Fault Slicing: Study of Faults from Production Perspective

Alistair R. Brown, G. Serpell Edwards, Robert E. Howard

The manner in which a fault intersects a hydrocarbon reservoir affects production characteristics and thus must be understood in great detail. A 3-D seismic data volume can be sliced interactively to yield seismic sections along and parallel to a fault plane. These fault slices can then be used for the study of faults in several ways. Tracking of correlative horizons on fault slices provides a map of fault throw and permits a study of the throw as a function of time (or depth) and horizontal position. Because a fault slice remains within one major fault block, the study of growth relationships within that block is greatly facilitated. Splinter faults, also significant to an understanding of production characteristics, can be studied effectively on fault slices because of he uniform proximity of these sections to the parent fault. Correlation of one fault slice in the upthrown block with one in the downthrown block by color mixing is used to study formation juxtaposition and hence the sealing and leaking characteristics of the fault.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91038©1987 AAPG Annual Convention, Los Angeles, California, June 7-10, 1987.