High resolution geochemical and petrographical correlation of deep marine Palaeocene sandstones from the Foinaven Field, West of Shetland

Cores from three wells in the Upper Palaeocene deep-marine reservoir interval of the Foinaven Field, West of Shetland have been analysed using trace element geochemistry and petrography. The 60 m thick turbidite-dominated succession is restricted to the T34 biozone and comprises a series of seismically defined channel and overbank deposits. Petrographic and trace element geochemical data indicate that wells 204/24a-3 and 204/25b-5 have strong similarities and that strata in the remaining well (204/24a-7) have distinctly different signatures. Of the two related wells, 204/25b-5 is dominated by a thick amalgamated sandstone succession, 204/24a-3 by more thinly bedded and finer grained sandstones considered to represent channel and associated overbank deposits respectively. Similarities in geochemical and petrographic data allow division of the biozone in the two related wells into four principal correlation zones with two additional sub-zones. The study has established a high resolution correlation scheme and constrained correlation lengths for reservoir and non-reservoir facies in a deep marine depositional system.