Petroleum Geoscience

Knut Bjørlykke Editor

Petroleum

Geoscience

From Sedimentary Environments

to Rock Physics – Second Edition

Petroleum Geoscience

.

Knut Bjørlykke

Editor

Petroleum Geoscience

From Sedimentary Environments to

Rock Physics

Second Edition

With contributions from Per Avseth, Jan Inge Faleide,

Pa˚l T. Gabrielsen, Roy H. Gabrielsen, Nils-Martin Hanken,

Helge Hellevang, Kaare Høeg, Jens Jahren, Sta˚le Emil Johansen,

Ragnar Knarud, Martin Landrø, Nazmul Haque Mondol, Jenø Nagy,

Jesper Kresten Nielsen, Jan C. Rivenæs, Hans C. Rønnevik

and Peter Sørhaug

Editor

Knut Bjørlykke

Department of Geosciences

University of Oslo

Blindern, Oslo

Norway

ISBN 978-3-642-34131-1 ISBN 978-3-642-34132-8 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-34132-8

Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014958087

# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010, 2015

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Preface

The second edition of Petroleum Geoscience is an updated and corrected version of

the first edition from 2010 and there are also four new chapters.

Petroleum geology and geophysics are not well-defined academic subjects. They

include many different aspects of the Earth sciences which are used in petroleum

exploration and production.

Nearly all types of insight can in some cases be useful in petroleum exploration

and production, but there are some disciplines that are most relevant. Since

petroleum is formed and for the most part hosted in sedimentary rocks, sedimen￾tology is critical. Palaeontology is important for dating rocks, and carbonate

reservoirs may consist mostly of fossils. Structural geology and basin analysis

are also vital for reconstructing the migration and trapping of petroleum. Geo￾chemistry and petroleum chemistry are also important. About 50% of the geos￾cientists in the petroleum industry are involved with production rather than

exploration and we have added a chapter on reservoir modelling written by experts

from Statoil Norway.

Geophysical methods are essential for logging and seismic exploration, and

recently electromagnetic methods have also been more commonly used in explora￾tion and production. This is covered in a new chapter. We have also added a chapter

on CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage). The chapter on well logging has been

rewritten and is now more comprehensive.

Most universities do not offer specific courses in petroleum geology/geophysics

and only a few have Masters or PhD programmes in this field. Oil companies

therefore recruit many geologists with little training in these subjects.

In this book, we have tried to give a basic introduction to disciplines relevant to

petroleum exploration and we have also included some aspects of petroleum produc￾tion and modelling.

Since so many different disciplines are included in this book, it is clear that it has

not been possible to make in-depth treatments of all of these. This book provides a

relatively condensed and precise presentation of the basic theories and facts in each

subject and it was therefore necessary to limit the number of field examples and

cases.

We have attempted to write a book which requires only a limited background in

geology and geophysics. Some of the chapters are therefore relatively basic, but

others are more advanced and we have then included more discussion and references

to original research papers. Each chapter is written as a separate contribution and

v

there may be some degree of overlap between them to avoid too much cross reference

to other chapters.

Petroleum geology and geophysics are applied disciplines and practical experi￾ence is critical. A separate chapter on petroleum exploration is written by a geologist

with 40 years of experience from the Norwegian Continental shelf (Hans Rønnevik).

The Norwegian Continental Self (NCS) has been explored for nearly 50 years and

data from wells and seismic surveys is very well documented through the Norwegian

Petroleum Directorate and is accessible through their home page (www.npd.no).

They also have a very large collection of cores.

References to the original literature had to be limited because of the wide range of

disciplines. In the past, textbooks often included very extensive lists of references

which were very useful when searching for relevant literature. With the electronic

databases available now, it is easy to search for relevant references and new text￾books.

In this textbook, we have tried to bridge the gap that often seems to exist between

geophysical and geological disciplines and there is also an emphasis on sediment

compaction, fluid flow and rock physics. The skills required for a petroleum geolo￾gist have changed greatly over the years. Traditionally the main task was to identify

reservoir rocks, structures with closure and the proximity of a mature source rock.

We are running out of “the easy to find” and “easy to produce” oil and gas, and

exploration and production technology is becoming more advanced. It is now

possible to produce oil and gas from source rocks (shales) and not only what has

migrated into a reservoir rock. This has increased the world’s petroleum reserves

very significantly in recent years. In North America, shale gas and shale oil produc￾tion has increased and has lowered the gas price also internationally.

Production of unconventional oil (tar sand, oil shale) and also tight gas reservoirs

and gas shale requires a stronger background in mineralogy, chemistry and physics.

The geophysical methods have become increasingly sophisticated and it is now

often possible to detect the presence of gas and oil prior to drilling based on seismic

data. Electromagnetic methods that were primarily used in mineral prospecting are

also used to find oil. As conventional oil is becoming more scarce, more geologists

are becoming involved with exploration and production of heavy oil, oil shales and

shale gas. Utilization of these resources may be environmentally more problematic

than conventional oil and gas and tends to cause increased CO2 emission during

production.

This requires a stronger background in the chemistry and physics of petroleum

and also in mineralogy and rock mechanics (rock physics). Physical and chemical

modelling is also very important.

Even if alternative sources of energy are being developed, the world will require

fossil fuels for several decades. It is a great challenge to limit the environmental

consequences of the production and use of fossil energy.

Until sufficient low-cost renewable energy is available, geoscientists can contrib￾ute to efficient exploration and production of oil and gas, reducing pollution and CO2

emissions as much as possible. They may also engage in developing carbon storage.

Much of the theoretical basis is the same for environmental geology and petro￾leum geology.

vi Preface

Capturing and storage of CO2 from fossil fuels in the subsurface (CCS) require

very much the same skills as production of oil and gas.

We hope that this book will be of some use also for geoscientists who work

outside the petroleum industry.

Preface vii

.

Acknowledgments

Adrian Read ([email protected]) has been of great assistance as Text Editor in

the preparation of both the first and the second edition of this book.

Jan Petter Holm has provided new figures for this edition.

Per Arne Bjørkum (Statoil) and Antony Spencer (formerly Statoil) have been very

helpful in reviewing large parts of the first edition of this book.

Valuable reviews of single chapters have been made by Tony Dickson (Chap. 5),

Tom Andersen (Chap. 3), and Olav Walderhaug, Statoil (Chap. 4).

Masaoki Adachi, Jon Reierstad and Jan Petter Holm have made many of the

figures in the book and figures have also been prepared by Tom Erik Maast, Øyvind

Marcussen, Olav Blaich, Brit Thyberg, Delphine Croize´ Delphine and Tove Midtun.

Statoil has provided funding which has helped the preparation of this book, and

we are grateful for this support.

Fugro Geoscience Division has kindly provided good seismic data from offshore

Norway and also from other parts of the world.

Oslo, Norway Knut Bjørlykke

ix

.

Contents

1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology .......................... 1

Knut Bjørlykke

2 Introduction to Sedimentology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Knut Bjørlykke

3 Sedimentary Geochemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Knut Bjørlykke

4 Sandstones and Sandstone Reservoirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Knut Bjørlykke and Jens Jahren

5 Carbonate Sediments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Nils-Martin Hanken, Knut Bjørlykke and Jesper Kresten Nielsen

6 Mudrocks, Shales, Silica Deposits and Evaporites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Knut Bjørlykke

7 Stratigraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Jenø Nagy and Knut Bjørlykke

8 Seismic Stratigraphy, Sequence Stratigraphy and Basin Analysis . . . 255

Knut Bjørlykke

9 Heat Transport in Sedimentary Basins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Knut Bjørlykke

10 Subsurface Water and Fluid Flow in Sedimentary Basins . . . . . . . . . 279

Knut Bjørlykke

11 Introduction to Geomechanics: Stress and Strain in Sedimentary

Basins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Knut Bjørlykke, Kaare Høeg and Nazmul Haque Mondol

12 The Structure and Hydrocarbon Traps of Sedimentary Basins . . . . . 319

Roy H. Gabrielsen

13 Compaction of Sedimentary Rocks: Shales, Sandstones

and Carbonates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Knut Bjørlykke

14 Source Rocks and Petroleum Geochemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Knut Bjørlykke

xi

15 Petroleum Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Knut Bjørlykke

16 Well Logging: Principles, Applications and Uncertainties . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Nazmul Haque Mondol

17 Seismic Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Nazmul Haque Mondol

18 Explorational Rock Physics: The Link between Geological Processes

and Geophysical Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Per Avseth

19 4D Seismic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Martin Landrø

20 Interpretation of Marine CSEM and Marine MT Data for

Hydrocarbon Prospecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Sta˚le Emil Johansen and Pa˚l T. Gabrielsen

21 Production Geology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Knut Bjørlykke

22 Introduction to Reservoir Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Jan C. Rivenæs, Petter Sørhaug and Ragnar Knarud

23 Unconventional Hydrocarbons: Oil Shales, Heavy Oil, Tar Sands,

Shale Oil, Shale Gas and Gas Hydrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Knut Bjørlykke

24 Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Helge Hellevang

25 Geology of the Norwegian Continental Shelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603

Jan Inge Faleide, Knut Bjørlykke and Roy H. Gabrielsen

26 Exploration Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

Hans Chr Rønnevik

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

xii Contents

List of Contributors

Per Avseth, Tullow Oil, Oslo, Norway

Knut Bjørlykke, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Jan Inge Faleide, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Nils-Martin Hanken, Department of Geology, UiT - The Arctic University of

Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Helge Hellevang, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Pa˚l T. Gabrielsen, EMGS (ElectroMagnetic GeoServices ASA OSE), Trondheim,

Norway

Roy Gabrielsen, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Kaare Høeg, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Jens Jahren, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Sta˚le Emil Johansen, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

Ragnar Knarud, Statoil, Stavanger, Norway

Martin Landrø, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

Nazmul Haque Mondol, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo,

Norway

Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), Oslo, Norway

Jenø Nagy, Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Jesper Kresten Nielsen, North Energy ASA, New Area Exploration, Alta, Norway

Jan C. Rivenæs, Statoil, Stavanger, Norway

Hans C. Rønnevik, Lundin, Oslo, Norway

Petter Sørhaug, Statoil, Stavanger, Norway

xiii

Chapter 1

Introduction to Petroleum Geology

Knut Bjørlykke

Petroleum geology comprises those geological

disciplines which are of greatest significance for the

finding and recovery of oil and gas. Since most of the

obvious and “easy to find” petroleum already has been

discovered it is necessary to use sophisticated methods

in the exploration of sedimentary basins. These

include advanced geophysical techniques and basin

modelling. There is also much more emphasis now

on enhanced recovery from the producing fields.

Petroleum technology has made great progress and

many new tools and modelling programs have been

developed, both in exploration and production.

It is however important to understand the geologi￾cal processes which determine the distribution of dif￾ferent sedimentary rocks and their physical properties.

This knowledge is fundamental to being able to suc￾cessfully apply the methods now available.

It is difficult to know where to start when teaching

petroleum geology because nearly all the different

disciplines build on each other.

This introductory chapter will provide a short and

rather simple overview of some aspects of petroleum

geology to introduce the subject and the problems.

Most of the other chapters will then expand on what

is presented here to provide a better background in

relevant subjects.

Since practically all petroleum occurs in sedimen￾tary rocks, sedimentary geology forms one of the main

foundations of petroleum geology. Sedimentological

models are used to predict the location of different

facies in the sedimentary basins, and from that the

likely presence of source rocks with a high content

of organic matter, reservoir rocks and cap rocks. The

distribution and geometry of potential sandstone or

carbonate reservoirs requires detailed sedimentologi￾cal models, and sequence stratigraphy has been a use￾ful tool in such reconstructions.

The biostratigraphic correlation of strata encoun￾tered in exploration wells is achieved by

micropalaeontology (including palynology), a field

developed very largely by the oil industry. Due to the

small size of the samples obtained during drilling

operations one cannot rely on macrofossils; even in

core samples the chance of finding good macrofossils

is poor. By contrast a few grams of rock from the drill

cuttings may contain several hundred microfossils or

palynomorphs which are small remains of plants such

as pollen, spores etc. These also usually provide better

stratigraphic resolution than macrofossils.

Reservoir rocks are mostly sandstones and

carbonates which are sufficiently porous to hold sig￾nificant amounts of petroleum. The composition and

properties of other rock types such as shales and salt

are also important.

The sedimentary environments (sedimentary facies)

determine the distribution of reservoir rocks and their

primary composition. Sediments do, however, alter

their properties with increasing overburden due to dia￾genesis during burial.

Diagenetic processes determine the changes in

porosity (compaction), permeability and other physi￾cal properties such as velocity, in both sandstone and

limestone reservoirs. Chemical processes controlling

mineral reactions are important. K. Bjørlykke (*)

Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

e-mail: [email protected]

K. Bjørlykke (ed.), Petroleum Geoscience: From Sedimentary Environments to Rock Physics,

DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-34132-8_1, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

1