Chapter from:
AAPG Memoir 70: Abnormal Pressures in Hydrocarbon Environments
Edited by B.E. Law, G.F. Ulmishek, and V.I. Slavin
Copyright ©1998 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights
reserved.
Memoir 70, Chapter 6: Abnormally High Formation
Pressures: Origin, Prediction, Hydrocarbon Field Development, and Ecological Problems, by V.I. Slavin andE.M.
Smirnova, Pages 105 - 114
Chapter 6
Abnormally High
Formation Pressures: Origin, Prediction, Hydrocarbon Field Development, and Ecological
Problems
V.I. Slavin1
E.M. Smirnova
VNIGRI, St. Petersburg, Russia
1Present Affiliation: Consulting
Petroleum Geologist, Berlin, Germany
Abstract
Exploration for and the development of oil and gas fields in zones of abnormally
high formation pressures (AHFP) require a good understanding of the origin of AHFP and the
development of predictive methods. We classify the causes of AHFP into two genetic groups:
(1) a syn-sedimentary group characterized by undercompaction of rocks and (2) a
post-sedimentary group characterized by secondary decompaction of rocks. The choice of
methods for the prediction and evaluation of AHFP should be based on the origin of
abnormal pressure and the lithology of the rocks. The reservoir properties of rocks in
AHFP zones suggest that large, in-place resources of hydrocarbons may be present in
complex low-permeability clastic and carbonate reservoirs despite low rates of production.
