Abstract The effective computation and visualization of cross-fault sealing or flow, and parameters that infer or control that distribution, is a key step in the production of more reliable exploration and production simulation models. A better understanding of the impact of fault-related flow or baffling through visualization can lead to the development of more robust and useful geological models that better define the likely range in flow behaviour. A range of visualization tools are available, from the traditional fault plane juxtaposition map to the vector visualization of cross-fault fluid flux. Each tool has its applications and limitations. In this contribution we discuss the application of these different techniques and highlight situations where these are particularly successful. A number of existing visualization approaches will be reviewed and improvements to those techniques are shown. A series of existing property visualization techniques are critiqued, such as the imaging of shale gouge ratio (SGR) and fault transmissibility multipliers (TMs) on the fault faces, both of which are limited in their ability to act as a proxy for cross-fault fluid flux in many circumstances. Fault rock property visualizations, such as hydraulic resistance and fault transmissibility, are presented. More direct and hence more powerful indications of probable cross-fault fluid flux are also described, such as the effective cross-fault transmissibility (ECFT) and the effective cross-fault permeability (ECFP). These static proxies for cross-fault fluid flux are compared against back-calculated and visualized cross-fault fluid flux values derived from either streamline or full flow simulation data. The ECFT is shown to provide a useful and rapid indication of likely fluid flux from the static model; however, the direct imaging of cross-fault fluid flux derived from simulation results allows for a far better understanding of how the faults have contributed to the reservoir flow simulation result. Visualizations of the fault- and flow-related properties: (a) on the fault face; (b) in the grid cells adjacent to the fault face; (c) as vectors; or (d) as fault-wide summations, all provide useful insights for different parts of the reservoir evaluation workflow. This contribution highlights a series of new and efficient techniques to image and hence improve the understanding and modelling of fault sealing in both exploration and production settings.

Abstract In this paper, we present workflows, key relationships and results of multiple stochastic fault seal analyses conducted on geocellular geological or (static) reservoir grids. Ranges of uncertainties are computed from new and published datasets for the different input relationships (e.g. throw, VShale to VClay, fault clay prediction, fault rock clay content to permeability); these are used as input into stochastic modelling processes and the impact of each is assessed. The power of stochastic modelling to focus interpretation and risking effort is reviewed. Reducing the uncertainty distributions from the published data ranges has a massive impact on the range of predicted fault seal properties. Halving the uncertainties associated with the computation of the transmissibility multiplier, for instance, reduces this range from 7 to 1–1.5 orders of magnitude of the base-case value (no uncertainty). Importantly, when combined together, the median predictions from each individual parameter do not lead to the median value for the final prediction; average relationships combined together will not therefore produce the average final prediction. This is a powerful result for two reasons: first, current geological modelling packages use global trends to define fault properties and so are likely to predict spurious results; and secondly, reducing the uncertainty on specific relationships by around 50% is an achievable goal. Locally calibrated datasets and relationships (field-specific) based on carefully characterized samples should allow for this improvement in prediction accuracy. This paper presents a review of fault seal techniques, published data and the potential pitfalls associated with the analyses.

Abstract To investigate the interaction between the rheology of arenaceous sedimentary rocks (sand and sandstone) and stress conditions during burial we have coupled published results from deformation experiments with a simple quartz cementation model. The model provides valuable insights into controls on sandstone deformation consistent with observations from nature. A transitional zone exists in subsiding sedimentary basins, here referred to as the ductile-to-brittle transition (DBT), above which faults in normally pressured arenites will tend to form fluid flow barriers, and below which they will tend to form conduits. The DBT depth in sandstone is dependent upon geothermal gradient, burial rate and grain size. Low geothermal gradients, rapid sedimentation rates and coarse grain sizes favour a deep DBT and vice versa. Fine-grained arenites may only deform in a brittle manner for most natural burial rates and geothermal gradients, explaining why they do not usually contain thick deformation band zones. Coarser-grained arenites may deform in a brittle–ductile or ductile manner, which is why they often contain thick deformation band zones and occasionally experience pervasive porosity collapse. Sandstones within high geothermal gradient areas may deform to produce fluid flow conduits at shallow depths when porosities in the sequence as a whole are high; this possibly favours fault-related mineralization.

Abstract Natural fault damage zones (FDZs) are characterized by complex geometries and topologies, and by strongly-contrasting material properties. Accurate simulation of fluid flow in such systems is dependent on the method of discretization and the mathematical representation of the flow. In this paper, we focus on the conceptual and methodological issues that link a model of a heterogeneous system and its flow response. We study FDZs as our example, where each thin fault strand is a barrier to flow. We examine two contrasting discretization schemes and apply them to 2D FDZ models that contain a realistic array of linear fault traces. Both schemes produce results that are generally in good agreement, and agree with the results calculated by a more accurate (but computationally less efficient) reference scheme. However, differences occur when the discretization approach fails to maintain the fault connectivity (topology) of the input model. It is important to guide the modelling by identifying any continuous flow pathways in the matrix linking fluid inlets and outlets (Through-Going Regions, TGRs). We illustrate a new scheme that identifies all TGRs and determines a grid that is just fine enough to resolve them.

Abstract Major faults are surrounded by damage zones of minor faults that, in siliclastic rocks, can form barriers to flow in their own right. Reservoir flow simulation, now a routine part of reservoir management, requires equivalent hydraulic parameters on the scale of the whole fault. Geological models of structurally complex reservoirs, from which flow simulator grids are generated, require information on the 3D characteristics of fault populations. Here, 3D stochastic models of fault damage zone (FDZ) architecture are generated based on fault population statistics (offset, orientation, length, thickness, spatial distribution) measured from seismic, outcrop and core data. These FDZ models provide input to a 3D discrete fault flow model (DFFM) and we consider the case when the minor faults have permeabilities (isotropic) that are several orders of magnitude lower than the host rock, and thus form partial barriers to flow. The DFFM is used to determine and characterize the impact of the parameters defining the FDZ on the predicted bulk FDZ permeability, connectivity, ‘efficiency’ as a barrier or retarder to flow, and the ‘effective’ fault rock throw to thickness relationship for the FDZ. The latter of the summary results presented provides a means for incorporating FDZs into conventional production simulation package models of structurally complex reservoirs.

Abstract Major faults are surrounded by damage zones of minor faults that, in siliclastic rocks, can form barriers to flow in their own right. Reservoir flow simulation — now a routine part of reservoir management — requires equivalent hydraulic parameters on the scale of the whole fault, while reservoir geological models, from which flow simulator grids are generated, require information on the 3D characteristics of fault populations. Here, a stochastic model of fault damage zone architecture is generated and used to explore the impact of damage zone architecture on extrapolation from 1D (fault throw) and 2D (fault length) to 3D fault population characteristics. Sampling of the simulated damage zone models shows that clustering of faults causes deviations from simple laws relating particularly 1D samples to 3D population power-law exponents, with differences between expected and observed values of up to 0.25. The stochastic model is used to generate input for a 2D discrete fracture flow model for the case where minor (isotropic) fault permeability is four orders of magnitude lower than that of the host rock and, thus, forms partial barriers to flow. The flow model is used to explore the impact of fault damage zones on bulk fault permeability. The damage zone is shown to be around 50% efficient, i.e. a simple estimate of bulk permeability can be made using the harmonic average of fault rock and host-rock permeability weighted by thickness in 1D traverses (e.g. core, well logs), where only half the observed thickness of fault rock in the fault damage zone is assumed. Considering the contributions of the damage zone and the major slip zone, the fault damage zone is likely to make a significant contribution to the bulk permeability of the fault as a whole when the permeability of minor faults in the damage zone is similar to, or at most, one order of magnitude greater than that of the slip zone fault rocks.