James Foey

Biography

I graduated from Keele University in 2015 having achieved a First Class honours in Mgeoscience. Having developed a keen interest in sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy during my undergraduate degree my fourth year project based on the Cretaceous carbonates of Minorca aimed to further my understanding of these fields while introducing other key techniques, such as Ichnofacies and Microfacies analysis.

Upon completion of degree I have continued at Keele studying for a PhD on "The influence of halokinesis on shallow-marine sediments in salt basins: The Fulmar Formation, Central North Sea, UK ". The project utilises many of the techniques I have previously studied and enjoyed at undergraduate level while enabling my skills base to further develop.

Awards

2012/3 The Palaeontological Association Student Award
2014/5 The Micropalaeontology Society Student Award

Affiliations

AAPG - American Association of Petroleum Geologists
IAS - International Association of Sedimentologists
TMS - The Micropalaeontological Society

Research and scholarship

Project:

The influence of halokinesis on shallow-marine sediments in salt basins: The Fulmar Formation, Central North Sea, UK

Supervisors: Dr Ian Stimpson, Keele University; Dr Stuart Clarke, Keele University

Overview

The Upper Jurassic Fulmar Formation hosts significant accumulations of hydrocarbons across the central North Sea, with currently over sixty discoveries and developments within this single play. Despite this success, the number of exploration wells targeting Fulmar plays is decreasing, despite ample opportunities for continued exploration. The Fulmar sediments accumulated within Late Jurassic salt-collapse basins, formed by dissolution of mobile Zechstein salt walls. However, the genesis of the play is complicated, as the formation of an economic reservoir requires a carefully balanced rate of sediment supply and salt-wall dissolution: if the rate of sediment supply compared to that of subsidence is too low, the basin may be filled with deep-water fine-grained sediment, but if the rate of sediment supply is too high, sediment may be scoured from the basin during sediment bypass.

Methodology

This project will investigate the influence of halokinesis upon the sedimentology of the Fulmar Formation by examining the temporal and spatial distribution of facies between the collapse basins across the Central North Sea, and their relationship to the magnitude of salt dissolution (subsidence rate), relative sediment input rates and, where possible, the timing of basin formation. From these analyses, the project will construct depositional models that describe the likely depositional environments and distribution of facies, both within the Jurassic collapse-basins and between them. In so doing, the work will elucidate the relative influence of sediment supply, halokinesis and subsidence upon facies distribution, and produce predictive models of likely reservoir distribution, quality and connectivity that are applicable to the Fulmar Formation and similar salt-influenced shallow-marine sediment hydrocarbon plays.

The project will focus primarily on the study of core and wireline data from well penetrations of the Fulmar Formation and associated stratigraphy, and 3D seismic data collected from across the Central North Sea, to examine the nature and to constrain the lateral extent of the Fulmar within the collapse basins. Typically, where field development has taken place, multiple close-spaced wells penetrate the Fulmar Formation, providing a level of spatial coverage that will allow detailed observation of lateral facies variations within a single collapse basin. To supplement this desk-based study, a single field season to observe shallow marine-halokinetic interactions will constrain lateral facies variations and the relationship of architectural elements within the depositional system. Likely candidate field areas include: La Popa Basin, Mexico; Wonoka Formation, Australia; Mississippi delta.

Publications

Conferences

2017

Foey, J., Clarke, S., Randles, T., Banham, S., Stimpson, I. 2017. Predicting the Distribution of Shallow Marine Facies Within Halokinetically Controlled Salt Withdrawal Minibasins: Insights from the Fulmar Formation, UK Continental Shelf, AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Houston, Texas, USA.

Foey, J., Stimpson, I., Clarke, S., Randles, T., Banham, S. 2017. The influence of halokinesis on shallow-marine sediments in salt basins: The Fulmar Formation, Central North Sea, UK, CDT Annual Conference, Edinburgh, UK.

Foey, J., Clarke, S., Randles, T., Banham, S., Stimpson, I. 2017. Halokinetic Controls on the Evolution of Shallow Marine Facies Architecture: Insights from the Upper Jurassic Fulmar Formation, United Kingdom Continental Shelf, 56^th British Sedimentological Research Group AGM, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

2016

Foey, J., Stimpson, I., Clarke, S., Randles, T., Banham, S. 2016. The influence of halokinesis on shallow-marine sediments in salt basins: The Fulmar Formation, Central North Sea, UK, CDT Annual Conference, Edinburgh, UK.

Foey, J., Clarke, S., Randles, T., Banham, S., Stimpson, I. 2016. Predicting the distribution of Shallow Marine Facies within Halokinetically Controlled Basins: Insights from the Upper Jurassic Fulmar Formation, UKCS, 55^th British Sedimentological Research Group AGM, Cambridge, UK

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