- Home
- Conferences
- Conference Proceedings
- Conferences
73rd EAGE Conference and Exhibition - Workshops 2011
- Conference date: 23 May 2011 - 27 May 2011
- Location: Vienna, Austria
- ISBN: 978-90-73834-13-2
- Published: 27 May 2011
101 - 120 of 129 results
-
-
Applying DAMA to Subsurface Data - the Benefits and Potential Dangers
By Steve HawtinA recent study estimated1 that at least a quarter of the value generated in an oil company in a typical year can be directly attributed to subsurface data. So an initiative to improve data management is bound to be of interest. When that standardisation effort is achieving widespread acceptance in other industries it becomes even more important to understand how it relates to the way exploration and production (E&P) companies manage their data.
-
-
-
From Maps and Apps - GIS at your Fingertips
More LessThe use of spatial data is evolving rapidly. For a long time this was a profession being performed on High End analysis machines or available on stand alone terminals only. Since available via web, geodata is available to anyone. Nowadays they are standardized as WebServices and can be combined via MashUps to generate value-added products from a multitude of sources. Geodata can be stored where it originates or where it is processed. If time is mission-critical, this is a mayor advantage. Despite all this progress, it has to be noticed that GIS applications have in general remained map-centric. To actually generate value from this cost-intensive data, full-fledged integration into workflows and business processes is much wiser than just serving interfaces. This part of the workshop will highlight the technical challenges, methods to solve them and future application scenarios arising from this process oriented approach.
-
-
-
Enable a Model-Driven Semantic Approach to E and P Information Integration
By Perry KrolThe ever increasing requirements in E&P businesses for improved agility and faster response times to operational events are the main drivers for adding real-time integration capablities to the existing information and data management processes within the Oil and Gas industry. A key requirement of such initiatives is providing data integration across business domains of E&P’s value chain with improved data quality and data accessibility. Additional goals are to enable significant cost reduction across the software lifecycle (deployment to retirement), increase flexibility in support of organizational change and improve operational software functionality. This session will examine a solution architecture for an information and data management platform that is based on real-time SOA and Master Data Management technologies providing a model-driven semantic approach to information integration. The solution approach presented was originally developed for an initiative of a leading European Oil & Gas company and has been augmented with new capabilities that TIBCO acquired through recent acquisitions.
-
-
-
Data on Demand – what does the Future Hold for E and P?
By Janet HicksUsers and data managers are familiar with video on demand like Netflix and YouTube and audio on demand like Napster and Pandora. Automatic access to content is becoming the norm in our everyday lives. We are starting to see data on demand from vendors allowing companies to download what they need when they need it. Technologies and deployment methodologies,such as data hosting and cloud computing, will enable this type of service. But will these technologies be suitable for the E&P industry that routinely downloads large volumes of data? New technology offers the potential of quicker access to the data needed to make decisions, but introduces challenges for IT organizations. How are key vendors enabling automatic access to data they provide? How will companies control and manage the volumes and security aspects of enabling users to download data whenever they choose? Will the paradigm change from downloading data into a company environment to using the data in place at a vendor or hosted site? What will be required of technical applications to run in this environment? This paper will introduce key industry trends and discuss challenges and possible solutions to address data-on-demand services in the future.
-
-
-
A Post-drill Review of a Pre-drill Model: Structural Implications for the Romanian East Carpathians
Authors Stuart Bland, Gary Ingram and Mihaela GheorghiuThe Moinesti Production Block is situated in the Romanian East Carpathians - part of the Alpine system that formed in response to the Cenozoic Himalayan-Alpine orogen (see Figure 1 for location). The Carpathian fold-thrust belt verges eastward, overriding the Eastern European foreland block. During the Miocene a 4km deep foreland basin developed in response to tectonic compression, structural and sediment loading.
-
-
-
Lateral fold Growth and Linkage in the Zagros Fold and thrust Belt (Kurdistan, NE Iraq)
Authors Bernhard Bretis, Nikolaus Bartl and Bernhard GrasemannGeomorphology is an excellent tool to quantify the interactions between deformation, exhumation and erosion. Consequently, fold growth has been studied by means of tectonic geomorphology, resulting in a better understanding of the structural models of potential hydrocarbon reservoirs. The evolution and changes in drainage patterns, as well as the influence of fold growth on their appearance, provide evidence for the kinematics of folds and faults. This work investigates the development of fold trains along the front of the Zagros, northeast of the city of Erbil (Kurdistan, NE Iraq; Fig. 1). The major goal of this work was to use geomorphologic criteria to develop a detailed evolutionary model of lateral fold growth, with a special focus on the process of fold linkage.
-
-
-
Structural Evolution of the Northwestern Zagros, Kurdistan Region, Iraq and Alternative Models for Formation of a Curved Mountain Chain
Authors László Csontos, Ágoston Sasvári and Tamás Pocsai and László Kósaological mapping and structural observations both in the mountains (Mesozoic – Paleogene) and in the lowlands (Neogene) were carried out.
-
-
-
Using Quantitative Structural Data to Characterize Fractured and Faulted Dolomite Reservoir Rocks
Authors Kurt Decker and Roman SauerThe paper focuses on the lithology, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of fractured and faulted dolomite reservoir rocks. Analyses distinguish between the ‘fractured matrix’ of microfractured and jointed, but otherwise undeformed dolomite rock and ‘faults’ with cataclastic fault rock and damage zones at the transition to the undeformed wall rock. Outcrop and core data characterize the fractured matrix as a low- to medium-porosity, generally low-permeability reservoir. Faults lead to the compartmentalization of the ‘fractured matrix’ into fault delimited volumes, which are isolated from adjacent compartments by fault rocks (Fig. 1). The hydrodynamic properties of these fault rocks (leaking vs. sealing) are therefore of major importance governing the interaction of the compartments. Analyses reveal a complex fault model with high-porosity/very low-permeability cataclastic fault cores and high-porosity/high-permeability damage zones. The latter act as preferred fault-parallel fluid pathways. Low-permeabilty fault cores, on the other hand, tend to restrict the flow between the adjacent compartments of fractured matrix. The lithological properties, structural characteristics and the porosity/permeability of both sub-systems, fractured matrix and faults, are combined into a conceptual reservoir model. According to this model, fault-delimited compartments of fractured matrix are connected to each other via intersecting damage zones of cross-cutting faults, which allow surpassing the low-permeabilty fault cores between the compartments. 3D-networks of intersecting faults may therefore act as preferred and effective drainages of the fractured matrix.
-
-
-
Quantifying Porosity and Calculating Permeability in Reservoir Rocks of the Vienna Basin
The pre-Neogene basement of the Vienna Basin comprises, among others, the late Triassic Hauptdolomit, which serves as a gas reservoir below the Neogene silicilastic sediments. Both Alpine nappe stacking and the formation of the pull-apart basin in the Miocene affected this rock after its deposition. This polyphase deformation resulted in the generation of a dense fracture network, present from nano-scale (microfractures) to map-scale (thrusts and strike-slip faults). The assessment of petrophysical properties, especially porosity and permeability, is, however, a non-trivial task in this kind of fractured reservoir. Clearly, the scale of observation of well logging, even for advanced techniques like Formation Micro Imager (FMI) logging, does not cover the whole range of relevant fracture distribution. In particular, fractures of only a few micrometers width may contribute significantly to the fracture volume (and therefore to the reservoir storage capacity), as they are in many cases closely spaced (some few millimetres) and intersect in a dense fracture network.
-
-
-
Using Observed Fold Spacing and Models to Constrain the Dynamics and Rheology of the Zagros Mountains.
More LessFold belts are generally considered as the result of thrusting and folding of a sedimentary cover over a weak décollement layer. As the resulting anticlines are typically spaced in a fairly regular manner, it is tempting to use this spacing along with other geological constraints to obtain insights in the dynamics and rheology of the crust on geological time scales. Here we use the Zagros Mountains as a case study as it is one of the most spectacular, well-studied thin-skinned fold-and-thrust belts in the world (e.g., Stocklin 1968; Mouthereau et al., 2007). Geologically, the Zagros consists of crustal-scale folds with an average spacing of around 14 km, which have been formed in around 5.5 Myrs.
-
-
-
Passive Margin Architecture of the South Atlantic Basin
Authors Hermann Lebit and Luke JensenMarine fold-and-thrust complexes form extensive belts along ocean basin slopes, and are associated with prolific hydrocarbon provinces particularly in the Atlantic Basin, including the Gulf of Mexico (figure 1). These systems have common boundary conditions as they are located along passive continental margins sometimes with syn/post-rift evaporites followed by Cretaceous to recent, predominately siliciclastic sequences which locally comprise the largest delta systems on Earth. Postrift tectonic stresses are considered insignificant at passive margins if it is assumed that the underlying oceanic and stretched continental lithosphere have mechanically and thermally re-equilibrated since the onset of seafloor spreading. Therefore the rate of sediment deposition appears to provide the major driving forces that control the post-rift shelf to basin architecture.
-
-
-
Structural Models for a Complex Carbonate Reservoir - The Strasshof Tief Field
Authors Klaus Pelz, Gerhard Arzmüller, Philipp Strauss and Roman SauerHydrocarbon exploration and production in the Vienna Basin commenced in the 20ies of the past century and reached a first technological peak when targeting for deep seated reservoirs in the basin floor of the Central Vienna Basin throughout the 60ies and 70ies. Following numerous relief discoveries (along the basin floor /-fill interface), e.g. Aderklaa 1958, Schönkirchen-Prottes Tief 1962-64, Reyersdorf 1967, the subsequent exploration focus evolved towards plays inside the submerged Northern Calcareous Alps thrust belt (NCA), culminating in the discovery and successful appraisal of the Schönkirchen Übertief sour gas field 1967 (700 bcf IGIP). These campaigns were virtually model driven, predominantly based on outcrop analogs but also involved gravimetry, well data and sparse 2D vintages.
-
-
-
Effect of Strike-slip zones on Hydrocarbon Prospectivity in the Sulaiman Fold-belt and Middle Indus Basin, Pakistan
Authors Herwig Peresson, Ibrahim Muhammad and Farrukh Daudrmation. The lack of significant surface thrust faults gave rise to two tectonic models for the SFB. The ‘passive roof complex’ model (Banks & Warburton, 1986; Jadoon et al., 1994) proposes deepseated, blind thrust faults which form buried, SE-verging stacked duplexes above a Precambrian salt layer defining the principle detachment horizon. Above these stacked duplexes, the Sembar/Goru shales detach the Cretaceous and younger strata along a passive roof thrust and allow the shallower units to deform independently in a thin-skinned manner. The ‘thick skinned’ model (Coward, 1994) assumes reactivated former rift or basement faults as main principal deformation style in the SFB. These high-angle inverted faults at depth have transferred displacement up-section into folds and lower angle fault systems with minor displacement. This study concludes that the ‘thick-skinned’ model is a much better solution. The importance of strike-slip tectonics and the influence on hydrocarbon prospectivity will be highlighted and we show that the eastern SFB is dominated by a huge, wrench related flower structure.
-
-
-
Evidence of Hydrocarbon Seepage Using Multispectral Satellite Imagery, Kurdistan, Iraq
Authors Sandra L. Perry, Fred A. Kruse and Chris CarlstonThe petroleum system in northern Iraq has reached a maximum expulsion phase, characterized by tectonic uplift, beveled fold and thrust structures, and active surface oil seeps. While conducting photogeologic interpretation in the region, it was observed that well exposed dip slopes exhibit spectral changes along strike, especially notable along producing antiforms near Kirkuk, Irbil, and Mosul. Proposed altered outcrops include clastic and carbonate composition, as modeled from Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) and ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) multispectral bands. The spatial pattern of alteration does not appear to reflect lithology but is closely coincident with structure, manifested along thrusted fold fronts and eroded symmetric folds. In addition, many altered exposures correspond with known oil seeps, sour (sulfurous) water locations, and bituminous sites identified throughout the region. Predicting and mapping rock and soil alteration from satellite imagery is an accepted practice for mineral exploration, where heat and chemical changes from intrusions alter country rocks in phases that can be spectrally characterized and associated with ore. Geochemical alteration is noted in rocks associated with hydrocarbon microseepage and changing pH, but few investigations document this approach. It is proposed that hydrocarbon migration has altered surface rocks in Kurdistan as evidenced by digital image analysis of Landsat and ASTER satellite imagery. Spectral measurements of hand samples collected within suspect terrain show strong indicators of alteration mineralogy from exposed upper and lower Fars formation. While still preliminary, the mineral jarosite appears ubiquitous in hand samples tested so far suggesting acidic, sulfate-rich surface conditions not normally associated with lithology of the region. Research is on-going and will focus on further analytical testing of both altered and unaltered exposures as well as spectral characterization and mapping using multispectral, orbiting sensors. In addition, satellite imagery proved successful for enhancing oil films on the Tigris River reservoir and in identifying active sulfurous drainage. Satellite image analysis is shown to be a key exploration tool for this geologically complex and rugged terrain.
-
-
-
Quantitative Structural Analysis using Remote Sensing Data (Kurdistan, NE Iraq)
Authors Daniel Reif, Bernhard Grasemann and Robert FaberWith the increasing quality and resolution of digital elevation models (DEM) and with the enormous advantage of the almost global coverage and free availability of such data, mapping of threedimensional information from true-to-scale, three-dimensional images provides an efficient and accurate alternative to stereoscopic mapping using aerial photographs and satellite images. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the integration of regional to outcrop digital data can be used to visualize three-dimensional multi-scale structural geological models. Following these ideas, we present here a practical application of a newly developed add-on tool (PlaneTrace) for the software WinGeol. This allows interactive mapping, visualization and calculation of the spatial orientations of planar surfaces from digital elevation models. The strength of this tool is that the geological feature is traced by a virtual transparent plane, which allows visual approximation of the planar structure. The accuracy of the PlaneTrace tool has been tested in the Zagros fold-and-thrust belt (Kurdistan, NE Iraq) by comparing computed bedding orientation with field data.
-
-
-
A Discovery in the Bolivian Fold-and-Thrust Belt: a Classical Integrated Approach is far more Important than Cutting-edge Methods, but…
An exploration case study in the Bolivian sub-andean FTB is shown as an example of an integrated geological approach from a regional study to block selection, exploration and successful drilling. In a tectonic wedge setting where in- and out-of-sequence folding and thrusting have shaped the Devonian Sandstone traps between several efficient detachment levels, structural geology is fundamental. Even more, as seismic data is of very poor quality. The multi-disciplinary regional approach involved a full review of the play (reservoir facies, age and paleogeography, petroleum system evaluation and post-mortem analysis) and cross-section building and balancing, based on a full dataset and revised geological maps (remote sensing and fieldwork data). Two extreme consistent structural hypotheses bearing strong implication on prospectivity have been tested as surface data don’t reflect the complexity at depth.
-
-
-
Folds and Mud Diapirs in the South Caspian Basin: Implementing the Analysis of Detachment Folds in 3D
More LessThe Caspian Sea is a Neogene basin associated with the Alpine-Himalayan collision and has one of the major sedimentary accumulations in the world. This basin has an important oil and gas production with proven oil reserves greater than 20 billion of oil equivalent barrels. The South Caspian Basin in particular, comprises a thick (~ 10 km), fluvio-deltaic sequence, the Productive Series, deposited during the Late Miocene to Late Pliocene (~6-3 Ma) over a rapidly subsiding crust of probable oceanic nature (Fig. 1). Numerous detachment folds cored by overpressured, organic-rich muds derived from the marine source rock of the Maykop Series (Oligocene to Early Miocene) affect the uppermost sedimentary cover. The tectonic evolution of the South Caspian Basin triggered mud migration of the Maykop Series trapping oil and gas in anticlines structures. Major reservoirs are concentrated there in the Productive Series and the stratigraphic seal is a Late Pliocene unconformity (~3 Ma) overlaid by the Akchagyl, Apsheron and Gelasian series. Mud migration generates diapir structures as well as the famous mud volcanoes seen on the seafloor.
-
-
-
3D Fold Pattern Formation
Authors Daniel W. Schmid, Marcin Dabrowski and Marcin KrotkiewskiFolds on all scales from millimeters to kilometers can be the result of the mechanical instability that arises when a mechanically stratified system is subjected to layer-parallel compression. While the resulting fold patterns are three dimensional, their geometries are often simplified by assuming that there is no shape variation in the third dimension. This facilitates the analysis and has resulted in a large number of studies that investigate the folding instability for a variety of rheologies: viscous, power-law, and anisotropic. Studies of three dimensional folding have mostly focused on analog models and geometric models. The latter led to the development of fold shape classification tools; in particular fold interference pattern classification (e.g., Grasemann et al. 2004, Odriscoll 1962, Ramsay 1967, Thiessen and Means 1980) and geometrical analysis based on differential geometry geometry (e.g., Lisle and Toimil 2007, Mynatt et al. 2007). The theoretical aspects of the mechanics of folding in three dimensional geological systems are only analyzed by in a few papers; Fletcher (1991, 1995), Ghosh (1970), Kaus and Schmalholz (2006), Mühlhaus (1998), and Schmid et al. (2008). The target of this paper is to study is the evolution of fold patterns that emerge out of randomly perturbed layers for different loading conditions. In order to be able to statistically analyze such systems where many folds interact, a large number of folds is required and consequently large numerical resolutions (in the order of 100’000’000 unknowns). We describe the developed numerical model and analyze the fold patterns using differential geometry. The obtained results indicate that the (Gaussian curvature based) aspect ratio of folds in map view may be used to infer the relative strength of the two principal in-plane loads.
-
-
-
How Newly Formed Strike-slip Faults differ from Reactivated ones in a Fold-thrust belt, Mackenzie Delta
More LessThe Brooks Range is located in northern Alaska and adjacent Canada. Near the Mackenzie delta it terminates against the Canadian Shield in the east. Locally, Early Cretaceous rifting of the Canada Basin was superseded by various stages of advancement of the Brooks Range throughout the Tertiary. The Mackenzie River drained a large portion of the North American continent and deposited thick deltaic sequences particularly in the Paleogene. There is a good database consisting of many wells, 2D-seismic lines of various vintages, and many 3D-seismic cubes from the 2000’s that allows deciphering the structural evolution of the area. The geometric relationships of anticlines, thrusts, normal faults, and strike-slip faults to each other follow the generally accepted models very closely, despite local stress rotations. Steep faults trending in strike-slip direction, i.e. at a 60 deg angle to the anticlinal axis, are usually interpreted as normal faults, but in some cases the predicted strike-slip component can be verified and quantified by offset channels on time slices, horizon slices, and sometimes even on carefully crafted maps. Such strikeslip faults are commonly short and straight. In areas where the thick Paleogene deltaic sedimentary sequences collapsed or near the Early Cretaceous rift faults, however, younger strike-slip faults tended to reactivate the pre-existing normal faults. Such reactivated faults do not follow the predicted directions very closely; in some cases, leftlateral and right-lateral fault trends are separated by less than 5 deg. They tend to be longer than their newly developed counterparts and not as straight. Releasing and restraining bends are common, some of them beautifully imaged on time slices. Despite all these complexities, reactivated strike-slip faults in this mud-dominated stratigraphy seem simpler than many reactivated fault systems in better lithified rocks.
-
-
-
Petro-elastic and Lithology-fluid Inversion from Seismic Data – State-of-the-art and New Opportunities
Authors Per Avseth and Kjartan RimstadDuring the last couple of decades, there have been great advances in seismic inversion and lithology/fluid prediction. In the last few years, we have seen breakthroughs in integration of seismic methods, rock physics, spatial statistics and reservoir geology, allowing for more robust and realistic predictions of reservoir parameters from seismic data. The greatest advances have been made in academia and at research centers; now is the time to implement recent technologies into the workflows of the oil industry, in order to reduce exploration risk in frontier areas and boost oil recovery in existing fields. In this presentation, we give an overview of major breakthroughs in the last decade, and we suggest further extensions on how to integrate seismic inversion, rock physics, spatial statistics and geological knowledge during seismic reservoir prediction. In particular, we demonstrate that the uncertainties in lithology/fluids predictions can be reduced if geological trends are included as constraints in the inversion model. The lithology/fluid classification is constrained by depth trends and a Markov random field prior model for spatial coupling of the discrete lithology/fluids classes. A Bayesian method then combines seismic data, well observations, and prior information to predict lithology/fluid classes with associated uncertainties. The inversion approach is evaluated on a real case from the North Sea. The prior Markov random field makes it possible to identify complex structures in the lithology/fluid characteristics, by improving spatial continuity laterally. Furthermore, the posterior estimates of lithologies and fluids are used to constrain the estimation of continuous reservoir parameters like porosity. By honoring spatial continuity and vertical transitions in lithologies and fluids, we obtain sharper porosity sections and unravel details in the data not detectable from more conventional inversion algorithms. Our results also show better match with well log porosities than direct estimates of porosities from elastic parameters.
-