Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Reservoir Engineering
Overpressure in Petroleum Systems and Geopressure Prediction
Course Code: N013
Course Outline:
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Format and Duration:
4 days
8 sessions
This course addresses the origin and distribution of overpressure in the subsurface with emphasis on practical applications to the geoscientist and petroleum engineer. Geoscientists and engineers will learn how to measure, estimate and model pore pressure as an aid to production sweet spot identification, pre-drill well planning, evaluation of seal breach risk, recognition of lateral drainage and hydrodynamics, and assessing the uncertainty of the pre- drill pressure interpretation. The course includes geopressure analysis in unconventional systems and expanded content on the use of seismic data in pressure prediction.
Business Impact: This class will supplement the prospector’s toolbox in sweet spot identification, develop awareness of concepts and techniques associated with completion design, unconventional reservoir development, and practical aspects of pore pressure data collection and interpretation. Understanding subsurface pressures and their effects on the hydrocarbon system is a key input into developing successful exploration strategies, efficient well planning and ensuring the safe and effective exploration and exploitation of petroleum reservoirs.
Feedback
"I recommend all geoscientists working in areas that are overpressured, (especially HPHT - high pressure high temperature), to attend this course."
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This is a classroom or virtual classroom course comprising a mixture of lectures and practical sessions drawing on examples from overpressured basins from around the world.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Calculate pressure gradients and interpret the position of fluid contacts from pressure vs. depth plots.
- Calculate lithostatic profiles and evaluate methods of calculating fracture profiles.
- Illustrate the relationship between compaction, effective stress and the development of pressure.
- Apply a variety of techniques to predict pore pressure including the Eaton Ratio Method and the Equivalent Depth Method, and identify the data types that may be used (e.g., seismic data, drilling parameters and porosity data).
- Differentiate between primary and secondary overpressure mechanisms and their relative magnitudes.
- Use pressure data to interpret pressure compartments, fluid types, trap integrity, lateral drainage and hydrodynamics.
- Recognize and apply analogs when interpreting pressure in the unconventional system.
- Appreciate practical vs. theoretical pore pressure and geomechanical concepts.
- Use the seismic velocity method to calculate and interpret derived pore pressure estimates.
Course Content
Overpressure is experienced in most sedimentary basins where reservoirs are associated with fine-grained lithologies (such as shales), in particular at depths of 2.0 km or greater below sea-bed. Recent advances in the understanding of overpressure, in particular the magnitude of overpressure resulting from each of the main mechanisms under realistic basin conditions, give improved confidence in estimating pore pressure. There is also a range of tools with improved capability (1) to display and interpret overpressure (and its relationship to the petroleum system) and (2) to estimate pressure through time using basin modelling. All of these tools can help with prospect exploration, well-planning and commercial evaluations.
Session 01:
- Introduction
- Fundamentals of Pressure
- Hydrostatic Gradient
- Lithostatic Gradient
- Exercise 01: Calculation of the Lithostatic Gradient
- Direct Pressure Measurements
- Exercise 02: Determining Fluid Gradient
Session 02:
- Fluid Contacts
- Exercise 03: Determination of fluid gradients and contacts
- Exercise 04: Making the most of Limited RFT Data
- Fracture Pressure
- Introduction of wellbore stability
- Exercise 05: Calculation of Leak-Off Pressure
- Exercise 06: Data QC & analysis of possible fracture and pore pressure profiles
Session 03:
- Pore Pressure Prediction
- Data Requirements
- Pressure Prediction Workflow - Applicable to Logs and Seismic
- Normal Compaction Trend Analysis
- Terzaghi's Principle and Disequilibrium Compaction
- Eaton Ratio Method and Equivalent Depth Methods
- Exercise 07: Calculating Pore Pressure in Shales Using the Eaton Ratio Method
- Exercise 08: Calculating Pore Pressure in Shales Using the Equivalent Depth Method
Session 04:
- Secondary Pore Pressure Generating Mechanisms
- Elastic vs Inelastic Unloading
- Seismic Velocity-based Pressure Prediction
- Picking Velocity data for PP
- Types of velocity data fit for PP
- Situations where siesmic (or wellbore sonic) will not predict pressure
- Example well plan from seismic and integrating offset well information
Session 05:
- Use of Drilling Data
- Why use Drilling Data?
- What to look for
- Real-Time Monitoring
- Basin Modelling for Pore Pressure
- Brief introduction to a Basin Model
Session 06:
- Influence of overpressure on trap/seal integrity, reservoir quality, maturation of source rocks and primary hydrocarbon migration
- Mapping overpressure: excess pressure maps and pressure gradient maps
- Pressure compartments: recognition from pressure vs. depth plots combined with structure maps
- Recognition of lateral drainage and hydrodynamic hydrocarbon systems
Session 07:
- Overview of Unconventional Reservoirs
- Types of Plays
- Key Differences from Conventional Reservoirs
- Geological and Petroophysical Characteristics
- Data Acquisition and Analysis
- Case Examples
Session 08:
- Pore Pressure Modelling in Unconventional Resources Plays
- Pressure Measurements in Tight Rocks (Sparse Data, DFITS, Sh min, Drilling Data)
- Difficulties in Pressure Detection
- Identifying 'Shale-rich' Sections
- Understanding Burial Histories
- Understanding TOC
- Methods for Prediction (e.g. Vs, Rho, Vp-VES trends)
- Integrated Workflows for Property Prediction
- Case Study 01 - An example of using non-traditional approaches to estimate pore pressure prediction in unconventional plays.
- Case Study 02 - 3D pressure and stress variation leading to safer, more efficient drilling campaigns.
- Case Study 03 - Integrated workflows to build more robust geomechanical models to help improve well performance.
- Case Study 04 - Correcting density/sonic logs for total organic carbon to reduce uncertainty in pore pressure prediction.
- Case Study 05 - Integration of rock physics modeling and 3D seismic to improve pore pressure predictions in unconventional shales.
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
All geoscientists and engineers who require an understanding of geopressures. This could be applied to a wide-range of subsurface projects from basin analysis to well planning.
Instructors
Jorge Fernandez
Jorge holds a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from Universidad Simon Bolivar in Venezuela, and an MSc in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO, USA. There he was part of the Reservoir Characterization Project (RCP) consortium, working on seismic inversion applied to reservoir characterization and geomechanical modeling of the Vaca Muerta unconventional shale in Argentina.
He joined Ikon in 2017 as part of the Customer Success Team, moving into a Senior role over the years. He worked in all aspects of software support, testing, documentation, training, and technical pre-sales for Ikon’s flagship platform, RokDoc. He was the main technical contact for the pore pressure and geomechanics suite of RokDoc in the Americas region for more than 2 years.
Jorge is now part of the Wellbore Services team and has worked closely with clients of various energy companies in North and South America, in 1D/3D PPFG and Geomechanics projects in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Western Canada, Williston, Appalachian, and Magallanes basins.
Rashad Gulmammadov
Background
B.Sc., Petroleum & Reservoir Engineering, Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, 2011
M.Sc., Petroleum Geoscience, University of Manchester, 2012
Ph.D., Petroleum Geomechanics, University of Manchester, 2017
Affiliations and Accreditations
Rashad is a seasoned petroleum professional with over a decade of experience in geoscience projects, studies, and operations. Since joining Ikon Science in 2023 he has delivered a variety of geomechanical projects across the globe with emphasis on field development, CCUS and energy storage.
Rashad's academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Petroleum Geomechanics from the University of Manchester, complemented by a Master's in Petroleum Geoscience from the same institution. His educational background also includes a Bachelor's in Petroleum Engineering from the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy. In his previous company, SOCAR (Azerbaijan) he managed a full field development project from initial conception to delivery. He completed the extensive geomechanical analysis, requiring consideration and consolidation of a decade’s worth of data. He also redefined the well delivery process, with considerable cost savings for the company.
Beyond his professional endeavours, Rashad is an avid researcher and presenter, actively contributing to the advancement of geomechanics knowledge. His publications and presentations at prestigious conferences highlight his expertise in petroleum geomechanics.
Courses Taught
N013: Overpressure in Petroleum Systems and Geopressure Prediction
Jakob Heller
Background
Jakob is the Technical Manager- Wells for Ikon Science Americas. He is an experienced trainer in geopressure theory for Ikon Science, having joined in 2010. Jakob has experience in all aspects of pressure analysis in many different geological settings (uplifted basins, extensional basins, deep-water, onshore conventional plays, carbonates and salt) in a wide range of geographical locations including NW Shelf/onshore Australia, Kutai Basin and East Java Indonesia, NW Borneo (offshore Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah), Gulf of Thailand/Malay Basin, Cuu Long, Nam Con Son, Phu Khan basins offshore Vietnam, offshore Japan, China and offshore/onshore Pakistan. Jakob has also worked in the Gulf of Mexico, the Permian Basin and onshore Alaska.
Jakob has presented at multiple conferences on topics as diverse as unconventional pore pressure prediction, HPHT, pressure in carbonates and hydrodynamics.
Jakob has a MSc in geology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His Master’s thesis was undertaken in collaboration with Eqiunor Norway and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and focused on the sedimentology and diagenesis of the Middle Jurassic Garn formation, offshore Mid-Norway.
Affiliations and Accreditation
MSc University of Copenhagen - Sedimentology (with Exploration Geophysics)
BSc University of Copenhagen - Geology
Courses Taught
N013: Overpressure in Petroleum Systems and Geopressure Prediction
Ed Hoskin
Background
Edward Hoskin graduated from the University of Southampton, UK, with an MGeol (Master of Geology). His final year dissertation involved studying whether climatic indicators (i.e. quartz/feldspar ratio) can be used to correlate the barren Permian-Carboniferous sandstone sequences between wells in the North Sea. He also spent part of the final year of his degree on and around onshore oil rigs in the Western Canadian sedimentary basin.
His last 15 years of experience have come from working at Ikon Science, currently based in the London office, primarily in the discipline of pore pressure, fracture gradient and wellbore stability. During this time, he has gained a wide-ranging exposure to the wellbore side of the energy industry from wildcat exploration well planning (with few or no offset wells) to real-time monitoring and to decommissioning and abandonment of end-of-life wells. Other projects completed include large-scale regional studies, incorporating several hundreds of wells, and from one of these studies, namely the Northern Carnarvon basin offshore Australia, he documented examples of pressure transfer to explain anomalously highly overpressured wells.
In addition to the extraction side of the industry, he has developed an interest and been able to work on several carbon capture and storage (CCS) studies on both a regional and smaller field scale areas. These projects provided him with valuable insight into the importance of geopressure and wellbore stability in aiding suitable site selection and for understanding the risks and limits of injection of CO2.
Courses Taught
N013: Overpressure in Petroleum Systems and Geopressure Prediction
Jiayi Yu
Biography Coming Soon
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 2.8 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 28 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.