Lecture 9.
Hydrocarbon Traps and Seals
Hydrocarbon trap – A place where oil and gas can be accumulated and barred
from further movement.
Elements of a hydrocarbon trap
Reservoir rock, seal, oil, gas, and water.
Oil-water contact, oil-gas contact, gas-water contact.
Geometry, size/volume – 4-way closure.
Gross pay and net pay – the gross and net thickness of productive reservoir of
a trap.
Figs. 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3.
Seal – A low-permeability rock layer that surrounds
reservoir rocks and stops or significantly slows down
petroleum movement.
• Top (cap rock), lateral, and bottom seals – 4-way
closure.
• Seals for oil, gas, or water.
• Shale, evaporite, tar mat, fault gouge, well-cemented
sandstone, limestone.
Types of Hydrocarbon Traps
Classification (Table 7.1)
Structural, stratigraphic, hydrodynamic, and combinational traps – based on the
origin and trapping mechanisms.
Structural traps – Formed by tectonic forces
Anticlinal, fault-related, diapirs
Anticlinal traps
Compressional anticlines
Figs. 7.7, 7.8 – Mountain front anticlines, Zagros Mountains.
Fig. 7.9 – Folds associated with transpression, Wilmington field of Los Angeles Basin.
Fig. 7.10 – Folds within thrust sheets, Painter Valley Reservoir field, Wyoming.
Anticlines caused by differential sedimentation and compaction.
Figs. 7.11, 7.13 – Drape folds over horsts and grabens, and basement highs.
Fig. 7.13 – Forties field, North Sea.
Fig. 7.12 – Drape folds enhanced by differential compaction due to different
lithologies and thickness.
Structural domes – Folds formed by upward crustal movement (magmatic and salt
intrusion).
Fault-related anticlines (drag folds) in the hanging wall and foot wall of a fault.
Anticlinal Traps
Drape Anticlines
Fault-related traps
• Sealing and open faults. Fault sealability studies.
• Episodic fault movement and reactivation episodic closing and opening.
• Lithologies and amount of displacement across the fault zone.
• Compressional (reverse and thrust), extensional (normal), oblique, and strike-slip
(transtensional and transpressional) faults.
Fig. 7.17 (summary of possible fault-related traps).
• Juxtaposition of reservoir rock with low-permeability rocks.
Fig. 7.18 (Gaiselberg field, Austria).
Figs. 7.14, 7.15 – Sealing by fault gouge. Tertiary West Lake Verret field, Louisiana;
Piper field, North Sea.
• Transverse fault-related traps – Fig. 7.19
• Growth faults and rollover folds
Fig. 7.20 – Basement-involved, Sarir field, Libya.
Fig. 7.21 – Vicksburg flexure, south Texas.
Fig. 7.22 – Niger delta.
• Reverse fault-related traps
• Thrust fault-related traps
Fault Traps
2 different OWCs 2 separate traps.
Flower structure
strike-slip fault
Growth Fault
Decreasing throw upward
progressive, growth faulting
Oil in lower part gas in upper part
Diapir-related traps – Reversed density profile (Fig. 7.23)
Salt diapirism and related traps – Salt tectonics. Figs. 7.24, 7.25, 7.26.
Structural, diagenetic, and stratigraphic traps.
Sub-salt traps and seismic imaging.
Mud diapirism and related traps – Overpressured and/or
hydrothermally and gas-charged mudrocks.
Mud diapirs and mud volcanoes. Fig. 7.27.
Yinggehai, Cook Inlet, Caspian Sea, Indonesia, Barbados.
Relationship between structural traps and tectonic setting – Table 7.2
Stratigraphic Traps
• Juxtaposition of reservoir rocks with low-permeability seal rocks through
depositional and post-depositional sedimentary processes.
• Classification – Lithologic, unconformity-related, diagenetic. Table 7.3
• Complex and more difficult to delineate than structural traps.
Lithologic traps
Lateral facies change
Gradational to sharp changes (pinch-outs) – Barrier bars, carbonate
platforms, alluvial and subaqueous fans, deltas.
Barrier-bar sandstones – Elongate, parallel to shoreline, sheet-like,
enclosed in lagoonal and offshore shale.
Figs. 7.31, 7.32, 7.33, 7.34, 7.35, 7.36.
Erosional changes – Channel-fill sandstones. Elongate, volumetrically
insignificant.
Figs. 7.28, 7.29, 7.30.
Build-ups:
Reefs – Patch, pinnacle, barrier reefs. Encased within shales.
Heterogeneous porosity and permeability distribution.
Figs. 7.37, 7.38, 7.39. Plate 3.
Unconformity-related traps
Supra-unconformity traps.
Siliciclastic or carbonate reservoirs rocks onlap impermeable rocks below
unconformity and sealed by impermeable rocks above and laterally. Requires
lateral stratigraphic and/or structural closures.
Incised valley fill – Paleogeomorphic trap. Fluvial channels and strike valleys.
Fig. 7.35 of Fiddler Creek and Clareton fields.
Fig. 7.41
Sub-unconformity traps.
Reservoir rocks of all types sealed by impermeable cap rocks above an unconformity.
Lateral structural, stratigraphic, or geomorphological closures are required.
Fig. 7.42.
Reservoirs can be sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous. Weathering and
dissolution during subaerial exposure when an unconformity developed
greatly enhance porosity and permeability.
Buried hills – Fig. 7.43, Augila field of Libya.
Sub and supra-unconformity traps – Fig. 7.44, East Texas field.
Diagenetic traps – Dissolution and cementation of mineral; tar seals. Fig. 7.40.
Relationship between stratigraphic traps and sedimentary environments and
lithofacies
Petrophysical characteristics, geometry, and lateral and vertical changes of
reservoir and cap rocks are closely related to depositional environments
(Table 7.4).
Carbonate reservoirs diagenesis sedimentary environments.
Sandstone reservoirs sedimentary environments.
Hydrodynamic Traps
Hydrodynamic downward movement of formation water in a permeable bed
prevents upward movement of hydrocarbons.
Fig. 7.45.
Where a local reversal of dip, facies, or potentiometric gradient occurs,
hydrodynamic trapping is the most effective and, in many cases, may cause a
tilted OWC.
Fig. 7.46.
Combination Traps
• Example 1 – Fig. 7.47.
• Example 2 – Fig. 7.48. Structural nose.
• Example 3 – Figs. 7.15, 7.49. Faulted unconformity.
• Abstrobleme Traps
• Igneous traps
Timing of trap formation relative to petroleum formation, migration, and
accumulation
• Scenario #1 – Trap formation predates secondary migration
• Scenario #2 – Trap formation postdates secondary migration
• Scenario #3 – Post-migration and post-accumulation structural movement.
• Scenario #4 – Continuous charging of a series of anticlinal traps.
Abundance of different types of traps (Fig. 7.50)
• Anticlinal traps are largely explored.
• Increased technology and geologic concepts (3-D seismic, seismic attributes,
horizontal drilling) other types of traps.
• “Oil is found in the minds of men.”
Study Guide for Final Exam – Petroleum Geology, fall 2010
Petroleum Migration
Evidence that migration has/had occurred
Mechanisms of primary migration and their strong and weak points, especially
Mechanism 5.
Conditions, mechanisms of overpressure formation and its role in primary migration
Detection and significance of overpressure in petroleum exploration
Driving and resisting forces that cause secondary migration
Factors controlling capillary pressure of a carrier bed.
Factors affecting secondary migration and the oil column
Conduits for secondary migration
Hydrocarbon Traps and Seals
Definition and elements of a hydrocarbon trap
Definition and requirements of seal (caprock)
Types of seals
Classification and types of traps. Four-way (or all-way) closures of an effective trap.
Types of anticlinal traps and trapping mechanisms. Integrity of an anticlinal trap.
Types of fault-related traps and trapping mechanisms. How to determine whether a
fault is open or closed for hydrocarbon migration.
Causes of diapirs (mud and salt). The roles of diapirs in forming a variety of traps (in
other words, the trapping mechanisms of diapirs).
Classifications of stratigraphic traps
Trapping mechanisms of lithologic traps. Reef-related traps
Major trapping mechanisms of supra-unconformity traps.
Major trapping mechanisms of sub-unconformity traps.
Trapping mechanisms of diagenetic traps
Trapping mechanisms of hydrodynamic Traps
All traps are, in essence, combination traps – Study the examples to understand this
point.
Four scenarios on the timing of trap formation relative to petroleum formation,
migration, and accumulation
Abundance of different types of traps
What is the implication of “Oil is found in the minds of men?”
