PETROLEUM GEOLOGY/Overview 229

PETROLEUM GEOLOGY
Contents Overview Chemical and Physical Properties Gas Hydrates The Petroleum System Exploration Production Reserves Earths surface unless movement is arrested by a seal. Seals tend to be fine-grained or crystalline, low-permeability rocks, such as mudstone/shale, cemented limestones, cherts, anhydrite, and salt (halite). Seals can also develop along fault planes, faulted zones, and fractures. The presence of seals is critical for the development of petroleum pools. In the absence of seals, petroleum will rise to the Earths surface and be destroyed. Although seals are critical for the development of petroleum pools, none are perfect. All leak. Combinations of regionally extensive seals and underlying reservoir complexes are commonly referred to as plays, and the areas within which the quality of seals and reservoirs is such that petroleum accumulations could occur (given an appropriate trapping configuration) are commonly referred to as play fairways. The most common subdivision of seals distinguishes between seals in which petroleum is unable to force its way through the largest pores (membrane seals) and seals in which petroleum can escape only by creating fractures (hydraulic seals). Attributes which favour a rock as a seal include a small pore size, high ductility, large thickness, and wide lateral extent. The physical properties of the water and petroleum are also important. Water salinity, petroleum density, and interfacial tension between petroleum and water are the most important, and these properties will change according to changing pressure and temperature conditions. The most common lithology that forms a petroleum seal is mudrock. Mudrocks are composed of either carbonate or siliciclastic minerals (or both), and mudrock sequences are often thick (>50 m) and laterally continuous (>1.0 km2). Examples of mudrock seals are found in all deltaic settings (including the Gulf of Mexico, Niger, and Nile Delta petroleum

Overview
J Gluyas, Acorn Oil and Gas Ltd., Staines, UK
2005, Elsevier Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction
Petroleum geoscience is defined as the disciplines of geology and geophysics applied to the understanding of the origin, distribution, and properties of petroleum and petroleum-bearing rocks. Petroleum geoscience can be described as the study and understanding of five key components: source, seal, trap, reservoir, and timing (of petroleum migration). These are sometimes known as the magic five ingredients without which a basin cannot become a petroleum province (Figure 1). This article examines each of these components.

Source Rock
Petroleum (oil and gas) forms from organic matter: dead plants and animals. Burial, and thus heating of such organic matter induces reactions leading to the generation of gas, then oil and gas, and, finally, gas alone as the temperature and residence time at high temperature increase. Continued burial and heating turn the residual organic matter into pyrobitumen and eventually into graphite (see Petroleum Geology: The Petroleum System).

Seal
Oil and gas are less dense than water and, following expulsion from the source rock, they rise towards the

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Figure 1 Diagram of a cross-section of a petroleum-bearing basin, illustrating the five key components: source rock, seal, reservoir, trap, and petroleum migration. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

provinces) and many interior, rift, and passive continental margin basins (including north-west Australian shelf, north-west Europe, North Sea, and south-east Asia). Halite can form a more effective seal, but is a relatively rare lithology found only where conditions of high evaporation of seawater have taken place. The Upper Permian rocks of north-west Europe contain Zechstein halite that is known to have trapped gas for long periods of geological time. Halite forms part of the sealing lithology in many of the large Middle East petroleum accumulations.
Membrane Seal

When petroleum is trapped beneath a seal, there is a buoyancy pressure (Pb). The magnitude of the buoyancy pressure is a function of the contrast in density between the water (rw) and petroleum (rp), and its height (h) above the free water level where both are in equilibrium (normally close to the petroleumwater contact). The relationship can be written as Pb rw rp h where Pb is expressed in units of pressure (e.g., bar, psi, MPa) and the fluid densities are expressed as pressure gradients (e.g., bar m1, psi ft1, Pa m1) (Figure 2). The maximum petroleum column is

Figure 2 A pressure vs. depth plot, illustrating a typical water gradient (aquifer) supporting a petroleum column, whose steeper gradients lead to a pressure difference (Pb) at its maximum beneath the seal. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

controlled by the capillary entry pressure of the petroleum into the largest pores in the seal. The capillary entry pressure (Pd) of a water-wet rock is given by the equation

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Figure 3 A schematic illustration of a pore throat between two grains. The radius of the pore throat and the buoyancy pressure, plus the interfacial angle and surface tension between oil and water, determine whether oil can migrate through the pore throat or remain trapped beneath. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

Pd 2g cos y=R where g is the interfacial tension between the water and the petroleum, y is the contact angle, and R is the radius of the largest pore (Figure 3). The interfacial tension and contact angle change with increasing temperature and pressure and are related to fluid type and density. These properties are routinely established from laboratory experiments on rocks. The seal capacity determines the height of a petroleum column that can be trapped beneath it, and the seal will be breached when the buoyancy pressure (Pb) exceeds the seal capillary entry pressure (Pd).
Hydraulic Seal

When the capillary entry pressure of the rock is extremely high, for example in evaporites, the failure of the seal is controlled by the strength of the rock that, if exceeded, creates natural tension fractures (see Tectonics: Faults; Fractures (Including Joints)). The rock will fracture when the pore pressure is greater than both the minimum stress and the tensile strength of the rock. Structural geologists describe the stresses in rock in terms of three orthogonal components of stress (Figure 4), one oriented vertically (Sv) and the other two oriented horizontally (Shmin and Shmax). In relaxed sedimentary rocks found in an extensional basin or a young delta, Sv is usually greater than both Shmin and Shmax, and so the minimum stress (s3) is horizontal. Under these conditions, the rock will fracture by creating vertically oriented fractures which will propagate horizontally. In rocks under horizontal push, or compression, the vertical stress (Sv) is the minimum stress (s3), and the rock will fail by the opening of horizontal fractures.

Figure 4 The relative magnitudes of the three principal stresses, one vertical (v) and two horizontal (H, h), acting in a rock mass, and the associated direction of shear, for normal strike-slip and reverse faulting regimes. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

Fault

Faults can act as both conduits (migration pathways) and seals, depending on the hydraulic conditions, the rock properties of the faults, and the properties of the

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rocks juxtaposed across the faults. The consideration of faults as seals follows the same reasoning as for cap-rock seals above, i.e. the sealing capacity of a fault relates to its membrane strength and hydraulic strength. Membrane fault seals fail when the pressure of the petroleum can exceed the entry pressure of the largest pores along the fault plane. Hydraulic fault seals fail when the fault is opened mechanically by high pore pressure which exceeds the minimum stress.

Reservoir
For a rock to be a petroleum reservoir, it need only be porous, i.e., capable of holding petroleum, and permeable, i.e., able to flow petroleum.
Intrinsic Properties

Net to gross Net to gross is a measure of the potentially productive part of a reservoir, commonly expressed as the percentage of producible (net) reservoir within the overall (gross) reservoir package (Figure 5). The percentage net reservoir can vary from just a few per cent to 100%. Net pay is used to describe the petroleum-bearing net reservoir. It is common to define net sand (or limestone) using a permeability cut-off (typically 1 mD for gas and 10 mD for light oil). Such information on permeability is only available when the reservoir has been cored or a petroleum flow test completed. For uncored intervals and uncored wells, a combination of data on lithology and porosity from wireline logs is used. These data are calibrated to permeability data in a cored interval (see Petroleum Geology: Exploration). Porosity Porosity is the void space in a rock (Figure 6). It is commonly measured as a volume percentage (see Sedimentary Rocks: Sandstones, Diagenesis and Porosity Evolution). In the subsurface, this volume may be filled with petroleum, water, a range of non-hydrocarbon gases (CO2, H2S, N2), or some combination of these. Most reservoirs have porosities in the range 2030%. Not all pores are alike; there are big pores and little pores, pores with simple shapes, and others with highly complex three-dimensional morphologies. A knowledge of the size and shape of the pores and the way in which they are interconnected is

The following properties must be known or estimated in order for the petroleum volume to be calculated. 1. 2. 3. 4. Net to gross. Porosity. Permeability. Petroleum saturation.

The question regarding whether any discovered petroleum will flow from its reservoir into the well bore is only partially addressed in exploration. This is commonly because permeability estimations are rarely accurate.

Figure 5 Net to gross is the ratio between reservoir rock capable of flowing petroleum and the gross reservoir interval. It is commonly defined using a single permeability cut-off. The example here is a Jurassic oil-bearing sandstone from the North Sea. Thirty metres of sandstone was cut in one core, but only 19 m had a permeability greater than the 10 mD cut-off chosen, a net to gross of 63%. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

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Figure 6 Scanning electron photomicrograph of a porous (28%) and permeable (2200 mD) Permian, Rotliegend reservoir sandstone, southern North Sea. Field of view, 2.7 mm 1.8 mm. Photograph by A. J. Leonard, reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

important, because it is these factors that determine the permeability of the rock. For sands and sandstones, a threefold description of porosity is used: intergranular, intragranular, and microporosity (Figure 7). Intergranular porosity occurs between grains. Individual pores in clean sand will occupy approximately 40% of the total volume. For coarse sands, the pores are larger than in fine sands. In most sandstones, the intergranular porosity is primary, a residuum of that imparted at deposition. Some intergranular porosity may be created in sandstones by the dissolution of mineral cements. Most intragranular porosity is secondary in origin, created on partial dissolution of grains. Microporosity simply means small pores, those associated with depositional or diagenetic clay or other microcrystalline cements. Porosity development in limestones and dolomites is much more variable than that for sandstones. Both rock types are much more prone to mineral dissolution and precipitation than sandstones. This, coupled with the often varied suite of shell and other bioclastic material in the carbonates, makes for a wealth of pore types (Figure 8): intergranular, intragranular, intercrystalline, intracrystalline, biomouldic, vuggy, fracture, cavernous. The size range for pores is also much greater for limestones than for sandstones: from micropores (a few micrometres) in individual oolite grains to giant cave systems. Permeability Permeability is an intrinsic property of a material that determines how easily a fluid can pass through it. In the petroleum industry, the darcy (D) is

Figure 7 Porosity in sandstones. (A) Intergranular porosity (arrowed) between quartz grains with quartz overgrowths, Jurassic Brent sandstone, northern North Sea. Field of view, 1.3 mm 0.9 mm. (B) Intragranular porosity within partially dissolved feldspar, Permian Rotliegend sandstone, southern North Sea. Field of view, 650 mm 450 mm. (C) Microporosity (arrowed) between illitized kaolinite plates, Jurassic Brent sandstone, northern North Sea. Photographs by J. G. Gluyas.

the standard unit of permeability, but millidarcies (mD) (1 mD 103 D) are more commonly used. A darcy is defined as a flow rate of 102 m s1 for a fluid of 1 cP (centipoise) under a pressure of 104 atm m2. Permeability in reservoir rocks may range from 0.1 mD to more than 10 D. Permeability

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Figure 8 Porosity systems in carbonate reservoirs. (A) Intergranular porosity in limestone, beach rock, Bahamas. Reproduced from Bathurst RGC (1976) Carbonate Sediments and Their Diagenesis, Developments in Sedimentology 12. Oxford: Elsevier. (B) Intercrystalline porosity within dolomitized limestone, Permian Zechstein reservoir, southern North Sea, Dutch sector. Field of view, 3.25 mm 2.50 mm. Photograph by J. G. Gluyas. (C) Biomoldic porosity within algal and mollusc moulds, Pennsylvanian limestone, Texas. Field of view, 5 mm 4 mm. Reproduced with permission from Dickson JAD and Saller AH (1995) Identification of subaerial exposure surfaces and porosity preservation in Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian shelf limestones, eastern central Basin Platform, Texas. In: Budd DA, Saller AH, and Harris PM (eds.) Unconformities and Porosity in Carbonate Strata, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 63, pp. 239258. Tulsa, OK: American Association of Petroleum Geologists. (D) Vuggy, oil-stained porosity within Cretaceous Bangestan limestones, Zagros Mountains, Iran. Field of view, 10 cm 8 cm. Photograph by J. G. Gluyas.

measurements made at the Earths surface are commonly greater than those in the subsurface, and a pressure correction must be made to restore the value of permeability to reservoir conditions. This intrinsic rock property is called the absolute permeability when the rock is 100% saturated with one fluid phase. Water, oil, and gas saturation It is rare in nature to find a reservoir entirely oil (or gas) saturated. More commonly, the pore system contains both oil and water. The proportions of each phase are commonly expressed as percentages linked to the abbreviations: Sw for water, So for oil, and Sg for gas. Water and petroleum saturations are not constant across a reservoir. They vary in response to the position in the oil column, the permeability of the rock, and the mineralogy of the rock. Oil and water saturations will also change as petroleum is produced.
Reservoir Lithologies

in the Far East, western Canada, and some of the former Soviet states. Sandstones, limestones, and dolomites of any age can make fine reservoirs. However, most of the best reservoirs in the world are relatively young. Petroleum fields are more common in Cenozoic and Mesozoic sediments than in Palaeozoic reservoirs. Precambrian age reservoirs are rare. There is no intrinsic reason why old rocks are more or less likely to be reservoirs than younger ones; it is simply that older reservoirs have had greater chance to be involved in tectonism or cementation, so destroying their porosity or permeability. In addition to sandstone and limestone, fractured rock of any type can form a reservoir. The fractures alone may form the total pore volume of the reservoir. Alternatively, the fractures may help drain petroleum from the intervening lower permeability rock. Reservoir; sandstone depositional systems Sediments, including those which may one day form a petroleum reservoir; can accumulate in many environments on the Earths surface (see Sedimentary Environments: Depositional Systems and Facies). This includes sands deposited both on land and beneath the sea (Table 1). The overall architecture and internal

Sandstone and limestone (including dolomite) are the most common reservoir lithologies. Sandstones dominate as important reservoirs in the USA (including Alaska), South America, Europe, Russian Asia, north Africa, and Australia. Limestones form the dominant reservoirs in the Middle East. They are also important

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Table 1 Clastic reservoirs

Depositional system Architectural elements

Size range

Reservoir properties

Example oil/gas field(s) or province

Alluvial fan

Aeolian deposit Lake deposit Fluvial system

Low-angle half cones, linear and sheet sand bodies Dune, sand sheet Half cone (fan) Channel fill, crevasse splay

110 km diameter

Heterogeneous, poorly sorted

Quiriquire Field, Pliocene E. Venezuela, 750 mmbbl

100s km2

Few km diameter Channel belts 10s km few km, crevasse splay few km diameter Figure 9

Delta and coastline

Shallow marine

Channel mouthbar, shoreface, beach Shoreface to offshore sandstone bars Fan lobe, fan channel

Dune well-sorted porous sands high quality sandsheet moderate quality Poor to good, function of sediment input Channel fills in braided and meandering systems commonly good; braided net to gross > meandering net to gross Commonly good in reworked sandstones, variable net to gross Good to excellent, high net to gross

Permian Rotliegend, Europe; Jurassic Norphlet, US Gulf Coast Thailand & China Prudhoe Bay Field, Triassic Alaska, >10 bn bbl; Wytch Farm Field, Triassic UK onshore, 300 mmbbl

Figure 9

Deep marine

10 100s km long, 10s km across

Depends upon sediment source area

Niger Delta, W. Africa; Brent system, North Sea; Mahakan Delta, Indonesia; multiple billion barrels fields Shannon Sandstone, Cretaceous USA; Fulmar/Ula Sandstones, Jurassic UK and Norwegian North Sea; Toro Sandstone, Jurassic/Cretaceous Papua New Guinea Tertiary formations, North Sea; PlioPleistocene US Gulf Coast; Tertiary Congo Fan

bn bbl, billion barrels; mmbbl, million barrels.

geometry of the sand bodies (Figure 9) control the performance of a reservoir during petroleum production (see Petroleum Geology: Production). Reservoir; carbonate depositional systems Limestones and dolomites form some of the largest petroleum reservoirs in the world. Many of the largest occur in the Middle East. Other areas in which carbonate reservoirs deliver large quantities of oil and gas are western Canada, Mexico, Texas (USA), Norway (central North Sea), Poland, Kazakhstan, western and south-eastern China, Iran, and Libya. The sediment that forms most carbonate reservoirs accumulated in shallow marine environments (see Sedimentary Environments: Carbonate Shorelines and Shelves). The important exceptions are pelagic chalks (Ekofisk Complex of the North Sea) and deepwater resedimented carbonates of the Poza Rica Trend in Mexico. Like their clastic counterparts, there is a clear link between the reservoir potential of a carbonate body and the environment in which the host sediment accumulated. High-energy ooid and shell shoals can make excellent reservoirs. Framework reef complexes are also prime reservoir targets. However, unlike siliciclastics, carbonates can undergo almost complete transformation on weathering and/or diagenesis to

produce reservoirs from former seals and seals from former potential reservoirs. Dolomite (see Sedimentary Rocks: Dolomites) Producing dolomites range in age from Precambrian to Tertiary. It is estimated that about 80% of the recoverable petroleum in carbonate-hosted reservoirs of the USA occurs in dolomite and only about 20% in limestone. The same ratio probably applies to the producible reservoirs in the Permian Zechstein of Europe, whilst older carbonate plays in Europe and Russian Asia are almost wholly dolomite. The dolomitization of limestones commonly leads to an increase in both porosity and permeability (Figure 10). Karst (see Sedimentary Processes: Karst and Palaeokarst) Karstified limestones and dolomites represent the second major group of carbonate reservoirs not directly linked to depositional environments. Karst is a product of mineral dissolution (Figure 11). It develops where carbonates are exposed to meteoric water, often linked with episodes of sea-level fall. Karst features are well known to geologists and geographers alike: caves, collapse breccias, dissolutionenhanced joints and fractures, and vugs. Fields producing from karstified limestones and dolomites include the Liuhua Field in the South China

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Figure 9 The average size, shape, and location of sand bodies in wave, tidal, and fluvially influenced reservoirs. Reproduced from Reynolds AD (1994) Sequence stratigraphy and the dimensions of paralic sandstone bodies. In: Johnson SD (ed.) High Resolution Sequence Stratigraphy: Innovations and Applications, pp. 6972. Liverpool: Liverpool University.

Sea, the Permian reservoirs of Texas and New Mexico, and parts of the Upper Permian in the Zechstein Basin in Europe. Thermal karst, produced when hot fluids dissolve limestones at depth, may also become reservoirs. The Albion Scipio Field of Michigan is of this type.

Trap
Trap is the term to describe the body, bounded by seals and containing reservoir, in which petroleum can accumulate as it migrates from the source rock to the Earths surface. There are many different trap geometries. These can be grouped into three categories: structural, stratigraphical, and hydrodynamic (Table 2). Structural traps are created by tectonic, diapiric, compactional, and gravitational processes (Figure 12). Almost the entire worlds discovered petroleum is in traps that are largely structural. Stratigraphical traps are

Figure 10 A comparison of porosity and permeability for dolomitized and undolomitized oolite, Cretaceous Middle East. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

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formed by lithological variations or property variations generated by alteration of the sediment or fluid through diagenesis (Figure 13). Much of the worlds remaining undiscovered petroleum will be found in stratigraphical traps. Purely hydrodynamic traps are rare. Such traps rely on the flow of water through the reservoir horizon to drag the petroleum into a favourable trapping configuration, such as the plunging nose

of a fold. The trapping mechanism for many fields is commonly a combination of structural and stratigraphical elements or, more rarely, structural elements and hydrodynamic conditions.
Structural Trap

Figure 11 Tower karst containing fracture and cavernous porosity, Palaeozoic limestones, Zhaoquing, Guangdong Province, China. Photograph by J. G. Gluyas.

Compressive tectonic regimes commonly lead to the development of large-scale contractional folds and thrusts. This is common at convergent plate boundaries and transpressional strike-slip plate boundaries (wrench systems). The El-Furrial Trend of eastern Venezuela is an example of such a system. The anticlinal traps of the trend were developed during convergence of the Caribbean and South American plates during the Neogene. Many of the traps are large ramp anticlines (Figure 14). They have oil columns of, on average, 400 m and reservoirs formed from high net to gross shallow marine sandstones. In North America, thrust-linked rollover anticlines form the major trap type in the WyomingUtah thrust belt fields and the southern foothills of the Alberta Basin, Canada. Compressional anticlines also form giant traps within the Zagros fold belt of Iran. Traps formed by extensional tectonics are common in rift basins. The East Shetland Basin of both the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea contained about 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Much of this oil was trapped in tilted fault blocks formed during Late Jurassic rifting. In the pre-rift section, oil is reservoired in the sandstones of the Middle Jurassic Brent Group, together with other sandstones of both Jurassic and Triassic age (Figure 15). Traps formed through tectonic extension are also important in the Gulf of Suez, the Haltenbanken area, offshore midNorway, and in the pre-rift sections of the Gippsland Basin (Australia). Traps can also be formed by diapiric processes. The specific gravity of salt (halite) is about 2.2 g cm3 and that of fully consolidated rock is about 2.52.7 g cm3. Thus salt is buoyant relative to most other sediments

Table 2 Structural and stratigraphical traps Structural Tectonic Diapiric Compactional Gravitational Depositional Diagenetic Extensional Compressional Salt movement Mud movement Drape structures Listric fault movement Pinchouts (dunes, bars, reefs, channels, etc.) Unconformities (erosional, subcrop, karst, etc.) Mineral precipitation Mineral dissolution (thermal karst, dolomitization) Tar mats Permafrost Gas hydrate crystallization

Stratigraphical

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Figure 12 Structural traps. (A) Tilted fault blocks in an extensional regime. The seals are overlying mudstones and cross-fault juxtaposition against mudstones. (B) Rollover anticline on thrust. Petroleum accumulations may occur on both the hanging wall and the footwall. The hanging wall accumulation is dependent on a subthrust fault seal, whereas at least part of the hanging wall trap is likely to be a simple, four-way, dip-closed structure. (C) Lateral seal of a trap against a salt diapir and compactional drape trap over the diapir crest. (D) Diapiric mudstone associated trap with lateral seal against mud wall. Diapiric mud associated traps share many common features with that of salt. In this diagram, the diapiric mud wall developed at the core of a compressional fold. (E) Compactional drape over a basement block commonly creates enormous low-relief traps. (F) Gravity-generated trapping commonly occurs in deltaic sequences. Sediment loading causes gravity-driven failure and produces convex-down (listric) faults. The hanging wall of the fault rotates, creating space for sediment accumulation adjacent to the fault planes. The marker beds (grey) illustrate the form of the structure that has many favourable sites for petroleum accumulation. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

and sedimentary rocks. Over geological time, salt deforms plastically. With loading caused by continued sedimentation, layers of salt may aggregate into swells and eventually pillows. Subsequently, a salt diapir may rise through the overburden. Very similar processes to those associated with salt diapirism can occur in association with muds. Rapidly deposited muds are commonly water rich, overpressured, and, in consequence, highly mobile. Mud lumps (Niger Delta), shale walls, diapirs, and mud volcanoes (Trinidad, Azerbaijan) are all products of mass mud movement.

Diapiric movement of both salt and mud can create anticlinal structures that could form petroleum traps. Trap configurations can also develop in the areas of salt withdrawal. The turtle structure anticline develops via increased sedimentation in areas of salt withdrawal. Later, as salt continues to feed the diapir, the structure flounders and flips into an anticline. Greater Burgan (Kuwait), the second largest oilfield in the world (>75 billion barrels of reserves), developed over a large, low-amplitude salt swell.

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Figure 13 Stratigraphical traps. (A) Reef oil is trapped in the core of the reef, with fore-reef talus and back-reef lagoonal muds acting as lateral seals and basinal mudstones as top seals. (B) Pinchout (sandstone) trap within stacked submarine fan sandstones. The upper surface of the diagram shows the plan geometry of a simple fan lobe. Lateral, bottom, and top seals are the surrounding basinal mudstones. (C) Channel-fill sandstone trap. The oil occurs in ribbon-shaped sandstone bodies. The top surface of the diagram shows the depositional geometry of the sandstone. Total seal may be provided by interdistributary mudstones or a combination of these and marine flooding surfaces. (D) Shallow marine sandstone bar completely encased in shallow marine mudstone. The upper surface of the diagram shows the prolate bar. (E) Subunconformity trap. The reservoir horizon is truncated at its up-dip end by an unconformity and the sediments overlying the unconformity provide the top seal. Lateral and bottom seals, like the reservoir interval, pre-date the unconformity. (F) Onlap trap. A basal or near-basal sandstone onlaps a tilted unconformity. The sandstone pinches out on the unconformity and is overstepped by a top seal mudstone. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

Similar, simple anticlinal dome traps typify the Cretaceous Chalk fields of the Norwegian North Sea. As with the Middle East examples, the key controlling structures are the underlying salt pillows. Traps associated with diapirs rather than swells tend to be much smaller in aerial extent than the giants described above. They also tend to be much more structurally complex, commonly containing both radial and concentric fault patterns. The Machar Field (STOOIP (standard barrels of oil originally in place) about 228 mmstb) of the North Sea is roughly circular in outline with a diameter of about 4 km (Figure 16).

Anticlinal traps created through compaction occur across basement highs, tilted fault blocks, carbonate shelf rims, reefs, or isolated sand bodies. Some of the simplest are also the largest. The worlds biggest field, Ghawar in Saudia Arabia, is such a trap. Oil occurs in Jurassic carbonates draped over and compacted around a northsouth-trending basement high. Traps formed by gravity-driven processes are particularly important in large recent deltas. The bestdescribed examples are from the US Gulf Coast and West African deltas (Niger, Congo). The gravity structures form independently of basement tectonics and owe their existence to shallow detachment along

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Figure 14 El Furrial Trend, eastern Venezuela. The petroleum traps are large rollover anticlines on the hanging walls of thrusts. Most are four-way, dip-closed structures, whilst some have a dependence on a fault component along their south-eastern thrust margin. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

low-angle, basinward-dipping planes. The drive mechanism is provided by the weight of sediment deposited by the delta at the shelfslope break or on the slope itself. In the Niger Delta, the detachment planes are highly mobile muds, whereas, in the Gulf Coast (Mississippi Delta), detachment occurs on both muds and the Louanne Salt (Jurassic). The key detachment surfaces are commonly listric, concaveup, and concave-basinward in plan view. The main faults are commonly large, being tens of kilometres tip to tip.
Stratigraphical Trap

From top to bottom of a systems tract, each depositional environment is capable of producing a juxtaposition of permeable and impermeable sediments which might one day form a stratigraphical trap for

petroleum. In practice, the reservoir geometry becomes the trap geometry. Examples include aeolian dunes encased in lacustrine mudstone, sand-filled fluvial channels cut into mud-rich overbank deposits, shallow marine bar sandstones surrounded by marine shales, carbonate reefs isolated by enclosing marls, and submarine fan sands trapped within the domain of pelagic mud. The Paradox Basin (Colorado and Utah, USA) contains a large array of small oil and gas fields in stratigraphical pinchout traps. Devonian reservoirs occur within shallow marine bar sandstones and Carboniferous reservoirs within carbonate mounds. The Paradox Basin traps are difficult to find, but have relatively simple shapes. Their geometries are either prolate bar forms or more equidimensional carbonate mounds. Pinchout traps formed in deltaic settings are often much more complex in outline and, because

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Figure 15 UK and Norwegian Brent Province. The elongate shapes reflect the geometry of the tilted fault blocks that form the traps. The reservoir is largely Middle Jurassic Brent sandstones together with Triassic and Upper Jurassic sandstones in some fields. The traps for neither Troll (Upper Jurassic reservoir in low-relief anticline) nor Agat (Lower Cretaceous reservoir, stratigraphically trapped) are tilted fault blocks. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

potential reservoir sandstones are commonly discontinuous, multiple pools (clustered fields) are common (Figure 17). Attenuation of the up-dip portions of a potential reservoir interval by an unconformity can create

massive traps with enormous petroleum catchment (drainage) areas. The largest oilfield in North America, Alaskas Prudhoe Bay, is an unconformity trap. It has about 25 billion barrels of liquid and more than 20 trillion cubic feet of gas in place. East Texas, the

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Figure 16 A structural cross-section of the Machar Field, central North Sea, showing the circular outline of the field and the distribution of reservoirs around the head of the salt diapir. Reproduced from Foster PT and Rattey PR (1993) The evolution of a fractured chalk reservoir: Machar Oilfield, UK North Sea. In: Parker JR (ed.) Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proceedings of the 4th Conference, pp. 14451452. London: Geological Society.

largest oilfield in the USA Lower 48, is also a stratigraphical trap. The productive Woodbine Sandstone reservoir, with its initial reserves of about 6.8 billion barrels, is sandwiched between two unconformities. The sand rests upon the Washita Group mudstones and is itself truncated beneath the Austin Chalk. The field, some 40 miles long and 5 miles wide, is a simple homoclinal dip to the west. Each of the unconformity traps described above relies on a combination of trapping mechanisms, which rely in large part on a planar or gently folded unconformity. Unconformities come in a variety of shapes. The most spectacular of the unconformitybounded traps are those commonly referred to as buried hills. Such hills are residual topography of a one-time land surface. Thus it is the unconformity surface that has the trapping geometry (Figure 18). Buried hill traps are most common in karstified areas, such as northern China.

Mineral cements are known to form top, lateral, and even bottom seals to reservoirs. Examples in carbonate systems are more numerous than those in clastic systems. In the Albion-Scipio Field of Michigan (USA), all surrounding rock to the trap is thoroughly cemented limestone and dolomite. A comparable situation exists for many of the carbonate-hosted oilfields of Abu Dhabi; porosity only exists where there is oil. Areas that at one time must have been the aquifers to the oilfields have been thoroughly cemented. For a few fields, such cementation has allowed trap integrity to be maintained despite tilting of the field after petroleum accumulated. Tar mat seals are common in the shallow subsurface. They also act as cap rock for the largest single accumulation of heavy (viscous) oil in the world; the Faja of south-eastern Venezuela, which has about 1.2 trillion barrels of oil in place. Tar seals and tar sands

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are also common within the Western Canada Basin and Californian basins. Gas trapped beneath permafrost forms large fields in the northern part of the West Siberia Basin, adjacent to the Kara Sea. In cold regions, gas (methane) is also trapped as gas hydrate.
Hydrodynamic Trap

The idea that moving water could and would control the distribution of both oil and gas traps was first advocated in 1909. The hypothesis had a number of supporters until the 1930s, when the number of publications on the topic dwindled and the anticlinal theory of petroleum accumulation reassumed its position as the only favoured theory. Twenty years later, the idea was resurrected, although it remains controversial. Those traps with undoubted hydrodynamic credentials tend to be in foreland basins where subsurface reservoir units commonly crop out in adjacent mountain belts. The outcropping reservoir units are recharged with meteoric water and the hydraulic head drives the flow through the basin. Two of the bestdocumented examples are the Frannie Field of the Big Horn Basin, Wyoming, and the East Colinga Extension Field of San Joaquin Valley, California. In both instances, there is sufficient information to map the tilted oilwater contacts, rule out the possibility of significant permeability barriers in the systems, and explain the water flow in terms of the adjacent topography and subsurface structure.

Migration
Migration is the process (or processes) whereby petroleum moves from its place of origin, the source rock, to its destruction at the Earths surface. Along the route, the petroleums progress may be temporarily arrested and the petroleum may accumulate within a trap. The timing of trap formation relative to that of petroleum generation and migration is critical. The trap has to form at the same time or earlier than petroleum migration if it is to capture petroleum. Migration may be divided into three stages (Figure 19).
show: (A) field shape on a simple faulted anticline for which the reservoir interval is much larger than the anticline; (B) the same structure as in (A), but with the reservoirs developed in channel and crevasse splay sandstones that are smaller in area than the structure; (C) the same structure as in (A), but with mouthbar sandstones which are also smaller than the structure; (D) a combination of channel and mouthbar sandstones at different levels. A. Reynolds, personal communication, 1994. Reproduced courtesy of BP.

Figure 17 Paralic field outlines commonly have complex shapes because of the interaction between structure and sediment bodies. This complexity is multiplied because individual paralic sandstones tend to be stacked. The four examples

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Figure 18 Subunconformity trap beneath the base Cretaceous unconformity, Buchan Field, UK North Sea (fractured Devonian sandstone reservoir). Reproduced from Abbots IL (1991) United Kingdom Oil and Gas Fields, 25 Years Commemorative Volume, Geological Society Memoir No. 14. London: Geological Society.

. Primary migration: expulsion of petroleum from the source rock. . Secondary migration: the journey from source rock to trap. . Tertiary migration: leakage and dissipation of the petroleum at the Earths surface.
Primary Migration

There have been many hypotheses created to explain the migration of petroleum out of the source rock. Most researchers now favour processes whereby petroleum is expelled from the source rock as a separate phase within a water-wet rock matrix. Analyses have been performed on a source rock (Kimmeridge Clay, North Sea) which is actively expelling petroleum. The aim was to elucidate the precise primary migration mechanisms. The analytical results could best be explained by invoking pressure-driven flow of a petroleum-rich phase as the main expulsion mechanism for source rocks. Specifically, it was demonstrated that petroleum was first expelled when the volume of generated petroleum approximately matched the volume of pore space within the mudstone. That is, the mudstone was almost fully saturated with petroleum before expulsion occurred. This supported earlier observations on lean source rocks. Those which yield less than 5 kg petroleum per tonne tend not to achieve sufficient saturation for expulsion to occur. Gas expulsion may occur in a similar fashion to that of oil, albeit at higher temperatures. Clearly, the volume increase associated with gas generation is

Figure 19 Diagram of the three stages of migration. Primary migration out of the source rock and into a trapped reservoir (reservoir 2) or a carrier bed (reservoir 1). Secondary migration in carrier reservoir 2 and up faults into reservoir 3. Tertiary migration (dissipation) from reservoir 3 to the surface. Reproduced from Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

massive, be it directly from kerogen or from the thermal decomposition of previously formed oil. Pressure-driven expulsion will occur either through

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the existing pore network or through induced fractures. During gas generation, previously generated, short-chain liquid hydrocarbons may become dissolved in the gas and expelled with it. This mechanism has been used to explain the production of condensate from Type III kerogen in overpressured mudstone.
Secondary Migration

Secondary migration takes petroleum from the source location to trap or traps via carrier beds. The defining aspect of secondary migration is that it concentrates or focuses the petroleum. On escape from the source rock, petroleum is dispersed over a large area. By the time petroleum reaches the relatively restricted area of a trap, it can occupy more than 90% of the pore volume in the reservoir. Secondary migration is temporarily arrested once the migrating petroleum enters a trap. Disruption of the trap or overfilling of the trap can lead to remigration of the petroleum to a higher structural level under the same secondary migration process. Such secondary migration ends when petroleum approaches the Earths surface. The medium through which the petroleum travels during secondary migration is also quite different from that of the source rock. The pore size and thus permeability in a carrier bed, be it a sandstone, carbonate, or fractured lithology, is much larger than that in a source rock. The driving mechanism for secondary migration is the density difference between the petroleum (less dense) and water (more dense). The density difference is expressed through the buoyancy force generated by the pressure difference between a point in a continuous petroleum column and the adjacent pore water. The restricting force to petroleum migration is the capillary injection pressure. A slug of petroleum migrates from pore to pore in a carrier bed, squeezing through the intervening pore throats. The force required to move petroleum through a pore throat is a function of the radius of the pore throat, the interfacial tension between the petroleum and the water, and the wettability of the rockpetroleumwater system. The buoyancy effect means that petroleum will tend to rise within the sediment column. The capillary effect dictates that, in the absence of other forces, petroleum will migrate from small pores to large pores. Furthermore, petroleum (and water) will attempt to equilibrate with respect to pressure. That is, flow can be induced by pressure differential (either overpressure or hydrodynamics). It is possible to estimate the likely migration directions from source bed to reservoirs by mapping the orthocontours of the likely carrier systems (Figure 20).

Orthocontours are simply lines constructed on a map at right angles to the contours. Instead of displaying areas of equal height (or depth), they depict lines of maximum dip. The buoyancy effect dictates that the rising petroleum will follow such orthocontours. Clearly, such an exercise must be attempted on the geometry of the carrier bed(s) as it was during the phase of petroleum migration. This clearly leads to attempts to reconstruct the basin history in terms of deposition, structuring, and source rock maturation. The capillary effect controls how much of a carrier bed becomes petroleum saturated. Rarely are carrier beds of a uniform grain size distribution. Thus, petroleum will tend to migrate along the coarsest, highpermeability pathways (Figure 21). These may occupy 10% or less of any particular formation. Open fractures have the same effect as coarse beds. Petroleum will exploit them. Temporarily open fracture systems are commonly invoked as the mechanism whereby migrating petroleum jumps upward in the stratigraphy of a particular basin. The rate at which petroleum migrates can be calculated using Darcys law q k=mdy=dz where q is the volume of flow rate (m3 m2 s1), k is the permeability, m is the viscosity (Pa s1), and dy/dz is the fluid potential gradient. Typical permeability values are: sandstones, 10121015 m2 (1 D to 1 mD); limestones, 1014 1017 m2 (10 mD to 10 mD). From these data, it is possible to calculate that the migration rate for petroleum in sandstone will be 11000 km per million years and, in limestone, 0.0110 km per million years. Phase changes will occur in petroleum as a result of its migration upwards to regions of lower pressure and temperature. This is most important for hightemperature, high-pressure condensates, but any oil will exsolve some gas if the pressure in the formation drops below the bubble point. The residual petroleum and generated gas are then likely to behave differently with respect to subsequent migration. At low temperatures (<70 C), and in regions in which there is significant water flow, petroleum may be degraded by bacterial action or by water washing. The bacterial process follows a systematic loss of the n-alkanes, branched alkanes, isoprenoids, alkylcyclohexanes, and polycyclic alkanes. This progressive destruction of the petroleum leads to increases in the pour point and viscosity of the oil and a lowering of the API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity.

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Figure 20 Orthocontours reconstructed subsalt petroleum migration pathways, Ewing Bank to Green Canyon areas, Gulf of Mexico, USA. Reproduced with permission from McBride BC, Weimer P, and Rowan MG (1998) The effect of allochthonous salt on the petroleum systems of the Northern Green Canyon and Ewing Bank (Offshore Louisiana), Northern Gulf of Mexico. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 82: 10831112.

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into a new carrier system much more rapidly than does a maturing source rock.

See Also
Petroleum Geology: The Petroleum System; Exploration; Production. Sedimentary Environments: Depositional Systems and Facies; Carbonate Shorelines and Shelves. Sedimentary Processes: Karst and Palaeokarst. Sedimentary Rocks: Chalk; Dolomites; Sandstones, Diagenesis and Porosity Evolution; Limestones. Tectonics: Faults; Fractures (Including Joints).

Further Reading
Abbots IL (1991) United Kingdom Oil and Gas Fields, 25 Years Commemorative Volume, Geological Society Memoir No. 14. London: Geological Society. Allen PA and Allen JR (1990) Basin Analysis, Principles and Applications. Oxford: Blackwell Science. Archer JS and Wall PG (1986) Petroleum Engineering, Principles and Practice. London: Graham & Trotman. Bathurst RGC (1976) Carbonate Sediments and Their Diagenesis, Developments in Sedimentology 12. Oxford: Elsevier. Dickson JAD and Saller AH (1995) Identification of subaerial exposure surfaces and porosity preservation in Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian shelf limestones, eastern central Basin Platform, Texas. In: Budd DA, Saller AH, and Harris PM (eds.) Unconformities and Porosity in Carbonate Strata, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 63, pp. 239258. Tulsa, OK: American Association of Petroleum Geologists. England WA and Fleet AJ (1991) Petroleum Migration, Special Publication 59. London: Geological Society. Foster PT and Rattey PR (1993) The evolution of a fractured chalk reservoir: Machar Oilfield, UK North Sea. In: Parker JR (ed.) Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proceedings of the 4th Conference, pp. 14451452. London: Geological Society. Glennie KW (1998) Petroleum Geology of the North Sea, Basic Concepts and Recent Advances, 4th edn. Oxford: Blackwell Science. Gluyas JG and Hichens HM (2003) United Kingdom Oil and Gas Fields Commemorative Millennium Volume, Memoir 20. London: Geological Society. Gluyas JG and Swarbrick RE (2003) Petroleum Geoscience. Oxford: Blackwell Science. McBride BC, Weimer P, and Rowan MG (1998) The effect of allochthonous salt on the petroleum systems of the Northern Green Canyon and Ewing Bank (Offshore Louisiana), Northern Gulf of Mexico. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 82: 10831112. Reynolds AD (1994) Sequence stratigraphy and the dimensions of paralic sandstone bodies. In: Johnson SD (ed.) High Resolution Sequence Stratigraphy: Innovations and Applications, pp. 6972. Liverpool: Liverpool University. Selley RC (1996) Elements of Petroleum Geology, 2nd edn. San Diego: Academic Press.

Figure 21 Petroleum migration along high-permeability sandstone beds within a stacked sequence of turbidite sandstones and siltstones. The migration route was exposed during the excavation of a road cutting in Ecuador. Photograph by M. Heffernan. Reproduced from England WA, Mackenzie A, Mann D, and Quigley T (1987) The movement and entrapment of petroleum fluids in the subsurface. J. Geol. Soc., vol. 144, p. 327. London.

Tertiary Migration

Tertiary migration includes leakage, seepage, dissipation, and alteration of petroleum as it reaches the Earths surface. The products of seepage may be gas chimneys in the shallow sediment, gas hydrate layers and mounds, cemented pock marks and mud volcanoes, effects on vegetation, and live oil and gas seepage at the surface. The physical processes that drive tertiary migration are the same as those that operate during secondary migration. Buoyancy drives the petroleum to the surface. This may be helped or hindered by overpressure gradients or hydrodynamics. The only major difference that can be used to separate tertiary migration from secondary migration is the rate of petroleum supply. Trap failure, through capillary leakage, hydraulic fracture, or tectonism, supplies petroleum