Burial Hydrodynamics and Subtle Hydrocarbon Trap Evaluation: From the Mahakam Delta to the South Caspian Sea

The numerous highly accurate wire line pressure measurements taken in exploration and appraisal wells drilled in the<br>Offshore Mahakam Delta PSC area during 1982 – 1991, combined with carefully calibrated shale pore pressure estimates and<br>a vastly improved understanding of the stratigraphy, sedimentology and tectonic evolution of the Kutei basin (East<br>Kalimantan, Indonesia), have allowed to propose a subtle trapping model that we call “Burial Hydrodynamic trapping”. Water<br>expelled by the very thick shale dominated sedimentary pile as it is rapidly buried, is drained laterally along higher<br>permeability deltaic strata and causes hydrocarbon water contacts to be tilted, thereby offsetting the core of the accumulations<br>from the anticlinal crests.