Annotation "Compared with many other areas of the petroleum geosciences, studies of the structural controls on fluid flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs are in their infancy. As hydrocarbon reserves have become depleted and the oil industry has become more competitive, the need to cut costs by optimizing production and predicting the occurrence of subtle traps has highlighted the importance of information on the way in which faults and fractures affect fluid flow. Structural geologists are now having to provide answers to questions such as: Are hydrocarbons likely to have migrated into (or out of) the trap? What is the likely height of hydrocarbons that a fault can support? Is it likely that compartments which have not been produced exist within a field and will therefore require further drilling?" "This volume aims to find answers to these questions."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Faults commonly trap fluids such as hydrocarbons and water and therefore are of economic significance. During hydrocarbon field development, smaller faults can provide baffles and/or conduits to flow. There are relatively simple, well established workflows to carry out a fault seal analysis for siliciclastic rocks based primarily on clay content. There are, however, outstanding challenges related to other rock types, to calibrating fault seal models (with static and dynamic data) and to handling uncertainty. The variety of studies presented here demonstrate the types of data required and workflows followed in today’s environment in order to understand the uncertainties, risks and upsides associated with fault-related fluid flow. These studies span all parts of the hydrocarbon value chain from exploration to production but are also of relevance for other industries such as radioactive waste and CO2 containment.

"Reservoir compartmentalization - the segregation of a petroleum accumulation into a number of individual fluid/pressure compartments - controls the volume of moveable oil or gas that might be connected to any given well drilled in a field, and consequently impacts 'booking' of reserves and operational profitability. This is a general feature of modern exploration and production portfolios, and has driven major developments in geoscience, engineering and related technology. Given that compartmentalization is a consequence of many factors, an integrated subsurface approach is required to better understand and predict compartmentalization behaviour, and to minimize the risk of it occurring unexpectedly. This volume reviews our current understanding and ability to model compartmentalization. It highlights the necessity for effective specialist discipline integration, and the value of learning from operational experience in: detection and monitoring of compartmentalization; stratigraphic and mixed-mode compartmentalization; and fault-dominated compartmentalization"--Page 4 of cover.

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.

Faults are primary focuses of both fluid migration and deformation in the upper crust. The recognition that faults are typically heterogeneous zones of deformed material, not simple discrete fractures, has fundamental implications for the way geoscientists predict fluid migration in fault zones, as well as leading to new concepts in understanding seismic/aseismic strain accommodation. This book captures current research into understanding the complexities of fault-zone internal structure, and their control on mechanical and fluid-flow properties of the upper crust. A wide variety of approaches are presented, from geological field studies and laboratory analyses of fault-zone and fault-rock properties to numerical fluid-flow modelling, and from seismological data analyses to coupled hydraulic and rheological modelling. The publication aims to illustrate the importance of understanding fault-zone complexity by integrating such diverse approaches, and its impact on the rheological and fluid-flow behaviour of fault zones in different contexts.

The 3D geological model is still regarded as one of the newest and most innovative tools for reservoir management purposes. The computer modelling of structures, rock properties and fluid flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs has evolved from a specialist activity to part of the standard desktop toolkit. The application of these techniques has allowed all disciplines of the subsurface team to collaborate in a common workspace. In today's asset teams, the role of the geological model in hydrocarbon development planning is key and will be for some time ahead. The challenges that face the geologists and engineers will be to provide more seamless interaction between static and dynamic models. This interaction requires the development of conventional and unconventional modelling algorithms and methodologies in order to provide more risk-assessed scenarios, thus enabling geologists and engineers to better understand and capture inherent uncertainties at each aspect of the geological model's life.

Hydrothermal mineralization is usually structurally controlled so it is important to understand the role of faulting and fracturing in enhancing rock permeability and facilitating fluid flow and mass transfer. This is the main theme of this interdisciplinary volume and the papers included are intended to provide an overview of current ideas at the interfaces of structural geology, fluid flow and mineralization research.

This interdisciplinary book encompasses the fields of rock mechanics, structural geology and petroleum engineering to address a wide range of geomechanical problems that arise during the exploitation of oil and gas reservoirs. It considers key practical issues such as prediction of pore pressure, estimation of hydrocarbon column heights and fault seal potential, determination of optimally stable well trajectories, casing set points and mud weights, changes in reservoir performance during depletion, and production-induced faulting and subsidence. The book establishes the basic principles involved before introducing practical measurement and experimental techniques to improve recovery and reduce exploitation costs. It illustrates their successful application through case studies taken from oil and gas fields around the world. This book is a practical reference for geoscientists and engineers in the petroleum and geothermal industries, and for research scientists interested in stress measurements and their application to problems of faulting and fluid flow in the crust.