Print this pageQuantitative 
Model
for Basin Analysis and Its Application
to Northern North Sea Basin
Song Cao, Ian Lerche, Christopher G. St. C. Kendall
A new deterministic computer model, which handles one-dimensional compaction,
fracturing, overpressuring, cementation, dissolution, and fluid flow, has been
developed for petroleum explorationists to make quantitative studies of
sedimentary basins. The outputs of this model include burial history, thermal
history, hydrocarbon generation, and migration history. The model uses Darcy's
Law to handle fluid flow and its relationship to compaction, as well as the 1985
inverse model of Lerche et al for thermal indicators, and a modification of
Tissot's hydrocarbon generation model. The following results can be obtained
from the model: (1) amount of basin subsidence (sediment load and tectonic
effect); (2) determination of erosion thickness of an unconformity; (3) changes
of poro ity, permeability, fluid flow rate, and pore pressure with time and
depth; (4) heat flow history; (5) temperature change with time and depth; (6)
fracture timing in relation to hydrocarbon generation timing; (7) value of
thermal maturity indicators (such as vitrinite reflectance) that change with
time and depth; (8) hydrocarbon generation history, including time and depth of
peak hydrocarbon generation; and (9) prediction of possible direction of
hydrocarbon migration and accumulation.
The model can be applied to frontier basins, where only a few wells have been
drilled, and well-developed basins. The input data for the model
can be based
mainly on commonly used geological and geochemical data from one well from a
frontier basin or on similar data from many wells in a well-developed basin.
The results for the northern North Sea basin are based on data from more than 100 wells. We believe the results are helpful (1) for increasing our understanding of the integrated evolutionary picture of the northern North Sea basin, and (2) for providing a more reasoned exploration strategy in undeveloped and underdeveloped areas of the basin.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91043©1986 AAPG Annual Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, June 15-18, 1986.