Hydrocarbon Seal Quantification

This volume contains 17 selected papers reflecting the flavour of the Norwegian Petroleum Society conference on hydrocarbon seals quantification and showing the recent significant advances in the understanding and application of hydrocarbon seal methodologies. Three broad categories are covered in this book: methodologies addressing cap-rock integrity, methodologies relating to fault seal and case studies both from the hydrocarbon basins of Northwestern Europe and in the form of outcrop examples. With the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Atlantic Margin moving along their respective basin maturity and development curves, exploration is being forced deeper into high pressure/high temperature terrains, while exploitation and development requires greater precision and realism in reservoir simulations to maximise drilling strategies to prolong field life. In all instances the need for predictive tools and methodologies that address the integrity and behaviour of top and lateral (fault) seals to hydrocarbon traps, both in the static and dynamic state, have been identified as key risk factors and this is reflected in this volume.

Preface.List of Contributors.Cap-rock integrity. 1. Shale gouge ratio - calibration by geohistory (G. Yielding). 2. Rock stress in sedimentary basins - implications for trap integrity (H.M.N. Bolås, C. Hermanrud). 3. The role of diagenesis in the formation of fluid overpressures in clastic rocks (H.M. Helset, et al.).4. Prediction of sealing capacity by the equivalent grain size method (K. Nakayama, D. Sato).5. Effective permeability of hydrofractured sedimentary rocks (M. Wangen).6. Geomechanical simulations of top seal integrity (H. Lewis, P. Olden, G.D. Couples).7. Top seal assessment in exhumed basin settings - some insights from Atlantic Margin and borderland basins (D.V. Corcoran, A.G. Doré).Fault-Seal Potential.8. Empirical estimation of fault rock properties (S. Sperrevik, et al.).9. A method for including the capillary properties of faults in hydrocarbon migration models (C. Childs, et al.).10. Quantitative fault seal assessment in hydrocarbon-compartmentalized structures using fluid pressure data (D. Grauls, F. Pascaud, T. Rives).11. Havana - a fault modelling tool (K. Hollund, et al.).12. Reservoir compartmentalization by water-saturated faults - Is evaluation possible with today's tools? (J.C. Rivenæs, C. Dart).Case studies.13. Geological implications of a large pressure difference across a small fault in the Viking Graben (C. Childs, et al.).14. Fault reactivation, leakage potential, and hydrocarbon column heights in the northern North Sea D. Wiprut, M.D. Zoback). 15. Leakage from overpressured hydrocarbon reservoirs at Haltenbanken and in the northern North Sea (C. Hermanrud, Christian, H. Marit, N. Bolås). 16. Evaluation of caprock integrity in the western (high pressured) Haltenbanken area - a case history based on analysis of seismic signatures in overburden rocks (G.M.G. Teige, et al.). 17. Fault seal analysis in unconsolidated sediments: a field study from Kentucky, USA (G. Lewis, R. Knipe, A. Li).References index.Subject index.