Determination of Widths of Meander-Belt Sandstone Reservoirs from Vertical Downhole Data, Mesaverde Group, Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado

Paleohydrologic reconstructions have been applied to downhole measurements made in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Multi-Well Experiment (MWX) wells in order to derive sand-body widths for the nonmarine part of the Mesaverde Group (Cretaceous) in the east-central part of the Piceance Creek basin of northwestern Colorado. These sediments were deposited in a predominantly meandering fluvial system. Paleochannel depths, recognized in the wells from the heights of fining-upward trends in core, can be converted to channel widths, using a published formula. The resulting channel widths are used to calculate meander-belt amplitudes (sand-body widths) from relationships derived from published empirical data. The estimate of width derived from this technique can be compared with sand-body widths derived by three other methods. These various techniques give compatible results, indicating the validity of the downhole technique.