Petroleum Systems Modeling Since AAPG Memoir 60

Abstract

It is always worth rereading Magoon and Dow's 1994 paper “The Petroleum System” in AAPG Memoir 60. The authors show four levels of petroleum investigations which range from basin to petroleum system to play and finally to prospect. However, what we now take for granted was not always the case, as they also state that all of the terms are widely used by petroleum geologists with the exception of petroleum system. The authors then proceed to show how the term petroleum system and its definition evolved from previous work, what its role is and why it has value in systematic investigations of petroleum geology. The value of the term ‘model’ is also similarly under-appreciated, even though the term ‘we think in models’ is sometimes used. It is particularly appropriate for geologists who cannot in any way represent the full spatial and temporal extent of what they are investigating without the use of models. Drafting a geological cross-section based on outcrop is a typical example of how a model is created to represent our understanding. When Memoir 60 was published in 1994, digital models were still replacing non-digital forms of data interpretation and storage in the industry, and this process has now largely been completed. Our ability to create digital models has had a significant impact on petroleum systems investigations, as it has enabled us to use the data models and their included essential elements (source, reservoir, seal and overburden) to simulate the essential processes (trap formation and the generation-migration-accumulation of petroleum) and their evolution through geologic time in the entire system. In this paper, we show how each of Magoon and Dow's essential elements and processes can be represented and analyzed in petroleum systems models, and how the technology has evolved since AAPG Memoir 60 was published. In exploration geology, we now think in terms of the essential elements and processes that Magoon and Dow defined. Their paper has become a milestone in the petroleum geosciences and we now take the term petroleum system for granted. This is a significant achievement and their understanding is still the foundation of what we are using in petroleum exploration today.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90259 ©2016 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 19-22, 2016