FAULT SEAL ANALYSIS

BY
DIDI CHEKWUBE NNAMDI
PAU-UI-0704

DEPARTMENT OF PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCES

PAULESI, IBADAN, NIGERIA

DATE: 5-08-2022
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
• INTRODUCTION
• TYPES OF FAULT SEAL ANLYSIS
• HOW TO DETERMINE FAULT SEALS
• SIGNIFICANCE
• CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
• WHAT IS A FAULT SEAL ?
• Mechanical properties of a seal rock
• Function of lithology and regional stresses
• Structural permeability
• Fluid conducting fractures
TYPES OF SEAL ANALYSIS
• Lithological seal analysis
All impemeable rocks
• Fault seal analysis
All impemeable faults
HOW TO DETERMINE FAULT SEAL
• Juxtaposition
Triangular method
• Formation processes of fault
Shear Guage Ratio
Shear Smear Factor
• Reactivation surfaces
Stress Analysis
Slip tendency
FAULT JUXTAPOSITION (TRIANGULAR METHOD)

 Juxtaposed blocks
 Permeable vs Impermeable
 Permeable vs PermeableModel: Juxtaposition
 diagrams or “Allan
Impermeable vs Impermeable
 Fault length maps” (Allan, 1989)
 Micro
 Macro
 Fault displacement
 Long
 Short
 Fault thickness
 High
 low Fig.1: Block diagram illustrating across-fault lithological
juxtaposition (after Knipe, 1997).
FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL
During the deformation of fault rocks, there can be two competing compaction
mechanisms which are the mechanical compaction and chemical compaction.

Faults developed in impure sandstones (clay content of 15-25%) experienced enhanced chemical
compaction (e.g., grain-contact quartz dissolution), whereas faults in clay rich sandstones (clay
content of >25%) are dominated by mechanical compaction

Five types of fault seal processes have been

identified, which are:
1. Clay/phyllosilicate smearing;
2. Cementation;
3. Cataclasis;
4. Diffusive mass transfer by pressure solution or
quartz cementation; and
5. Porosity reduction by disaggregation or mixing.
FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• CLAY/PHYLLOSILICATE SMEARING (ASI)

 Abrasion of clay/phyllosilicate when it is moving past sandstones;

 Shearing and ductile deformation of beds (with high clay/phyllosilicate content, e.g. shale or
mudstone beds) between hanging wall and footwall;
 Injection of clay/phyllosilicate materials during fluidisation.

• CLAY/PHYLLOSILICATE SMEARING PARAMETERS

 Sedimentary lithification state,

 Effective stress,
 Confining pressure,
 Strain rate and the
 Mineralogy (Fisher and Knipe, 1998).
FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• CEMENTATION

 Cemented faults or fractures are product of cementation processes along fault zones.
 Cemented microstructures aids in studying the mechanisms and timing of the cementation
processes

• MECHANISM

 As faults/fractures may perform as conduits for fluid flow, the flow behaviour of faults/fractures
is sensitive to quartz precipitation because within the fault zones there are both quartz sources
(from dissolution) and nucleation sites for potential cementation.
 The source for cementation can be internal or external.
FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• WHAT FAVOURS CEMENTATION ?

 Small concentrations of clay/phyllosilicate minerals in sandstones increase the potential of

cementation as the clay/phyllosilicate minerals can act as a local source for cementation

 High clay/phyllosilicate contents can lead to the clay/phyllosilicate-coating on the quartz grains,
which decreases the effective quartz grain surface area available for cementation

 WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ABOVE ILLUSTRATION ?

FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• CATACLASIS

 Cataclasis involves grain fracturing and can reduce the porosity and the permeability as well as
increase the capillary threshold pressure of rocks within fault zones

 Cataclasis presents different micro-deformation mechanisms depending on the burial depth.

 Cataclasis in sediments at shallow depths is dominated by grain spalling and flaking.
 Cataclasis at deeper depths is primarily characterized by transgranular fracturing and grain
crushing.
 The grain sorting within cataclasites is becoming poorer by grain fracturing and chipping at early
stage, and
 The following predominant chipping and crushing could enhance the grain sorting with time
FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• WHAT PREVENTS CATACLASIS?

 The concentration of clay/phyllosilicate materials in host rocks can inhibit the probability of
occurrence of cataclasis.

 Sandstones with high clay/phyllosilicate content are likely to be resistant to the cataclasis during
faulting deformation, as the clay/phyllosilicate-rich sandstones tend to deform more easily by grain
sliding and rotation rather than by grain fracturing.
 FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• DIFFUSIVE MASS TRNSFER BY PRESSURE SOLUTION AND QAURTZ CEMENTATION

 Diffusive mass transfer is a process of mass transfer from high-pressure sites to low-pressure
sites, happens when materials are dissolved at the grain contacts and then transported by
diffusion to free pore spaces where the dissolved materials reprecipitate

 Diffusive mass transfer is actually a redistribution of soluble materials from their original sites
with high pressure, by means of dissolution, transport and reprecipitation.
FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• DIFFUSIVE MASS TRNSFER BY PRESSURE SOLUTION AND QAURTZ CEMENTATION

 The extent of diffusive mass transfer depends on clay/phyllosilicate content and its distribution
at the time of deformation

• HINT FOR CLEAR UNDERSTANDING

1. PRESENCE OF CLAY/PHYLLOSILICATE FAVOURS PRESSURE SOLUTION

2. PRESENCE OF QUARTZ FAVOURS CEMENTATION AND CATACLASIS
 FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• DIFFUSIVE MASS TRNSFER BY PRESSURE SOLUTION AND QAURTZ CEMENTATION

• EXAMPLE FOR CLEAR UNDERSTANDING

1. Clean sandstones with clay/phyllosilicate contents of <5%, the fault zones experience enhanced
quartz cementation within fault zones with no enhanced pressure solution.
2. Clean sandstones with moderate clay/phyllosilicate content of 5-15% indicates evidence for
both enhanced pressure solution and quartz cementation.
3. Impure sandstones with high clay/phyllosilicate contents of 15-25%, the fault zones can
experience enhanced pressure solution but no extensive enhanced quartz cementation
EXCEPTION
• Impure sandstones with clay/phyllosilicate content of >25%, the porosity and permeability of the
fault zones may not be significantly affected by either pressure solution or quartz cementation
 FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• POROSITY REDUCTION BY DISAGGREGATION AND MIXING

 The reorganisation of distribution of detrital grains and clay/phyllosilicate minerals without a

universal reduction of grain size.
 The sedimentary units that are buried at shallow depths tend to experience disaggregation and
mixing to reduce the rock porosity.

CONDITION FOR THIS TO OCCUR

• This fault process is common in sedimentary units that are unconsolidated or unlithified, as in
this situation there is enough space for grains and clay/phyllosilicate minerals to be
redistributed during faulting deformation
 FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D
• POROSITY REDUCTION BY DISAGGREGATION AND MIXING

 The distribution of both detrital grains and clay/phyllosilicate minerals can be heterogeneous
when initially deposited and then becomes more homogeneous after the disaggregation and
mixing during faulting deformation, thus altering permeability pathways
EXCEPTION
• For clean sandstones, because the grain size and grain sorting of the fault rock do not change
considerably after the reorganization of detrital grains, the fault rock porosity and permeability
are not changed significantly
FORMATION PROCESSES OF FAULT SEAL CONT’D

• Formation processes of fault

Shear Guage Ratio
Shear Smear Factor
Fig.2: Shale Gouge Ratio for a sequence of variable
SGR values > 0.2 have a higher thicknesses (Tt) and Vshale values (Vshi)
chance of seal (Childs et al.,
1997; Yielding et al., 1997)

Cataclasites dominate seal

Disaggregation zones are developed in development in clean sandstones
poorly lithified rocks containing<40% containing <15% clay content at the
clay/phyllosilicate minerals (not sealing time of deformation
fault)
FAULT REACTIVATION SURFACE ANALYSIS
• Faults that have been critically stressed or reactivated following hydrocarbon charge
are more likely to act as conduits for fluid flow (Sibson, 1994).

• Consequently, a fault prone to reactivation may provide a poor baffle to flow despite
having favourable juxtaposition and membrane seals.

• Using the Stress Analysis module in Move Software, the risk of fault seal being
breached by reactivation can be rapidly assessed.

• WHAT IS STRESS ANALYSIS?

FAULT REACTIVATION SURFACE ANALYSIS
• Stress Analysis calculates the effective shear and normal stresses acting on a 3D
surface for a user-defined triaxial stress state.

• The resultant values can be combined with pore pressure changes, to quantify the
reactivation potential of a fault.

• In total, six parameters can be applied in Move Software to evaluate the probability of
fault reactivation and seal breach.

• Slip Tendency is often the most commonly applied parameter in fault seal analysis
(Morris et al., 1996; Mildren et al., 2005).

• WHAT IS A SLIP TENDENCY?

FAULT REACTIVATION SURFACE ANALYSIS CONT’D
• Slip Tendency is the ratio of
effective shear stress (Т) to
normal stress (σn).

• Greater values indicate a higher

slip tendency and, therefore, a
higher probability of fault
reactivation.

• Calibration suggests that 0.6 is

the critical value above which, a
fault will slip, thus breaching
the seal and providing a
potential conduit for fluid flow
(Cotesta et al., 2007) Fig. 3: Mohr circle illustrating the calculation of Slip
tendency. The red point represents the resolved stress
on one triangle of a fault mesh surface.
SIGNIFICANCE

• SEAL
• TRAP
• MIGRATION PATHWAYS
• STRESS ANALYSIS
• RESERVOIR
COMPARTMENTALIZATION Fig.4: Fault seal and reservoir compartmentalization
CONCLUSION

• Fault seal analysis is a link between seal integrity and reservoir

compartmentalization.
• It solves the problem of dry hole.
• It creates good understanding between fluid pressure compartment.
• it solves the problem of reservoir leakages.
• It paves way for accurate risk analysis.
• It saves time and money.
• It crates good lucid understanding of fault linkages
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME