Temisflow: The Next Generation of Basin Modelling Simulators

Marie-Christine Cacas, Jean-Luc Rudkiewicz, Isabelle Faille, Didier Granjeon, and Muriel Thibaut
IFP, Rueil-Malmaison Cedex, France

In the future, oil industry will exploit complex sedimentary basins, and basin studies will integrate more and more advanced and inter-related processes including diagenesis, stratigraphy, tectonics, fault hydrodynamics, etc... Basin modelling simulators will definitely become essential in these complex environments.

Until recently, 3D basin modelling simulators could only account for simplified hydrodynamics along faults, and complex tectonics were accounted for only in 2D vertical sections. However, complex tectonic settings very often involve non-cylindrical geometries and processes, and fault hydrodynamics is a key factor of fluid pressure distribution and hydrocarbon migration.

The next generation of basin modelling software tools must be able to simulate these processes accurately, and in 3D. To do so, basin simulation is being completely revisited. Backstripping is no longer applicable: instead of restoring the geometry by applying a vertical compaction hypothesis, the basin architecture through time is obtained by a 3D structural restoration.

The analysis of structurally complex basins and their deformation through time will require new calculators based on 3D unstructured meshes: those are necessary to honor the complex architecture of the fault network, the discontinuity between adjacent fault compartments and the possible fluid flow along fault surfaces.

Finally, new solutions must be proposed to populate the basin model with stratigraphy-consistent sedimentary and organic facies. This is now made possible by integrating process-based forward modelling of sedimentary processes with basin modelling, to account for a complex sedimentological architecture.

The TemisFlow project aims at developping a basin modelling simulator which addresses all the challenges listed above. It will be described in the poster, with first results made available.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas