Study On Basin Modeling Approach For Pore Pressure Prediction

Abnormal pore pressures are encountered widely in oil and gas basins. Overpressure often results in drilling hazards and directly relates to the safe and economic hydrocarbon exploration. Because of this, understanding distribution and mechanisms of abnormally high pressure, quantitatively prediction of pore pressure is highly important. The mechanisms, all kinds of pre-drill prediction approaches for overpressure phenomenon have been reviewed. It is found that most conventional approaches used to predict pore pressure are based on the compaction methodology, and depended on establishing normal compaction trend, which ignore the complex geodynamical factors. In this paper, the background and applicability of basin modeling method have been investigated, and some assumptions and relevant mathematical model used to build the fit-for-purpose prediction basin model are defined. The simplified basin model is capable to account for the main overpressure mechanisms including compaction disequilibrium, hydrocarbon generation, pressure seal and 3D pressure communication phenomena. The applicability of the basin modeling scheme has been tested on real geology data. The Scotian basin in eastern Canada has been used for prototyping of simple 1D pre-drill pressure prediction. The North Sea Viking graben is used for simulating 3D pressure communication.