The Value of Fault Property Analysis for Field Development Planning

Frischbutter, A.; Fisher, Q.J.; Namazova, G.; Dufour, Sebastien

doi:10.3997/2214-4609.201414097

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Frischbutter et al . ) where the capillary seal capacity appears to be accurately estimated by considering the shale gouge ratio (SGR) (Yielding ; Bretan et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, there are many oil and gas operators who have assets where reservoir on reservoir juxtaposition supports trapped hydrocarbon columns with demonstrable cross-fault pressure differences (e.g. Frischbutter et al 2015) where the capillary seal capacity appears to be accurately estimated by considering the shale gouge ratio (SGR) (Yielding 2002;Bretan et al 2003). SGR is a bulk averaging approach that appears to account for both clay smear and cataclasis processes where SGR increases with increasing throw before stabilising at a maximum SGR regardless of further increasing throw (Grant 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Capillary seal capacity of faults under hydrodynamic conditions

Underschultz

Strand

2016

Geofluids

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Many fault bound traps are underfilled despite the top seal capacity being secure. The hydrocarbon sealing performance of faults themselves can be compromised either by mechanical or capillary process. Capillary process can be important either due to juxtaposition or to fine-grained clay or cataclastic material within the fault zone itself. There is debate about how important each of these mechanisms is over geological timescales of hydrocarbon trapping. Recent work has provided insights into fine-tuning capillary-related fault seal calibration methodologies. Over the last 15 years, vigorous scientific debate with multiple published laboratory experiments and modelling studies has led some researchers and industry technologists to theorise that for water-wet conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs, the relative water permeability in the reservoir (towards the top of the hydrocarbon column) may become very small, but in practice never reach zero. While not advocating for either side in this debate, the importance of accounting for hydrodynamic conditions regardless of the capillary sealing mechanism is demonstrated. Additionally, it is noted that nonzero relative water permeability has implications on how a seal's capillary threshold pressure for the nonwetting hydrocarbon phase is estimated from field data. In the particular case where there are pressure differences between unproduced hydrocarbon reservoirs on either side of a fault, then the hydrocarbon saturation must be discontinuous across the fault. For hydrocarbon leakage to occur across the entire thickness of the fault zone, the hydrocarbon pressure must exceed the threshold pressure on the side of the fault zone with the highest formation water hydraulic head. This approach to estimating across-fault pressure difference will result in an improved calibration data set used for predrill estimation of capillary fault seal capacity.

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“…Frischbutter et al . ) where the capillary seal capacity appears to be accurately estimated by considering the shale gouge ratio (SGR) (Yielding ; Bretan et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%