Estimating the influence of stress state on compaction behavior

Hauser, Matt R.; Couzens-Schultz, Brent A.; Chan, Alvin W.

doi:10.1190/geo2014-0089.1

Cited by 25 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In summary, our results highlight the need to address pore pressure prediction in fold‐and‐thrust belts using methods capable of accounting for the full stress tensor (Goulty, ; Hauser et al, ; Obradors‐Prats et al, ). In addition, comparison of the results obtained from the coupled model with a hydrostatic case reveals the role of overpressure in increasing sediment brittleness, so that pore pressure evolution changes field‐scale deformation style.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Hydromechanical Modeling of Stress, Pore Pressure, and Porosity Evolution in Fold‐and‐Thrust Belt Systems

et al. 2017

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We present coupled, critical state, geomechanical‐fluid flow simulations of the evolution of a fold‐and‐thrust belt in NW Borneo. Our modeling is the first to include the effects of both syntectonic sedimentation and transient pore pressure on the development of a fold‐and‐thrust belt. The present‐day structure predicted by the model contains the key first‐order structural features observed in the field in terms of thrust fault and anticline architectures. Stress predictions in the sediments show two compressive zones aligned with the shortening direction located at the thrust front and back limb. Between the compressive zones, near to the axial plane of the anticline, the modeled stress field represents an extensional regime. The predicted overpressure distribution is strongly influenced by tectonic compaction, with the maximum values located in the two laterally compressive regions. We compared the results at three notional well locations with their corresponding uniaxial strain models: the 2‐D thrust model predicted porosities which are as much as 7.5% lower at 2.5 km depth and overpressures which are up to 6.4 MPa higher at 3 km depth. These results show that one‐dimensional methods are not sufficient to model the evolution of pore pressure and porosity in contractional settings. Finally, we performed a drained simulation during which pore pressures were kept hydrostatic. The predicted geological structures differ substantially from those of the coupled simulation, with no thrust faulting. These results demonstrate that pore pressure is a key control on structural development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Hydromechanical Modeling of Stress, Pore Pressure, and Porosity Evolution in Fold‐and‐Thrust Belt Systems

et al. 2017

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“…We have measured an EDM error magnitude of up to 11 MPa at a depth of 3.5 km. These results are not surprising as the EDM is based on a relationship between porosity and vertical effective stress, ignoring the contribution of lateral stresses on compaction and overpressure generation (Goulty, 2004;Hauser et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Assessing the implications of tectonic compaction on pore pressure using a coupled geomechanical approach

Obradors-Prats

Rouainia

Aplin

et al. 2017

Marine and Petroleum Geology

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Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractOverpressure prediction in tectonic environments is a challenging topic. The available pore pressure prediction methods are designed to work in environments where compaction is mostly one dimensional and driven by the vertical effective stress applied by the overburden. Furthermore, the impact of tectonic deformation on stresses, porosity and overpressure is still poorly understood. We use a novel methodology to capture the true compaction phenomena occurring in an evolving 3D stress regime by integrating a fully-coupled geomechanical approach with a critical state constitutive model. To this end, numerical models consisting of 2D plane strain clay columns are developed to account for compaction and overpressure generation during sedimentation and tectonic activity. We demonstrate that a high deviatoric stress is generated in compressional tectonic basins, resulting in a substantial decrease in porosity with continuing overpressure increase.The overpressure predictions from our numerical models are then compared to those estimated by the equivalent depth method (EDM) in order to quantify the error induced when using classical approaches, based on vertical effective stress, in tectonic environments. The stress paths presented here reveal that a deviation from the uniaxial burial trend can substantially reduce the accuracy of the EDM overpressure predictions.

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“…This active deposition provides vertical loading superimposed on the tectonic compression, resulting in a complex sediment compaction mechanism (Hauser et al 2014). …”

Section: Geology Of Sundaland Continental Marginmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The deepwater of NW and East Borneo are compressional basins with ongoing vertical sediment loading (Couzen-Schultz and Azbel 2014), which results in the upper to crestal sections of the fold structures being dominantly extensional, and then changes into strike-slip and reverse fault regimes in the core of the folds (Hauser et al 2014). This vertical stress transfer results in a complex sediment compaction history that causes multifaceted overpressure loading mechanisms (Couzen-Schultz and Azbel 2014).…”

Section: Deepwater Geopressurementioning

confidence: 99%

Geopressure Prediction in Deepwater Southeast Asia: Case Study from Sundaland Borneo Continental Margin

et al. 2015

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Drilling into deepwater prospects of South East Asia have been very challenging especially in NW Borneo and subsurface hazards related to pore pressure and wellbore stability remain the greatest obstacle. A myriad of wellbore issues have led to failure of some wells to reach geological targets and the drilling cost as high as US$100 million (as of 2014) is not uncommon in the area. It is important to be able to understand the geological nature of pore pressure mechanism in deepwater Sundaland continental margin (DSCM) and thus redefine pore pressure prediction strategy in the area to better align with the regional characteristics.The currently established empirical effective stress-based pore pressure prediction is dissected to reveal its pitfalls especially regarding its application to DSCM. Compaction mechanism assumptions are also revisited in depth. Three wells from a deepwater field in Northwest Borneo are used as a case study to demonstrate the distinct overpressure nature of the area.This study confirms that DSCM not only exhibits overpressure profile typical to deepwater anywhere else, but also possesses distinct geopressure characteristics related to its unique geological setting, most notably the active compressional shortening of the mega thrust-fold belts accompanied by continuous rapid deltaic sediment deposition. As a result, unique geopressure-related challenges prevail in this area, such as: shallow top of overpressure, the failure of standard empirical compaction methods, and prominent centroid phenomenon.It is successfully demonstrated that the shallow top of overpressure of DSCM is linked to rapid sedimentation of low permeability sediments; undrained tectonic shearing is the central cause of common underestimation of popular effective-stress based pore pressure prediction method; and that the dominance of compressional geological structures explains the high likelihood of centroid effect.

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Estimating the influence of stress state on compaction behavior

Cited by 25 publications

References 21 publications

Hydromechanical Modeling of Stress, Pore Pressure, and Porosity Evolution in Fold‐and‐Thrust Belt Systems

Hydromechanical Modeling of Stress, Pore Pressure, and Porosity Evolution in Fold‐and‐Thrust Belt Systems

Assessing the implications of tectonic compaction on pore pressure using a coupled geomechanical approach

Geopressure Prediction in Deepwater Southeast Asia: Case Study from Sundaland Borneo Continental Margin

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