Saturations required for hydrocarbon flow
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| Exploring for Oil and Gas Traps | |
| |
| Series | Treatise in Petroleum Geology |
|---|---|
| Part | Predicting the occurrence of oil and gas traps |
| Chapter | Evaluating top and fault seal |
| Author | Grant M. Skerlec |
| Link | Web page |
| Store | AAPG Store |
Traditional definitions
Hydrocarbons flow through a water-wet seal when there is a continuous, interconnected pathway of hydrocarbon-filled pore space. Flow through a seal occurs with saturations of 4.5–17% of the rock pore volume, averaging 10%.[1] This is one reason displacement pressure is defined at 10% saturation.
Possible modifications
Other experiments, including lower porosity rocks, indicate much higher oil saturations of 25–91% may be required.[2] The current assumption that seal capacity is based upon the displacement pressure at only 10% saturation could be very misleading. The value could be two or more orders of magnitude greater than that predicted at 10% saturation.
See also
- Seal capacity: pitfalls and limitations of estimation
- Displacement pressure of a seal: difficulty of characterization
- Displacement pressure: does the theory predict reality?
- Seal capacity of breached and hydrocarbon-wet seals
- Hydrodynamic flow and pressure transients
References
- ↑ Schowalter, T., T., 1979, Mechanics of secondary hydrocarbon migration and entrapment: AAPG Bulletin, vol. 63, no. 5, p. 723–760.
- ↑ England, W., A., Mackenzie, A., S., Mann, D., M., Quickley, T., M., 1987, The movement and entrapment of petroleum fluids in the subsurface: Journal of the Geological Society, London, vol. 144, no. 2, p. 327–347.
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