--> Abstract: Conditions Favoring Salt Migration and Reservoir Development, by K. Tuncay, P. Ortoleva, J. Golding, and K. Sundberg; #90937 (1998).
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Abstract: Conditions Favoring Salt Migration and Reservoir Development

TUNCAY, KAGAN, and PETER ORTOLEVA, Laboratory for Computational Geodynamics; JULIE GOLDING, and KENNETH SUNDBERG, Phillips Petroleum Company

Salt migration and deformation results from the interplay of the mechanics of salt and neighboring formations, fluid pressure, sedimentary history, and basin subsidence and compression. These factors affect the location and characteristics of salt tectonic-related reservoirs. We have integrated these factors into a three-dimensional salt and rock mechanics, diagenetic, and hydrologic model which is used to predict the location and characteristics of reservoirs associated with salt bodies.

Our finite element model uses an incremental stress rheology to predict the deformation of salt and the surrounding rocks. This theology integrates poroelesticity, Previous HitnonlinearTop (yield) continuous irreversible deformation, pressure solution, and fracturing. Simulations show that:

^bull fluid overpressure in the sediments surrounding the salt body greatly enhances salt motion;

^bull the latter leads to complex coordinated deformation of neighboring salt and friable mudstones;

^bull salt migration is episodic (not smooth) due to time delay in the yield and stress release in the surrounding rocks and salt motion; and

^bull basin extension and wrenching can enhance salt migration.

When these phenomena interact with the changing sediment-water interface, a host of reservoir types and behaviors may occur. These concepts are illustrated with simulations of specific salt tectonic-related reservoirs in the U.S./Mexico Gulf coast. As our model is dynamic and three-dimensional, we are able to predict the evolution in time of a deforming salt body and the dynamics of the related reservoirs (including their petroleum infilling/loss and porosity/permeability).

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90937©1998 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah