Integrated Geomechanical Reservoir Characterization
Approach to Study
Migration
and Accumulation of Hydrocarbons within Llanos
Basin, Colombia
Baranova, Valentina 1; Mustaqeem, Azer 1;
Brouwer, Friso 2; Connolly, David 2
(1)Petro-Explorers
Inc., Calgary, AB, Canada. (2) dGB Earth Sciences, Sugar Land, TX.
Llanos basin of Colombia has recently became focus of extensive
exploration due to its high resource potential. The basin itself has
experienced multiple stages of trap development and failures as well as
re-migration
of fluids which makes it quite unpredictable. Many areas such as
Rubiales field need long
migration
pathways to trap commercial quantities of
hydrocarbons (HCs). Stress directions and high porosity systems provide permeability
conduits for these migrations and accumulations to happen.
The study investigates relationship between stress field and
hydrocarbon migration
and entrapment. HC
migration
has always been difficult to
understand due to geological gaps in stratigraphic column and multiple stages
of consequent tectonic events which are responsible for HC expulsion. To
improve our understanding various new methods are used in the study including
gas chimney analysis, paleo-stress effects and trap seal analysis.
Geomechanical reservoir characterization is a relatively new
field. More recently, geomechanics is being used to find the best way to frac
the subsurface to produce oil and gas (shales, CBM, tight sand, etc.). While
the geomechanical correlation to permeability and porosity is established
through above studies, it can also be applied to a more regional model to
establish the migration
pathways and movement of fluids through permeable
systems within the sediments.
Neural network based chimney cube and fault seal analysis are
application of supervised Neural Networks. These technologies are applied to
various seismic data sets in the Llanos Basin to better understand the regional
stress field and impacts for lateral and vertical HC migration
through carrier
beds, fracture systems and gas chimneys.
In this study we have integrated the geo-tectonics, in-situ stress
analysis, analysis of hydrocarbon chimneys, and seismic fault-seal analysis.
The data included in the analysis is the geology/geophysics of the region, earthquake
data, seismic and gravity.
This study provides a non-conventional to focus exploration to portion of a basin with highest possibility of finding hydrocarbons.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90135©2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Milan, Italy, 23-26 October 2011.