Hydrostatic pore water pressure revisited

Abstract

Hydrostatic or “normal” pressure can be easily visualized as a water column with pressure given by ρgh and any departures classified as abnormal pressure. This is the basis for commonly used hydrostatic pressure depth trends in sedimentary basins that are constructed on assumptions of constant gradients and are datumed at mean sea level or ground level. But the straightforward water column concept does not upscale in a simple way to sedimentary basins where the zones of interest are several thousands of metres below the land or sea surface. Sedimentary basins are heterogeneous, including stacked, confined reservoirs and variations in pore water composition. It is possible to construct pressure‐depth profiles that honour the geology and hydrostratigraphy of a basin and these give different hydrostatic baselines from simple constant gradients hung from familiar local datums such as ground level. Key steps are using a reservoir‐specific datums such as the water table or potentiometric surface relevant to that unit, then building a pressure‐depth trend that represents the pore fluid salinity variation and density profile throughout the reservoir unit. At a given depth, this version of hydrostatic may predict pressures several hundred psi different from a single density gradient hung from a datum local to the well, and exhibit a notched profile reflecting the geological and hydrological stratigraphy. This construct redefines normal and abnormal pore fluid pressures in sedimentary basins. The impacts of this alternative approach to sedimentary basin hydrostatics, even if data are limited and pressure profiles have to be framed probabilistically, extend to many aspects of studying and interacting with fluid systems in sedimentary basins including basin modelling, petroleum systems analysis, well planning and well operations.