Study of Albian carbonate analogs: Cedar Park quarry, Texas, United States of America, and Santos Basin reservoirs, southeast offshore of Brazil

Heterogeneity styles of Albian carbonates are described from the Cedar Park quarry, Central Texas, USA, and Tubarao field, southeast offshore of Brazil. This work makes a comparison of two carbonate settings by examining the differences and similarities in stratigraphic settings and petrophysical attributes. The arrangement and disposition of stratal elements of the quarry were used as basis for detailing the reservoir architecture.;The two carbonates were deposited on a shallow marine platform under high-energy conditions. The stratigraphic framework of the Whitestone and Cedar Park Members, Cedar Park quarry, is divided into high-frequency cycles, and the Guaruja Reservoir, offshore Brazil is divided into high-frequency sequences and high-frequency cycles. Quarry carbonate records the deposition of a marine bar in a stable platform, whereas the subsurface carbonate forms a shoal system deposited on a platform with active salt tectonics. Both carbonates show similar elongate shapes along the depositional strike of high-energy facies. In the quarry, these facies are composed of ooid and bioclastic grain-dominated fabrics and, in the subsurface, ooid and ooid/oncoid grain-dominated fabrics.;Petrophysically, the carbonates present similar petrophysical properties and diagenetic overprinting. Early marine cement occluding the interparticle pore and meteoric diagenesis creates separate vugs within grains, changing the pore network and permeability. Compaction is apparent in the subsurface carbonates. High permeabilities are associated with interparticle porosity preserved in bioclastic and ooid/oncoid facies. Low permeability is associated with separate-vug porosity in ooid facies.;Both carbonates are composed of upward-shallowing cycles and show decreasing permeability to the top. In the quarry, high-energy strata are continuous for up to 1.7 km. Vertical anisotropy is governed by rock-fabric stacking forming an upward-shallowing cycle. Vertical anisotropy, in the subsurface carbonates, is attributed to facies succession forming an upward-shallowing cycle on small (4 m) and large scales (10 m). Reservoir architecture is delineated by prograding stacking of repetitive upward-shallowing cycles with retrogradational intervals.;These observations provide a genetic and geometric model for Albian reservoir description from different geological settings. In addition, the integration of detailed stratigraphic framework with petrophysical properties from the quarry was useful for applying reservoir zonation and for understanding reservoir quality.