Limitations of Seismic Pore Pressure Prediction - What Is the Alternative?

Pore pressure prediction is becoming even more critical to successful drilling as conditions for exploration and exploitation of oil and gas reserves move into more hostile environments. Rock property relationships (including seismic interval velocity) tend to under-predict pore pressures when temperatures exceed about 120oC. Understanding of the geological setting (tectonic stress history) and lithology control on pressure mechanisms provides the basis for a geology-model based approach, which can yield more realistic predictions in these high-temperature settings.