Assessing Fault Seal and Oil Preservation Risks Due to Fault Reactivation in the Timor Sea With an Automated Conceptual Model

A conceptual model for risking trap integrity has been automated to derive a rapid, un-subjective, regional assessment of oil preservation. This methodology allows fast-tracking and high grading untested prospects for closer evaluation. Once validated such models can be easily applied to other suitable regions. A structural model has been proposed linking the magnitude of fault reactivation with the distributions of current and paleo-hydrocarbon accumulations in the Timor Sea, Australian North West Shelf. The model has been automated and applied to a regional 3250 km2 survey. The results find that the initial conceptual model is valid for all but one structure examined compared to the historical exploration success rate of 27%. The computational model was successful in identifying structures which have lost their entire hydrocarbon accumulation through fault seal breaching via reactivation, and in making reasonable approximations of the oil-water contacts in traps that have been protected from later tectonism and leakage. This model may be applied entirely or with modification in other regions adversely impacted by fault reactivation.