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Rotliegend Play Project - Characterisation of the Rotliegend Groups in the Northern Dutch Offshore

The aim of the project was to better understand the architecture and distribution of Permian reservoir sands in the Dutch northern offshore and increase the prospectivity of these areas. The Cygnus Field in UK is producing from the same northern Silverpit Lake coastal system that has been postulated by TNO to trend W–E toward the Dutch sector.
The deposition of the Rotliegend Group in the Permian Basin was heavily affected by paleotopography, either structurally generated and/or related to pre-existing erosional patterns. Few advances on the tectono-stratigraphic characterization of the Rotliegend Group in the Southern Permian Basin have been made since the seminal work of George and Berry (1997). The stratigraphic heterogeneities related to these paleotopographic features may have had strong impact on the presence, distribution and quality of highly permeable and porous facies. To increase the chance for success in predicting, identifying and mapping reservoir intervals in the northern Dutch offshore, it is important to map faults and paleotopographic features and to develop a new robust unified depositional and tectono-stratigraphic model. The identification of the type of proximal sediment pathways liking the uplands areas of the Elbow Spit and Mid North Sea Highs can be achieved by mapping in detail the Base Permian unconformity in the basin and on its northern margins. Understanding such paleo-geometry helps understanding the location and type of depositional systems, including possible incised valleys, alluvial fans, aeolian deposits and their genetical relationship to deposition of evaporites in the basin center. The current mapping exercise will provide new insights on the presence of potential untapped coarse deposits in the Dutch sector.