Oleh (Tim Dosen):

Dr. Ir. Eko Widianto, MT

Dr. Ir. Benyamin, MT
Dr. Ir. M. Burhannudinnur, MSc

Jurusan Teknik Geologi

Fakultas Teknologi Kebumian dan Energi
Universitas TRISAKTI

2013

6. Hydrocarbon Traps and Seal

 LECTURE MATERIALS
1 • Introduction
2 • Level of Petroleum Investigation – Plate Tectonic
3 • Petroleum Sedimentary Basin
4 • Hydrocarbon Source Rock
5 • Reservoir Rocks
6 • Hydrocarbon Trap and Seals
7 • Hydrocarbon Migration
8 • Data Analysis
9 • Exploration Risk Assessment
10 • Prospect Analysis
11 • Petroleum Geology of Indonesia
2
TRAPS AND SEALS

1. Definition and Concept

2. Trap Classification
a. Structural traps
b. Stratigraphic traps
c. Hydrodynamic traps
d. Combination traps
3. Seal
a. Definition and Classification
b. Seal Potential
c. Fault Seal Analysis
 Main Reference

Most of the text and pictures

are quoted from:

IHRDC, 2004; IPIM Learning

Allen & Allen, 1990; Basin Analysis Principle &
Application
 Petroleum System Definition
Geologic components and processes necessary to generate and store hydrocarbons, including a mature source rock,
migration pathway, reservoir rock, trap and seal. Appropriate relative timing of formation of these elements and the
processes of generation, migration and accumulation are necessary for hydrocarbons to accumulate and be preserved.
The components and critical timing relationships of a petroleum system can be displayed in a chart that shows geologic
time along the horizontal axis and the petroleum system elements along the vertical axis. Exploration plays and
prospects are typically developed in basins or regions in which a complete petroleum system has some likelihood of
existing.

Elements Processes
Source Rock Generation
Migration Route
Migration
Reservoir Rock
Accumulation
Seal Rock

Trap Preservation
TRAPS
Trap
The last critical factor in the cycle of generation, migration and
accumulation is the development of a trap. A trap is a geometric
configuration of structures and/ or strata, in which permeable rock
types (the reservoir) are surrounded and confined by impermeable rock
types (the seal). In some cases, traps may be created by hydrodynamic
factors, that is, by the movement of subsurface waters, but these are
relatively rare. Most traps fall into one of three categories ( next figure
): structural traps, stratigraphic traps, or combination traps that have
both structural and stratigraphic aspects.
Many terms are used to describe the various parts of a trap. The
anticlinal trap, the simplest type, will be used as our reference. The
highest point of the trap is the crest or culmination. The lowest point is
the spill point. A trap may or may not be full to the spill point. The
horizontal plane through the spill point is called the spill plane. The
vertical distance from the high point at the crest to the low point at the
spill point is the closure. The productive reservoir is the pay. Its gross
vertical interval is known as the gross pay. This can vary from only one or
two meters in Texas to several hundred in the North Sea and Middle
East.

Figure of Nomenclature of a trap using a simple anticline as an example

Not all of the gross pay of a reservoir may be productive. For
example, shale stringers within a reservoir unit contribute to
gross pay but not to net pay. Net pay refers only to the possibly
productive reservoir.

Figure of facies change in an anticlinal trap, illustrating the difference

between net pay and gross pay.
A trap may contain oil, gas or a combination of the two. The oil-water contact,
OWC, is the deepest level of producible oil within an individual reservoir ( Figure a
Fluid contacts within a reservoir in an oil-water system). It marks the interface
between predominately oil-saturated rocks and water-saturated rocks. Similarly,
either the gas-water contact, GWC ( Figure b , Fluid contacts within a reservoir in a
gas-water system), or the gas-oil contact, GOC ( Figure c , Fluid contacts within a
reservoir in a gas-oil-water system) is the lower level of the producible gas. The
GWC or GOC marks the interface between predominately gas-saturated rocks and
either water-saturated rocks, or oil-saturated rocks, as the case may be.
Boundaries between oil, gas and water may be sharp ( Figure a
,Transitional nature of fluid contacts within a reservoir-- sharp
contact) or gradational ( Figure b , Transitional nature of fluid
contacts within a reservoir-- gradational contact). An abrupt
fluid contact usually indicates a permeable reservoir. Gradational
contacts usually indicate low permeability reservoirs with high
capillary pressure.
Directly beneath the hydrocarbons is the zone of bottom water, the next Figure is
Nomenclature of underlying reservoir waters. The zone of edge water is adjacent to
the reservoir.

Fluid contacts in a trap are almost always planar but are by no means always
horizontal. Should a tilted fluid contact be present, its early recognition is essential
for correct evaluation of reserves, and for the establishment of efficient production
procedures.
One of the most common ways in which a tilted fluid contact may occur is through
hydrodynamic flow of bottom waters the next Figure is the Tilted fluid contact
caused by hydrodynamic flow.
There may be one or more separate hydrocarbon pools, each with
its own fluid contact, within the geographic limits of an oil or gas
field. The next Figure is Multiple pools within an oil and gas field.
Each individual pool may contain one or more pay zones.
TRAP CLASSIFICATION

TRAP TYPES CAUSES

Structural Traps Fold Traps
Compressional Tectonic
Compactional Depositional / Tectonic
Diapiric Tectonic
Fault Traps Tectonic
Stratigraphic Traps Reefs Depositional
Pinchout
Channel
Bars
Truncation Unconformity
Onlap
Replacement Diagenetic
Solution
Gas hydrates
Hydrodynamic
Combination
Structural Traps
Structural traps are the most common exploration target, since
they are often relatively easy to detect and have provided over
three-quarters of the world's discovered reserves. This is
particularly true of anticlines.

Through compression Compaction and drape features over

rigid high blocks
Another type of anticlinal trap, called a rollover anticline, forms
where rapid sedimentation onto undercompacted muds causes
instability and slumping. This produces a type of fault called a
growth fault, which may also trap oil. Anticlines may occur alone
or in combination with faults.

Growth fault Combination with fault

In cross section, the
anticline is overturned
and thrust faulted on its
southeastern flank
(Northwest-southeast
cross-section through
Painter Reservoir field).
The anticline occurs
beneath a series of
thrust slices that in turn
occur beneath a major
unconformity.
Individual anticlines are up to
60 kilometers in length and
10-15 kilometers in width.
Sixteen of these anticlinal
fields are in the "giant"
category with recoverable
reserves of over 500 million
barrels of oil or 3.5 trillion
cubic feet of gas (Halbouty et
al., 1970). The Asmari
limestone (Oligocene-
Miocene) , a reservoir with
extensive fracture porosity,
provides the main producing
reservoir. Some single wells
have flowed up to 50 million
barrels. (Southwest-northeast
generalized sections through
Asmari oil fields)
These faults may or may not help produce the trap. Faults may also be
traps in their own right, but in either case the faults must be tight and
impermeable if petroleum is to accumulate. Usually, there is no way to
test this except by drilling.

Salt flow structures or diapirs can generate anticlinal traps in the

overlying sediment, as well as fault and stratigraphic traps along their
flanks. Together, these salt flow-related traps account for about 2% of
the world's petroleum reserves.

Fault trap Diapiric trap

Stratigraphic Traps
Stratigraphic trap geometry is due to variations in lithology. These variations may
be controlled by the original deposition of the strata, as in the case of a bar, a
channel or a reef. Alternatively, the change may be post-depositional as in the case
of a truncation trap, or it may be due to diagenetic changes. For reviews on the
concept of stratigraphic traps, the reader is referred to Dott and Reynolds (1969)
and Rittenhouse (1972). Major sources of specific data on stratigraphic traps can
be found in King (1972), Busch (1974), and Conybeare (1976).
Levorsen (1967) defines a
stratigraphic trap as "one in which
the chief trap-making element is
some variation in the stratigraphy,
or lithology, or both, of the
reservoir rock, such as a facies
change, variable local porosity and
permeability, or an upstructure
termination of the reservoir rock,
irrespective of the cause."
Stratigraphic traps are harder to
locate than structural ones because
they are not as easily revealed by
reflection seismic surveys. Also, the
processes which give rise to them
are usually more complex than those
which cause structural traps.
A broad classification of the various
types of stratigraphic traps can be
made. However, classifying traps has
its limitations because many oil and
gas fields are transitional between
clearly-defined types.
Stratigraphic traps, due to lateral and vertical changes in rock
type, account for about 13% of the world's reserves. They fall
within a wide range of categories. Some are associated with
unconformities, whether above or below them. Others are updip
stratigraphic pinchouts within fluctuating transgressive-
regressive sequences.
Stratigraphic traps may also be related to diagenetic changes,
where differential solution or cementation have caused the rock
type to vary laterally. Some sandstone traps are elongated bodies,
either channels or coastal barrier bars (shoestring sands).
These are usually surrounded by shales, which may act as both source
rock and seal. Carbonate reefs can form stratigraphic traps if a high
porosity is preserved or a secondary porosity is developed. They often
occur along shelf margins, adjacent to deeper basins where source rocks
can accumulate.
When compared to structural
traps, evidence for
stratigraphic traps is often
subtle and they have historically
been difficult to find. However,
seismic techniques which detail
lithologic changes have since
become available to aid in the
search for stratigraphic traps.

Combination traps contain about

9% of the world's petroleum
reserves. These traps are often
found in areas where faults and
folds were actively growing
during deposition. In many
cases, these growing structures
produced lateral changes in
sediment facies or
unconformities, which helped
form the trap.
Hydrodynamic Traps
In a hydrodynamic trap, a downward movement of water prevents the
upward movement of oil or gas. Pure hydrodynamic traps are extremely
rare, but a number of traps result from the combination of hydrodynamic
forces and structure or stratigraphy. An ideal hydrodynamic trap is
shown in next figure (Schematic cross-section of an ideal hydrodynamic
trap). A monoclinal flexure is developed which has no genuine vertical
closure; oil could not be trapped within it in a normal situation.
Groundwater, however, is moving down through a permeable bed and is
preventing the upward escape of oil. Oil is trapped in the monoclinal
flexure above a tilted oil-water contact. Pure hydrodynamic traps like
this, however, are very rare.
Combination Traps
Combination traps result from two or more of the basic trapping mechanisms (
structural, stratigraphic, and hydrodynamic ). Since there are many ways in which
combination traps can occur, a few examples must suffice for explanation.
In the Main Pass Block 35 field of offshore Louisiana, a rollover anticline has
developed to the south of a major growth fault (Hartman, 1972) ( Next figure is
Structural contours on top of 'G2' sandstone, Main Pass Block 35, offshore
Louisiana).

The rollover anticline, however, is crosscut by a channel. Oil with a gas cap occurs
only within the channel; thus, the trap is due to a combination of structure and
stratigraphy.
An excellent example of a combination trap is provided by the Prudhoe Bay field on
the North Slope of Alaska (Morgridge and Smith, 1972; Jones and Speers, 1976;
Jamison et al., 1980; Bushnell, 1981). A series of Carboniferous-through-basal-
Cretaceous strata were folded into a westerly-plunging anticlinal nose (Structural
contours on top of Sadlerochit reservoir, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska).
Fault-unconformity
combination traps
characterize the northern
North Sea. Jurassic
sandstone reservoirs exist in
numerous tilted fault blocks
which were truncated and
overlain by Cretaceous
shales. The resulting traps
include such fields as Brent
(Bowen, 1972), Ninian
(Albright et al., 1980), and
Piper (Maher, 1980). A cross
section through one of
these, the Piper field, is
shown in this figure
(Southwest-northeast
structural cross-section,
Piper field, North Sea).
A cross section of
the field shows that
the channel is only
partially filled by
sand and is partly
plugged by clay
(West-east cross-
section A-Z of two
Lower Muddy
stream channels).
The Rocky Mountain Cretaceous
basins contain many barrier bar
stratigraphic traps. The Bisti field in
the San Juan basin, New Mexico is
a classic barrier bar sand (Sabins,
1963, 1972). The field is about 65
kilometers long and 7 kilometers
wide. Figure Bar sandstone isopach
map of Bisti field, Colorado).
SEAL
SEAL
A seal usually consists of an impermeable unit that overlies or surrounds a reservoir, preventing
vertical or lateral movement of reservoired petroleum. Even with ideal source and reservoir units,
our play will fail without an effective seal. So, we must ask ourselves:

• How laterally extensive are the seals?

• How thick are they?
• Do the seals have the optimal structural geometry to be effective?

The simplest type of seal is a contact between the reservoir and an overlying roof rock where this
surface has been deformed into a convex-upward shape (Milton and Bertram, 1992). A
sandstone/shale couplet deformed into a dome is an example of this type of sealing situation.
Other sealing surfaces include sedimentary contacts and facies changes. Typical seals are fine-
grained clastics such as shales, fine-grained limestones, or anhydrite and other evaporites.
Course-grained rocks cemented with silica, calcite, halite, and asphalt also act as seals. Fault
surfaces can also be seals. If a porous unit is juxtaposed with a sealing unit across an inactive fault,
the fault generally will act as a seal. Clay or shale distributed in a gouge zone can produce a
sealing fault. A pressure difference between two porous units across a fault zone can also create
sealing conditions. To truly understand the importance and effect of the seal element, we need to
consider its relationship to the trap element.
After petroleum has been generated and has migrated into a reservoir unit, it will continue to
migrate through that unit unless it encounters a seal and is trapped in some way.
 Seal
• Seal rocks is an essential element of the petroleum
system. Because where confining seals are lacking,
hydrocarbons escape to the surface.
• In the petroleum system, there are two important classes
of seals;
– regional seals that roof migrating hiydrocarbon and
– local seals that confine accumulations.
• Major roofing seals act to confine migrating
hydrocarbons to particular stratigraphic units.
• Seal as a important element has strong relationship with
trapping mechanism. Traps act as “valves,” controlling
what they retain, leak, and spill. Closure (vertical
distance between spillpoint and top of the trap) vs. seal
strength (height of the hydrocarbon column the seal can
retain before leaking) controls this.
 Seal Potential
• The seal potential of a lithology is a combination of :
– the calculated amount of hydrocarbon column height supported
(seal capacity);
• Seal capacity is measured in the laboratory by using mercury
injection capillary pressure (MICP) analysis of representative rock
samples
– the structural position,
– thickness, and areal extent of the lithology (seal geometry)
• Seal geometry can best be determined by integrating seismic data,
borehole information, regional sedimentological/ stratigraphic
relationships, detailed well correlations, and comparisons to known
depositional analogs
– rock mechanical properties such as ductility (seal integrity).
• Seal integrity can generally be evaluated from rock mechanics
studies and/or petrographic analysis.
 Sealing Parameters
1. Lithology
– Any lithology can form a seal in the
subsurface, provided that the
minimum displacement ressure of
the potential seal rock is greater
than the established buoyancy
pressure of the hydrocarbons within
the accumulation (Schowalter,
1979; Sneider, 1987; Vavra et al.,
1992).
– However, in practice, the
overwhelming majority of the
effective seal rocks are evaporates,
fine-grained clastics, and organic
rich rocks. These lithologies are
commonly evaluated as seals
because the have high entry
pressure, are laterally continuous,
maintain uniforminty of lihtology
over large areas, and are relatively
ductile.

Figure 1. Examples of various seal lithofacies in core from the

BZZ area (Kaldi and Atkinson, 1997).
 Sealing Parameters (2)
2. Geometry
– Several centimeters of ordinary clay
shale are theoretically adequate to trap a
large vertical column of hydrocarbons.
– For example, a clay shale with a particle
size of 10-4 mm would be expected to
have a capillary entry pressure of about
600 psi (Hubert, 1953), theoretically
capable of holding back an oil column of
3000 ft (915 m).
– Unfortunately the thin shale would be
less continuous, tend to be broken, and
less uniform. A thick seal would provide
many layers of contingent sealing beds Figure 2. Example of potential seal facies
and high continuity Geometries in the BZZ area. Data from BZZ area
core, Mahakam Delta analog, and literature.
(Kaldi and Atkinson, 1997)
 Sealing Parameters (3)
3. Ductility
– Lithologies having a very fine pore Table. 1. Ductile seal lithologies
structure and a ductile matrix can retain ranked most to least.
sealing properties even under severe
deformation.
– Organic-rich rocks contain deformable
layers of kerogen; such rocks commonly
have a plastic behaviour during folding.
The flowage of the soft kerogen layers
causes high displacement pressures in
the relict pores.
– In the overthrust regions of the world,
where deformation and fracturingare
expected to be most intense, ductility
becomes important when assessing
sealing layers for accumulations.
 Sealing Parameters (4)
4. Seal Capacity
– The quality of a rock seal at
any given time is determined
by the minimum pressure
required to displace connate
water from pores or
fractures in the seal, thereby
allowing leakage.
– This minimum entry
pressure (capillary entry
pressures) thus describes
the buoyancy pressure of
the hydrocarbon phase that
must be attained to allow Figure 3. Mercury injection capillary pressure
hydrocarbons to penetrate curves plotted by facies. Note reservoir facies in
through an adjacent surface. green. Data from BZZ area study
(Kaldi and Atkinson, 1997).
 Trap Closure
• Trap closure has strong relationship with the seal
potential parametesr. Where various configuration of a
seal rock with its suitable lithology, geometry, structural
setting, and its capacity to hold the hydrocarbon
buoyancy pressure, resulted trap closure classes that
enough to cover any possibilities.
• Assuming parameters like lithology, ductility, and
geometry, already fit the requirements, the trap closure
classes are control mainly by the structural position and
seal strength.
• As a simplification of how much the accumulation,
hydrocarbon column height is used. Two key
hydrocarbon columns are used as thresholds for the
classification: the highest possible gas column and the
highest possible total column the seal of the trap will
allow.
 Trap Closure (2)
The three classes that can be defined
and they distribute hydrocarbons
differently. They are:
• Class 1;
traps spill rather than leak gas, finally
spilling oil from the trap.
• Class 2;
traps leak gas but spill oil, and have
gas/oil contacts suspended in
midtrap. The argument that oil has a
lower interfacial angle and entry
pressure applies only until leakage
starts. Then gas’s higher position,
smaller molecules, and lower Figure 4. Diagrammatic cross section showing one of each class of
viscosity make it more mobile. trap, and its characteristic fill. Bubble (G = gas, O = oil) indicate the
type of fluid that is spilled or leaked from each class trap.
• Class 3;
traps spill neither fluid, but
accumulate oil until it balances seal
strength; thereafter, gas plus excess
oil leaks.
 Trap Closure (3)
Case Example: Class 2 Trap—Oseberg,
Northern North Sea
• Oseberg (Figure 5) has a 375m gas and
602m total column, filled-to-spill (Nipen,
1987).
• Apparent gasblooms, hydrocarbon shows
in Cretaceous limestone stringers, and
areas of poor seismic quality (Nipen,
1987) suggest leakage.
• If Oseberg were class 1 and capable of
filling with gas, it would require about 25%
more seal strength than the actual column
requires, and could support an equivalent Figure 5. Pressure-depth diagram showing generalized seal-spill
oil column of >1000 m. relationships for the Oseberg Field. (Based on data from Nipen, 1987).

• Because Oseberg already has an

exceptional seal for the area, it seems
more likely to be a class 2 trap at
equilibrium than a class 1 trap still filling.
 SEAL LITHOLOGY

Shale is the dominant caprock of worldwide reserves and is overwhelmingly the

seal in basins rich in terrigenous sediments, where sandstones are the dominant
reservoir rock.

Evaporites, however, are the most efficient caprock. They are particularly common
in carbonate-rich basins, and they often form seals for carbonate reservoirs
Caprock lithologies, depth range, age and recoverable reserves of the
world’s 25 largest oil fields (Allen & Allen; 1990)
Caprock lithologies, depth range, age and recoverable reserves (in
standard cubic feet) of the world’s 25 largest gas fields (Allen &
Allen; 1990)
Seal depths of the world ’ s giant oil fields. Almost of half of the
ultimately recoverable reserves in the world’s giant fields are sealed at
depth of 1 to 2 km. (Allen & Allen, 1990).
Seal depths of the world’s giant gas fields. For the world, the depth
distribution is similar to that for oil. Deep gas may, however, be under-
represented relative to its occurrence in nature, since in many cases it is
uneconomic to explore for deep gas. (Allen & Allen, 1990).
 FAULT SEALS ANALYSIS

Mechanically derived fault rock (Yielding, 1997):

• Juxtaposition where reservoir sands are juxtaposed

against a low-permeability unit (i.e. shale) with high
entry pressure.
• Clay Smear into fault plane, therefore generating the
fault it self a high entry pressure.
• Cataclastic which is the crushing of sand grains to
produce a fault gouge of finer grained material, giving
the fault a high entry pressure.
• Diagenesis /Mineralization/Alteration, where
cementation of original permeable fault plane may
partially or completely remove porosity, finally creating
a hydraulic seal.
 FAULT SEALS ANALYSIS
(Juxtaposition)

1. SAND ON SAND
2. SHALE ON SAND
3. SHALE ON SHALE
(Courtsey, sapiee, 2007)
 FAULT SEALS ANALYSIS
(Clay Smear)

Field condition Geological sketch

Sst Sst

Sst Sst
Clay smear

3
Sst

Sst
1. SAND ON SAND
2. SHALE ON SAND
3. SHALE ON SHALE
(Yielding, 1997)
FAULT SEALS ANALYSIS
(Cataclastic)

Fault Gouge
(Crushing Sandstone Content)

(Courtsey, Sapiee, 2007)

 FAULT SEALS ANALYSIS
(Diagenesis/mineralization/alteration)

(Hippler, 1997)
 Conclusion
• Hydrocarbon seals are the essential element of the
petroleum system.
• Interplay among closure, seal strength, and buoyancy
provides a fundamental control on proportions of oil and
gas in traps.
• In a trap exposed to excess of both fluids, closure vs.
seal strength relationships are the dominant control on
fill character.
• Three trap classes are based on this relationship, using
the height of the longest possible gas column and the
deeper longest possible (oil dominated) column as
thresholds.
• Mechanically derived fault rock include Juxtaposition,
Clay Smear, Cataclastic, Diagenesis/ Mineralization /
Alteration