About This Item
- Full TextFull Text(subscription required)
- Pay-Per-View PurchasePay-Per-View
Purchase Options Explain
Share This Item
The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
AAPG Bulletin, V.
2014. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1306/03131413104
Can polygonal faults help locate deep-water reservoirs?
Christopher A.-L. Jackson,1 Daniel T. Carruthers,2 Seshane N. Mahlo,3 and Omieari Briggs4
1
Basins Research Group (BRG), Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2BP; [email protected]
2
Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; [email protected]
3
Basins Research Group (BRG), Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2BP; [email protected]; present address: Statoil ASA, Sandsliveien 90, 5020 Bergen, Norway
4
Basins Research Group (BRG), Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2BP; [email protected]; present address: ROXAR AS, Gamle Forusveian 17, 4033 Stavanger, Norway.
ABSTRACT
Polygonal faults are compaction-related normal faults that develop in very fine-grained sedimentary successions. Despite their ubiquity, few studies have highlighted the application of polygonal fault mapping to identifying deep-water sandstone reservoirs. We use three-dimensional seismic and borehole data from the Måløy slope, offshore Norway to demonstrate that the distribution, cross
-sectional geometry, and throw characteristics of polygonal faults can be used to locate deep-water sandstone reservoirs. We identify two tiers of polygonal faults in the Cretaceous to lower Paleogene succession. The lowermost tier is stratigraphically restricted to the lower Barremian-to-lowermost Turonian succession and likely formed during the early Turonian. The uppermost tier spans the entire Cretaceous succession and likely formed during the Maastrichtian. An abrupt decrease in the thickness of the upper tier occurs where a 92-m (302-ft) thick, sandstone-rich slope fan is developed in the upper Turonian interval. Furthermore, the lower tips of faults in the upper tier, which are defined by anomalously high throw gradients, cluster at the top of the sandstone, resulting in decoupling of this tier from the underlying, lower Turonian tier. We interpret that faults in the upper tier nucleated above the reservoir across the entire slope and that the slope-fan sandstone acted as a mechanical barrier to downward fault propagation, resulting in abrupt thinning of the tier at the sandstone pinchout. We demonstrate polygonal faults are not simply an academic curiosity; mapping of these enigmatic structures can have practical applications for the delineation of a variety of reservoir types in hydrocarbon-bearing sedimentary basins worldwide.
Pay-Per-View Purchase Options
The article is available through a document delivery service. Explain these Purchase Options.
Watermarked PDF Document: $14 | |
Open PDF Document: $24 |
AAPG Member?
Please login with your Member username and password.
Members of AAPG receive access to the full AAPG Bulletin Archives as part of their membership. For more information, contact the AAPG Membership Department at [email protected].