Duration - 01/01/2015 - 31/6/2018
Funding -A multi-company project brokered by ITF, Aberdeen
Co-ordinator - Fault Analysis Group, UCD
Research Partners
Basic Aims
Faults rarely comprise a single slip surface but instead are complex zones over a range of scales. This implies that across-fault juxtapositions derived from seismic data are inevitably wrong to some degree. Our previous work (within the QUAFF project) has demonstrated that this effect can be significant for faults on scales relevant to hydrocarbon trapping and reservoir production, and varies with geological setting. Earlier fault zone characterisation work has resulted in a comprehensive database of 2D fault zone structure from outcrop and seismic data, a library of 3D fault zone models generated numerically using different internal and external geometrical and mechanical boundaries, and a range of tools for applying the database to practical reservoir management issues. The objectives of the QUAFF2 project are to apply and develop upon this body of work by:
• Defining the best means of applying existing know-how in asset studies and within company workflows.
• Developing a set of fault zone modelling and up-scaling tools as commercial-quality software.
• Establishing a quantitative 3D description of fault zone structure through geometric, and where possible kinematic and dynamic, analysis of world-class seismically imaged, naturally exposed, actively quarried and numerically generated normal fault zones.
• Continuing to acquire and analyze outcrop-resolution, 3D datasets of the structure of massively photogenic reservoir scale normal fault zones (throws in the range 20-40m) from opencast sites.
• Investigating and illustrating the significance of 3D fault zone structure on reservoir-scale fluid flow, and by developing tools for its handling in reservoir modelling practice.
Contact: Conrad Childs
Tel: +353 1 716 2608
EMAIL
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