Publications

Outcrop holds significant information for both petroleum explorationists and reservoir geoscientists as an actual representation of the subsurface. The objectives of this project are to obtain facies distribution and rock properties by quantifying outcrop’s RGB color properties and developing an analogue model as a key reference for main hydrocarbon producing reservoirs in the Mahakam area in order to understand its geometry and heterogeneity. Equivalent interval, Middle to Upper Miocene, is currently outcropping in a new housing complex of Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (BPJS) Palaran, Samarinda. BPJS Palaran outcrops are located at abandoned coal pits that have been exposed for some period of time. As experienced by most outcrops in Indonesia, which have humid tropical conditions, they tend to experience more rapid weathering and faster growth of vegetation. These surface processes, which mask the geological phenomena, for instance rock facies organization, grain size, sedimentary structures etc., obviously add additional challenges to this project. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with a high-resolution camera and GPS were used to take digital photographs of the outcrops. Color correction was carried out on all photos to standardize the white balance to get more accurate colors, and to determine its Red, Green, Blue (RGB) value distribution. Rock properties and facies identification on the outcrop scale were interpreted by using a semi-quantitative approach based on an RGB color distribution. Measured sections were applied to understand the complete stratigraphic sequence of the outcrop. Selected locations on the outcrop were sampled and analyzed to understand the rock properties. The rock samples are sampled to represent the range of porosity data distribution, so as to understand the rock property heterogeneity. A state of the art 3D Virtual Outcrop Model was built to determine the geometry and layer continuation, with the extracted RGB color grouped into several units. The distinctive separation between each RGB color group corresponds to different rock properties, e.g. porosity and lithology. The analogue models will then be used as an analogue for reservoir modeling in the producing oil & gas fields of the Kutei Basin.