The use of integrated fluid inclusion studies in constraining oil charge history and reservoir compartmentation: examples from the Jeanne d'Arc Basin, offshore Newfoundland

Abstract

A demonstration study of the application of fluid inclusion data from the Jeanne d'Arc Basin shows that it provides valuable information about the oil charge history and reservoir compartmentation. Oil inclusions occur within both cements and annealed microfractures, indicating that diagenesis continued after or during oil emplacement, and that fractures were involved in oil migration. The oil inclusions occur in cements subsequently deformed in granulation seams, showing that the earliest oil charge pre-dated the end of deformation. Oil inclusions are sufficiently abundant to measure oil geochemistry. In a comparison between adjacent barren and oil-bearing wells in the Terra Nova Field, oil inclusions in the barren well testify to the breaching of a trap. Bulk volatile data (fluid inclusion stratigraphy, FIS) record the occurrence of hydrocarbon inclusions throughout sandstone reservoir sections, and also give indications of seepage to shallower levels.