Pressure Seal Permeability and Two-Phase Flow

Abstract

Pressure compartment seals all have permeability to single-phase flow. Complete sealing can occur only in a multiphase fluid environment. For physical properties typical of the Powder River basin, Wyoming, Darcy flow allows single-phase leak rates such that observed pressure compartments would leak off in about 1 million years. Pressure compartments can be held indefinitely, however, under multiphase flow. Muddy sandstones of anomalously high threshold displacement pressure, about 2000 psi, appear to contain gas reservoirs at high pressure. Such high displacement pressures correlate well with those of classic carbonate and shale seals. The Muddy, however, contains sandstones capable of sealing adjacent reservoir sandstones. Sealing sandstones correlate with zones of unconformities between sandstones of good reservoir quality. Capillary sealing, as observed here, is certainly a worldwide phenomenon but is not the only mechanism of holding a pressure compartment. Other pressure compartments might be actively leaking (e.g., Gulf Coast type) and geologically temporary. Conversely, the capillary seal is permanent up to the threshold displacement pressure, which is the observed pressure in Muddy pressure compartments.