Regional assessment of sealing faults through pore-pressure analysis in the northern atlantic

Regional analysis of pore-pressure data, obtained from weIl and wireline tests, can reveal the presence of sealing faults. In mature areas such studies should represent a first step in the assessment of the remaining hydrocarbon potential tied to sealing-fault traps (traps in which part of the closure is due to sealing faults). Such an approach was tested in the mature hydrocarbon province of the northern Adriatic. The first wells drilled there in the early sixties revealed the presence of important gas fields. Subsequently many hundreds of wells have been drilled to find and develop hydrocarbon accumulations.