Thrust Belt Setting Research Articles

Application of CCUS in India: Designing a CO2 EOR and storage pilot in a mature field

Numerous mature oil and gas reservoirs around the world, along with added financial benefit, present a tremendous benefit of CO2 EOR and storage, especially in the regions where tax benefits and policies related to the CCS is limited. This work presents the first effort of CO2 EOR and storage in a mature oil field in India through a comprehensive application of laboratory study, reservoir static modeling, dynamic simulation, pilot design, and techno-economic sensitivity analyses. Through this case study, the technical feasibility of CO2 EOR and associated storage was assured for the first time through a novel approach of combining various subsurface and surface data with laboratory analyses. Almost no analog was available for CCUS on the same-age rock from a young thrust belt setting. The various vintages of core to seismic scale data posed a great challenge for effective integration. The solution approach to these issues included combining flow physics, fluid chemistry, geological concepts and digital modeling with practical engineering data analyses. Temporal change of oil composition in this reservoir due to the long production history had created some challenges for determination of CO2 miscibility. It was estimated through the lab study and modeling that the miscibility can be achieved near 3000 psi due to its altered oil composition resulted by years of production. To arrest the reservoir pressure decline, a pre-EOR water injection was identified as an immediately need to re-pressurize the reservoir and achieve miscibility of injected CO2. Comprehensive analysis of various subsurface and surface data integrating geoscience and engineering techniques have allowed for a consistent and applicable 3D description of reservoir, which was critical to identify suitable areas with appropriate remaining oil saturation, chemistry, and reservoir pressure. The history matching-calibrated-simulation model was utilized to evaluate the performance of various development scenarios of the identified area. Specifically, CO2 injection in a sector of geological model was performed using Todd-Longstaff miscible flood scheme. Upon comparing the proposed scenarios, a CO2 injection pilot in Pattern-1 was identified, with one injector and three producers over ∼60 acres area. This pilot uses 150 Metric Ton/day (MT/D) of CO2 captured and processed from an existing facility and transported about 70 km to the field location. The CO2 will be injected continuously into this pilot area for 5 years, and the well switches back to water injection afterward. Around 1.1 MMSTB incremental oil will be recovered in next 10 years, corresponding to 11.7% of OOIP in the flooded area. Up to 268,275 MT of CO2 will be sequestered in the reservoir. The learnings from this first ever study of its kind in India set the benchmark for data analysis, integration, and case specific approaches. The success and knowledge base from this endeavor will tremendously help and encourage further expansion of CCUS activities in India.

Igneous petroleum systems in the Malargüe fold and thrust belt, Río Grande Valley area, Neuquén Basin, Argentina

Abstract The Rio Grande Valley (Neuquen Basin, Argentina) is a large oil field where voluminous igneous sill complexes are emplaced in different levels of the sedimentary sequence in a fold and thrust belt setting. These sills are predominantly emplaced in organic-rich units such as Vaca Muerta and Agrio Formations and are critical elements of the defined petroleum system, as they affect the thermal maturity of the surrounding source rocks, and also act as naturally fractured reservoirs. In this contribution, we integrated structural sections, borehole data, core descriptions, petrophysical laboratory tests and organic geochemistry measurements to characterize the impact of the magmatism in the petroleum system of the Rio Grande Valley oil field. Especially, we focused in evaluating the impact of the sill-complexes in hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation. Our data shows that: (1) intrusions are preferably emplaced in organic rich units; (2) a large number of intrusions is observed in areas intensely deformed by imbricated thrusts; (3) an increase in the number of intrusions drives stronger and more extensive maturation processes in the Vaca Muerta formation, enhancing notably the cracking of kerogen to hydrocarbon within this unit; (4) where the number of intrusions increases, the concentration of total gas and methane also increases, given that all sills are suitable reservoirs; (5) igneous rocks provide a low resistance path for fluids flow and act as the main reservoirs in the study area; (6) the reservoir quality of igneous intrusions is dominated by the combination of matrix and fracture framework properties; (7) zeolites are the most common type of cement in these reservoirs; (8) deep sills located in the Vaca Muerta formation produce larger volumes of hydrocarbons relative to shallower intrusive reservoirs. The Rio Grande Valley oil field offers a world-class example of the implications of igneous complexes in hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation in a compressive tectonic setting of fold and thrust belt.

The impact of multifocusing in the processing of land 3D seismic data in a fold and thrust belt setting: Ranquil Norte Block, Neuquén Basin, Argentina

A total of 270 km2 of 3D seismic data was acquired in the southeast corner of the Ranquil Norte Block in the north of the fold and thrust belt area of the Neuquén Basin, west of Argentina. The survey was acquired in an area with hard topography, disturbing anthropomorphic conditions, and very complex subsurface geology. All of these situations negatively contributed to the signal-to-noise ratio of the resulting data. Therefore, and considering a structural target only, the main objective of the seismic processing sequence was the mitigation of the impact of such geologic and anthropomorphic noise on the data. Initially, a tailored processing sequence was performed, including noise suppression in the cross-spread domain. This first processing approach included Kirchhoff prestack time migration, structural seismic interpretation, velocity modeling, tomography, and Kirchhoff prestack depth migration. Given that multifocusing can deliver high-resolution subsurface images in areas with similar challenging conditions, this processing technique was then included in the processing workflow. Naturally, this second approach necessarily involved a reinterpretation of the structural model, a rebuilding of the velocity model, and a new tomographic computation. A significant improvement of the results was achieved in this manner.

Detrital thermochronologic record of burial heating and sediment recycling in the Magallanes foreland basin, Patagonian Andes

AbstractThe Patagonian Magallanes retroarc foreland basin affords an excellent case study of sediment burial recycling within a thrust belt setting. We report combined detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology and (U–Th)/He thermochronology data and thermal modelling results that confirm delivery of both rapidly cooled, first‐cycle volcanogenic sediments from the Patagonian magmatic arc and recycled sediment from deeply buried and exhumed Cretaceous foredeep strata to the Cenozoic depocentre of the Patagonian Magallanes basin. We have quantified the magnitude of Eocene heating with thermal models that simultaneously forward model detrital zircon (U–Th)/He dates for best‐fit thermal histories. Our results indicate that 54–45 Ma burial of the Maastrichtian Dorotea Formation produced 164–180 °C conditions and heating to within the zircon He partial retention zone. Such deep burial is unusual for Andean foreland basins and may have resulted from combined effects of high basal heat flow and high sediment accumulation within a rapidly subsiding foredeep that was floored by basement weakened by previous Late Jurassic rifting. In this interpretation, Cenozoic thrust‐related deformation deeply eroded the Dorotea Formation fromca. 5 km burial depths and may be responsible for the development of a basin‐wide Palaeogene unconformity. Results from the Cenozoic Río Turbio and Santa Cruz formations confirm that they contain both Cenozoic first‐cycle zircon from the Patagonian magmatic arc and highly outgassed zircon recycled from older basin strata that experienced burial histories similar to those of the Dorotea Formation.

Interactions between submarine channel systems and deformation in deepwater fold belts: Examples from the Levant Basin, Eastern Mediterranean sea

Submarine channel levee systems form important hydrocarbon reservoirs in many deep marine settings and are often deposited within a structurally active setting. This study focuses on recent submarine channels that developed within a deepwater fold and thrust belt setting from the Levant Basin, eastern Mediterranean Sea. Compressional deformation within the study area is driven by the up-dip collapse of the Nile cone above the ductile Messinian Evaporites. Structures such as folds and strike slip faults exert a strong control on channel location and development over time. From this study four end-member submarine channel–structure interactions can be defined: Confinement, diversion, deflection and blocking. Each of these channel–structure interactions results in a distinct submarine channel morphology and pattern of development compared to unconfined channel levee systems. Each interaction can also be used to assess timing relationships between submarine channel development and deformation.

Fragmentation of a foreland basin in response to out-of-sequence basement uplifts and structural reactivation: El Cajon-Campo del Arenal basin, NW Argentina

The style and mechanisms by which a foreland region is incorporated into an orogen depends on the tectonic style, effectiveness of uplift, and dynamic subsidence. Classical foreland-basin models reflect a self-similar propagation of deformation into the foreland in a thin-skinned thrust-belt setting governed by wedge mechanics. Thick-skinned foreland regions, which are characterized by high-angle reverse-fault–bounded basement uplifts and intervening basins, however, do not fit this idealized model. Unlike thin-skinned tectonic provinces, deformation and uplift in these regions may be highly variable in time and space. Furthermore, deformation patterns may be complicated by the presence of preexisting structures, particularly those which lie at orientations that enable them to be reactivated and utilized to accommodated deformation under compression. The Neogene El Cajon–Campo del Are-nal basin is one of a series of basins located along the eastern margin of the Puna Plateau within the Sierras Pampeanas, a region that is composed of a thick-skinned foreland fragmented by reverse-fault–bounded basement uplifts that regionally characterize an eastward-younging trend. This region is superimposed onto the Cretaceous Salta Rift province, which provides a series of pre-existing structures that may potentially be reactivated. The basin is located along the eastern margin of the Puna Plateau, an integral component of the Andean orogen, which includes several filled, uplifted, and internally drained Cenozoic intraplateau basins. Structural and sedimentological similarities exist between basins along the margin of the Puna and those within it. Understanding the evolution of foreland basins, such as the El Cajon–Campo del Arenal basin, provides possible mechanisms for the development and incorporation of marginal basins into orogenic belts, and in the case of the Andean orogen, the potential for these basins to be incorporated into the plateau. Our analysis, which integrates seismic, sedimentary, and thermochronological data, characterizes the evolution of this basin and surrounding ranges. The appearance in the sedimentary section of a distinct grain-age population derived from the basement erosion surface constrains the uplift and erosion of an out-of-sequence intrabasin high to ca. 6 Ma. The basin fill, therefore, records an evolution from an undeformed foreland to one that is compartmentalized by basement uplifts and that is incorporated into the greater orogenic structure. The data reveal the importance of the reactivation of preexisting structures along the basin margin in creating east-dipping structures in a generally west-dipping domain. These opposing faults on the basin margin consequently caused the out-of-sequence uplift of the intrabasin range, the Sierra de Quilmes. The Sierra de Quilmes fragments the foreland and, because its position is locked by loads to the west and east, creates increased deformation within the basin, basin fill, uplift, and incorporation into the orogen. Unlike basins within the plateau, however, the El Cajon–Campo del Arenal basin has been re-excavated and integrated once more into the foreland drainage network.

Tectonic evolution of the Superior Boundary Zone from coincident seismic reflection and magnetotelluric profiles

The Superior Boundary Zone (SBZ) forms the northwestern margin of the Archean Superior craton and constitutes a tectonic foreland of the ∼1.8 Ga Trans‐Hudson Orogen. The Superior Boundary Fault (SBF) separates the SBZ from the adjacent Reindeer Zone, a collage of Paleoproterozoic juvenile intraoceanic rocks. Lithoprobe seismic reflection and magnetotelluric data were acquired along two profiles crossing the SBZ in an attempt to better constrain the deformation and crustal geometry resulting from Trans‐Hudson orogeny. Analysis and interpretation of spatially coincident regional seismic and magnetotelluric data acquired along the southern 200 km profile indicate the following: (1) the Reindeer Zone accretionary collage forms an east dipping, eastward steepening, crustal‐scale tectonic stack of moderately conductive rocks near the SBZ. (2) The SBZ is characterized at shallow depths (<5–6 km) by steep to moderately east dipping reflectivity that is associated with the limbs of third generation folds (F3 and D3) and east‐side‐up shear zones. At greater depth, the SBZ crust is highly resistive and is contiguous to the east with resistive crust beneath the Superior craton proper. (3) The SBF is recognized in the subsurface as an abrupt resistivity contrast between the Reindeer Zone and the SBZ, extending subvertically to 15 km depth. (4) Moderately conductive rocks of the Reindeer Zone extend eastward for 30 km beneath the SBZ at depths of 15–45 km. Seismic reflection data from a second crossing located 100 km NE along strike indicate a similar crustal structure with some notable exceptions: (1) The SBF is recognized in the subsurface as a truncation of interpreted collisional fabrics and extends subvertically to ∼30 km depth. (2) There is no compelling evidence for the eastward continuation of Reindeer Zone lower crust beneath the SBZ. To explain the present‐day SBZ crustal structure, we propose that the nature of the SBZ evolved over an ∼200 Myr convergent margin history from a lower plate collisional thrust belt setting at >1.88‐1.81 Ga, through lithospheric delamination at ∼1.82‐1.80 Ga to a steep transpressive plate boundary at 1.80‐1.72 Ga.