Abstract: Methods of Estimating and Predicting Abnormal Formation Pressures

Vladimir A. Serebryakov

The author describes techniques for the prediction and estimation of formation pressures that have been used for more than 20 years in the former USSR and some of them in USA. The describe methods are divided into two groups: methods used before drilling and methods used during drilling.

The first group includes: methods for the prediction of abnormally-high pressure using geological and geophysical data in regions with non-equilibrium compaction; methods for the prediction of abnormally-high and abnormally-low pressures in regions with uplift and erosion, or subsidence, of compacted sedimentary rocks; methods for the prediction of low pressure in regions with perma-frost; and methods of seismic exploration.

The methods belonging to the second group basically involve the use of well-logging and drilling data: the method (if equivalent depth, the method of normal compaction trend, the method of compressional curves, and the method based on the analysis of the concentration of the radio-active isotope 40K in shales.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90952©1996 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Billings, Montana