Faulted Reservoir Analysis System:
Development of a System for Detailed Analysis of Faulted Reservoirs
Duration - 18/9/1993 - 30/9/1995
Funding - Funded by NERC/DTI (Oil and Gas Projects Supplies Office) LINK Programme.
Industrial partners
Summary - The aims of this project were to develop FRAS software to complement already existing FAPS software and to gain an improved understanding of fault systems leading to innovative methods of analysing faults which could be incorporated into the developing software.FRAS software was developed by Badleys Earth Science Ltd (BESL) to import and manipulate:
- grid-based depth data from mapping packages
- detailed lithological data from well logs
The system provides production geologists and reservoir engineers with facilities for:
- Fault Plane Mapping
- Fault Seal Analysis
- Map Analysis Tools
The principal scientific results achieved by FAG during this project reflect work on 5 main topics and are summarised below:- Fault interaction:
Displacement backstripping techniques were used to establish the geometry and growth of relay zones and conjugate fault systems. The results of this study are presented in published articles:- Fault overlap zones within developing normal fault systems. 1995. (Childs,C., Watterson,J., & Walsh,J.J.)
- Three-dimensional geometry and growth of conjugate normal faults. 1995. (Nicol,A., Walsh,J.J., Watterson,J. & Bretan,P.)
- The shapes, major axis orientations and displacement patterns of fault surfaces. 1996. (Nicol,A., Watterson,J., Walsh,J.J. & Childs,C.)
- Fault growth:
Analysis of the displacement rates and growth curves of faults from the Northern North Sea, the Timor Sea and other basins indicate a high degree of kinematic coherence between individual faults in a system, providing displacement rates which appear to correlate with basinal strain rates. - Scaling properties of faults
The systematics of fault size populations were examined from 83 datasets covering a wide range of scales (ca 7 orders of magnitude), and derived from a variety of coalfield, oilfield and outcrop sources. Results are presented in published articles: - Reverse faults:
Reverse faults from a 3-D physical model and outcrop data have been analysed using FAPS. These studies demonstrated the utility of FAPS in analysing contractional fault datasets. - Fault sealing:
The 3-D geometry and fault zone architecture of faults were examined from an interbedded sequence of chalk and shales. Results are shown in:
Contact: John Walsh
Tel: +353 1 716 2606
Email