Atlas of Australian / New Zealand Seals

Richard (Ric) Daniel and John Kaldi
Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Technologies, at the Australian School of Petroleum, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

The Australia Petroleum Cooperative Research Centre (APCRC) has completed a comprehensive study on seals from formations in various basins throughout Australia and New Zealand. The results of the study are compiled as an atlas which comprises microstructural, petrophysical and geomechanical properties of selected cap rocks and faults for both hydrocarbon accumulations and injected CO₂ for geosequestration. The main applications of these data are to provide methodologies to evaluate seal potential for prospect risking and reservoir management and as analogues in the prediction of seal properties in various basins in Australia, New Zealand and beyond. Examples are presented from the Bass, Bowen-Surat, Carnarvon, Cooper-Eromanga, Gippsland, Otway, Taranaki, Vlaming and Vulcan basins. The atlas is primarily based on extensive high-pressure mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP) analyses. In addition to MICP data; thin section, XRD, grainsize distribution, SEM / EDS analyses and ‘V’ shale are included. The examples are grouped by basin localities, formation, well, and depth. While similar atlases exist in other parts of the world for reservoir rocks, this is the first such atlas to specifically characterize seals and even more specifically, to focus on Australian and New Zealand basins.

AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa 2008 © AAPG Search and Discovery