Incorporation of fault properties in hydrocarbon migration models



Duration - 01/09/00- 30/09/2004

Funding - Funded by the European Union Fifth Framework Hydrocarbon Reservoir Programme: Energy Project ENK6 - CT - 2000 - 00072

Co-ordinator - SINTEF Petroleumsforskning AS

Project Website

Research Partners

Objectives
A major shortcoming of existing modelling systems for basin-scale hydrocarbon migration is that they do not take account of the effects of faults. This project will develop software that incorporates both negative and positive effects of faults on both migration and accumulation in multiple carrier/reservoir intervals offset by seismically mapped faults. New procedures for predicting the hydraulic properties of faults will be developed and incorporated in the software.

Because migration channels are small relative to the spatial resolution of geological data, there is an irreducible element of uncertainty in prediction of fault properties, such as breakthrough pressures and strength. The effects of the residual uncertainties will be quantified by sensitivity studies, and tested by comparing known and predicted hydrocarbon distributions in mature provinces.

Description of project
The core of the project is the development, implementation and validation of a method for modelling hydrocarbon migration in faulted sequences with multiple carrier/reservoir units. The method will be unique in properly including the effects of fault properties on migration.

The first stage of development will incorporate the effects of faults on migration in faulted single carrier unit systems, whether the faults are barriers to flow or are conduits for flow, by inclusion of fault properties, such as breakthrough pressures and strengths, in the modelling process. This stage, which extends the single carrier methodology defined and implemented in a previous EU project, will be tested on data from a number of regions within the EU where hydrocarbon migration is believed to have occurred within either a single or a dominant carrier unit. The second stage of development will extend the modelling capability to multiple carrier units, taking account of the transfer of hydrocarbons between different carrier units along faults. This 3-D system will honour the tortuous flow paths occasioned by discontinuous fault systems, stratigraphic juxtapositions across faults and the property distributions on fault surfaces.

Parallel with these system developments will be work designed to improve a vital input to migration models, i.e. fault properties. Objective definition of the ranges of property parameters will be obtained from examination of published and unpublished empirical databases, numerical modelling of the faulting processes, outcrop studies and migration modelling.

Sensitivity of the migration modelling output to the uncertainties in model input parameters will be established by comparing results against known types and distributions of hydrocarbon in both mature and immature petroleum provinces. Detailed migration and sensitivity analyses will be carried out on a selection of datasets but will concentrate on two principal datasets, one for which single carrier migration modelling is appropriate and the second for which migration involved hydrocarbon transfer between carrier units.

Expected results
Enhancement of exploration capability in both mature and immature provinces due to introduction of the new migration modelling methodology, incorporated in software.

Improved knowledge of the flow and mechanical properties of faults.


Contact: Conrad Childs
Tel: +353 1 716 2608
Email