A Fault Re-Activation Study in Deepwater Gulf of Mexico: A Coupled Modeling Approach

Brown, Jeremy; Hornby, Brian; Zoback, Mark

The Paleogene play in the Gulf of Mexico is a prolific asset that is located in ultra deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The water depth to the seafloor and subsea depth of the reservoir makes this play one of the deepest and most challenging environments to ever face the industry. A coupled reservoir-geomechanical simulator scheme is used to model stress changes due to depletion and to predict potential shear failure on pre-existing faults. Fluid-flow simulations are performed in a commercial reservoir simulator and the resulting fluid pressure changes are transferred to the finite-element geomechanical simulator (ABAQUS) in order to update porosity, permeability, and deformational changes in the reservoir. Based on earlier work, we seek to confirm that, given substantial depletion, whether fault re-activation is likely and if so, what the likely consequences would be for reservoir management.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90163©2013AAPG 2013 Annual Convention and Exhibition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 19-22, 2013