- Predicting reservoir quality distribution
Module 7 - Characterisation and Data Acquisition
- Heterogeneity scales in microbial reservoirs
- Core acquisition requirements and justification
- Core description and fabric logging
- Borehole image log interpretation
- Log response of microbial fabrics and its uncertainty
- Nuclear magnetic resonance applications
- Special core analysis specification
- Rock typing in microbial carbonates
- Well test interpretation and permeability scales
- Seismic expression of microbial build-ups
- Pre-salt seismic imaging through salt
- Building a static model for a microbial reservoir
Module 8 - Development of Microbial Carbonate Reservoirs
- Development characteristics and well performance
- High rate wells and their reservoir basis
- Extreme permeability contrast and its consequences
- Injectivity and its maintenance
- Water and gas injection strategy
- Early breakthrough through high permeability pathways
- Carbon dioxide content and its subsurface handling
- Carbon dioxide reinjection and its reservoir effects
- Scaling and souring risks
- Horizontal wells and completion design
- Surveillance in highly heterogeneous reservoirs
- Field cases and their development lessons
Upon successful completion of this training course, delegates will be awarded an official Certificate of Completion issued by the Petroleum Engineers Association (PEA), an ISO 9001:2015 certified training organization. The certificate carries 10 Credits and formally records the total learning hours completed.
Each certificate is signed by the Course Facilitator and the CEO of the Petroleum Engineers Association, and serves as verifiable proof of professional training that delegates can present to employers and professional bodies worldwide.
Frequently Asked Questions
All course bookings made through PEA are strictly non-refundable. By registering for a course, you acknowledge and accept that all fees are payable in full and are not subject to refund under any circumstances, including changes in personal or professional commitments or partial attendance.
PEA reserves the right to make reasonable adjustments to course content, trainers, or schedules where necessary, without entitling delegates to a refund. Comprehensive details of each course — including objectives, target audience, and content — are clearly outlined before enrolment, and it is the responsibility of the delegate to ensure the course's suitability prior to booking.
For any inquiries related to cancellations or bookings, please contact our support team, who will be happy to assist you.
