' 954

BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGISTS

VOL. 37, NO. 8 (AUGUST, 1953), PP. 1954-2026. 44 FIGS.
ENTRAPMENT OF PETROLEUM UNDER
HYDRODYNAMIC CONDITIONS'
M. KING HUBBERT
2

Houston, Texas
ABSTRACT
The anticlinal or so-called "gravitational" theory, despite its effectiveness as a basis for petroleum
exploration, represents but a special case of oil and gas accumulation, and is valid only when the associated
ground water is in hydrostatic equilibrium. Since this need not be the case, a more general formulation,
valid for both hydrostatic and hydrodynamic conditions, is required.
Oil and gas possess energy with respect to their positions and environment which, when referred to
unit mass, may be termed the potential at any given point of the fluid considered. When the potential of
a specified fluid in a region of underground space is not constant, an unbalanced force will act upon the
fluid, driving it in the direction in which its potential decreases. Hence, oil and gas in a dispersed state
underground migrate from regions of higher to those of lower energy levels, and come ultimately to
rest in positions which constitute traps, where their potentials assume locally minimum or least values.
In nearly all cases traps for petroleum are regions of low potential which are enclosed jointly by
regions of higher potential and impermeable barriers.
Oil and gas migration occurs through a normally water-saturated environment. If the water is at
rest, the oil and gas equipotential surfaces will be horizontal, the impelling forces will be directed
vertically upward, and the traps will be the familiar ones of the anticlinal theory. If the water is in
motion in a non-vertical direction, the oil and gas equipotentials will be tilted downward in the flow
direction with those for oil inclined at an angle greater than those for gas. The impelling forces for oil
and for gas will not be parallel and the two fluids will migrate in divergent directions to traps which in
general will not coincide and may, in fact, be separated entirely, a trap for oil being incapable of
holding gas, and vice versa.
Under hydrodynamic conditions accumulations of oil or gas will invariably exhibit inclined oil- or gas-
water interfaces with the angle of inclination given by
d z d h
tan = = -
dx ppo dx
where dz/dx is the slope of the interface, p,,, the density of the water and po that of the oil (or gas), and
dh/dx the component of slope of the potentiometric surface of the water in the horizontal direction x,
Stable oil and gas accumulations may be found in anticlines but they may equally well occur in struc -
tural terraces, noses, monoclines, and other unclosed structures entirely devoid of lithologic barriers to
updip migration.
Not only are these effects theoretically expectable but they have been found to occur, with tilts ranging
from tens to hundreds of feet per mile, in almost every major oil-producing area. If many such
accumulations are not to be overlooked, we must supplement our customary knowledge of structure and
stratigraphy with the three-dimensional ground-water hydrology of every petroliferous basin.
Publication No. 29, Exploration and Production Technical Division, Shell Oil Company, Houston,
Texas.
Manuscript received, November 5, 1952.
This paper was presented on March 26, 1952, before the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists at its annual meeting in Los Angeles, and also during October and November, 1952, as a
Distinguished Lecture before the affiliated societies of the Association.
A study of this kind is necessarily a cooperative enterprise, and the writer expresses his indebted-
ness to his many colleagues who in one way or another have assisted in its development. For specific
assistance he is indebted to Henry Rainbow for the clarification of obscure mathematical points, to
Robert Nanz and W. R. Purcell for information on capillary-pressure phenomena, and to Arne Junger,
Charles H. Fay, and C. C. Templeton for critical discussions of the manuscript; but he is especially
indebted to his research assistant, Jerry Conner, for performing the extensive series of confirmatory
experiments cited, and to J. B. Woolley for invaluable editorial assistance in the final compilation of
the paper.
Chief consultant (general geology), Shell Oil Company.