Abstract -
Over the past couple of decades there have been significant advances in the petroleum industry methods used for analyzing and modeling faults contained within clastic sequences. Such faults are generally considered to be baffles or barriers to flow on both geological and production time scales, though they can also act as conduits in some circumstances. Newly developed techniques extend from those which help to improve the quality of fault mapping through to those which facilitate the inclusion of faults in flow simulation models. Whatever the application many of the advances can be directly linked to research performed in universities in the context of either collaborative projects with industry or of Joint Industry Projects (JIPs). This talk reviews the research and development associated with a selection of the structural geological innovations which the Fault Analysis Group (formerly of University of Liverpool) have contributed to. It highlights the circumstances which have led to those developments and impresses the importance of pursuing research which is facilitated by the high-quality datasets acquired by industry. In that context, the boundary between pure and applied research can be seamless, though the latter requires familiarity with the technical problems confronting industry and can benefit from not being subject to some of the constraints associated with working in large companies. Whilst good quality applied research must assume ‘best industry practice’ as a backdrop, it should also be acknowledged that one of the main challenges for industry, and indirectly academia, is to improve the quality of ‘common practice’.
Abstract of talk given to:
Petroleum Geoscience Research Collaboration Showcase, PESGB 2012, London, November 2012.