Online Live Streaming Course

5 sessions ( approx. 4 hours each) , October 21 to 25, 2024

Duration: 20 hours

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: This course is designed for explorers with several years of experience in exploration; both geologists and seismic interpreters, and their supervisors / team leaders.

OBJECTIVES:

Trap and seal analyses are discussed in this course from a pragmatic explorers point of view, based on the extensive experience of the instructor and on published case histories. Top seal and fault seal will both be addressed. The theoretical aspects of sealing that have been developed over the years will be explained, and case histories from different basin settings will be presented. After this course explorers will know how to assess the sealing potential of top- and fault seals in undrilled prospects, in full awareness of the intrinsic uncertainties. This will improve their ability to confidently predict HC column length and its uncertainty in undrilled traps.

BENEFITS:

You will know how to identify potential spill- and leak-points of undrilled traps.

You will understand the theoretical aspects of sealing effectiveness.

You will know what controls the effectiveness of a seal.

You will be given many examples of working traps and effective seals in different geological basin settings.

You will know how to calculate Shale Gouge Ratio and Clay Smear Potential.

You will learn how the effective stress can be assessed.

You will understand that in addition to charge, also sealing effectiveness has an impact on the phase of trapped hydrocarbons (oil and/or gas).

You will be given the chance to work with the Ariane© software to assess the impact of sealing capacity on the trapped HC phase (gas or oil) and HC column length.

You will learn to deal with traps and seals in a risk and volume assessment of undrilled prospects.

Course content includes:

•             Understanding and identifying spill- and potential leak-points of traps

•             Theoretical aspects of seals and sealing capacity

•             The effectiveness of Top and Fault seals

•             Methods to assess the sealing potential of seals

•             The calculation of Shale Gouge Ratio and Clay Smear, as well as the construction of Allen (juxtaposition) plots will be explained and illustrated with several exercises

•             Trap identification and analysis in a variety of extensional and in compressional settings

•             Analysis and risking of stratigraphic traps

•             Unusual traps, such as basement and hydrodynamic traps

•             Sealing mechanisms and reasons of seal failure: permeability seals and hydraulic seals

•             Dealing with traps with multiple reservoir-seal pairs (in different basin settings)

•             Differential leakage of gas versus oil and its role on gas-oil mix in traps

•             Quantitative analysis of trapped HC columns and gas-oil mix in based on seal qualities

Throughout the course there are many exercises and opportunities for discussions to emphasize the main messages and learnings.