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Trapping & Traps

By
Tausif Ahmad
Trapping

Trapping is the mechanism by which migration of oil and gas is stopped


such that an accumulation of these liquids occurs. The identification of
traps is one of the most important tasks of the exploration geologist. For
a trap to be efficient and commercially viable, a large variety of factors
have to be considered. These include:

 The presence of a positive porous permeable structure


 The imperviousness of the seal
 The absence of leaking faults
 The migration of sufficient quantities of HC
Trapping

The most important factor in the previous list is the “positive porous
permeable structure”, which in itself contains several preconditions for a
trap. What it really means is that a condition has to exist where a porous,
permeable rock is overlain and laterally surrounded by less porous and
permeable rocks.
Traps:
“Any geometric arrangement of rock that permits significant
accumulation of hydrocarbon in subsurface”

 Traps are the site where oil and gas form pool (reserves), and the
volume of pool depends on the size and shape of the trap.

Components of Traps

1. Reservoir Rock
2. Seal Rock
3. Geometric Arragment
1. Reservoir Rock
 The reservoir within a trap provides a storage space for hydrocarbons.

 This requires adequate porosity within the reservoir interval, which have ability
to accommodate significant amount of hydrocarbon.

 The reservoir must also have the ability to transmit and exchange the fluids.

2. Seal Rock
 These are impermeable or impervious rocks which prevent further migration of
the hydrocarbons.

 Without effective seal, hydrocarbon would migrate out of the trap.

 Seals, could be top seal (roof rock), base seal and lateral seal, if more than one
seal present within a trap it might called as poly-seal.
3. Geometric Arrangement
 Includes certain structure like folds, faults or unconformity, which might
combine with the reservoir and seal to produce traps.

Classification of Traps

 The components of the trap combine in variety of way, this variability


leads to the classification of traps.

 Different authors have focus on various trap attributes as a key element or


elements of their classification.

 Some have emphasis on trap geometry, while other have concentrated on


mechanism of trap formation, some others have considered seal and
reservoir characteristics as major part of the classification.
A. Clapps Classification
5. Cavity Traps
1. Anticlinal Traps
6. Unconformity Traps
2. Synclinal Traps
7. Lenticular Sands Traps
3. Homoclinal Traps
8. Structures due to folds
4. Domal Structure Traps

B. Flayroy’s Classification C. Wilson’s Classification

1. Depositional Traps Closed Traps


2. Diagenetic Traps Reservoir closed by local deformation of strata
3. Deformational Traps Reservoir closed by various porosity
Due to folding and varying porosity
Due to faulting and varying porosity
D. Heald’s Classification
1. Reservoir closed by local deformation of strata
2. Reservoir closed by varing permeability

E. Wilhelm’s Classification
1. Cavern Trap Reservoir
2. Pinch out Trap Reservoir
3. Fault Trap Reservoir
4. Permeability Trap Reservoir

 However, there is consensus on three broad category of traps classification (Levorsen, 1967)
1. Structural Traps
2. Stratigraphic Traps
3. Combination of Both
Basic Trap-Fluid Nomenclature
1. Structural Traps
 These are created by syn-depositional to post-depositional
deformation of strata into a geometry (structure) that permits the
accumulation of hydrocarbon in the subsurface.

 The resulting structure will involve reservoir and seal intervals.


These are dominated by either folds, faults, piercement or any
combination (Fig.)
Structural Traps Classification
1. Fold Dominated Traps
2. Fault Dominated Traps
3. Piercement Traps

1. Fold Dominated Traps


 Structural traps that are dominated by folds at the reservoir-seal level exhibits a
wide variety of geometries, formed or modified by a tectonic induced deformation.

 Therefore, it is convenient to divide fold into;

A) Fold that are related with fault


B) Folds that are fault free
Anticlinal (fold) and dome traps
Necessary conditions: An impervious cap rock and a porous reservoir rock;
closure occurs in all directions to prevent leakage (i.e. four-way closure
necessary for a dome).

a) Simple fold traps (anticlinal) with axial culmination (fold axis dipping in
two or more directions).
The simplest type of trap is formed when a sandstone bed that is overlain by
tight (i.e. low permeability) shale is folded into an anticline. A simple
anticline, however, may not necessarily be a trap.
The crest of the anticline must have an apical culmination (i.e. a peak)
somewhere along the fold axis so that hydrocarbons can be trapped.
Anticlinal traps are commonly detected by seismic reflection.
In mature oilfields, most of these simple traps have probably been found, but
many anticlinal traps remain to be discovered offshore and in new prospective
areas.
b) Salt domes: Strata around the salt dome curve upward creating traps
against the sealing salt layers (see below for more details).

c) Growth domes.
Domes or anticlines that form during sedimentation when one area
subsides more slowly than the surrounding areas.

Their formation is concurrent with sedimentation (i.e. they form during
deposition), and not due to later (tectonic) folding.

Growth anticlines may form due to differential compaction over salt


domes or other upward-projecting features in the substrate (topographic
highs on the buried landscape).
Salt domes form when salt is less dense than the overlying rock, and the
salt moves slowly upwards due to its buoyancy.
For this to happen, there must be a minimum overburden and the
thickness of the salt deposits must be more than ~100 m.
Upward movement of salt through the sedimentary strata, and associated
deformation is termed halokinetics or salt tectonics.
Movements may continue for several hundred million years.
Traps may form
1. in the strata overlying the salt dome,
2. in the top of the salt domes (the cap rock - caused by brecciation and
dissolution),
3. in the strata that curve upward against the salt intrusion,
4. due to stratigraphic pinch-out of strata around the salt dome:
A) Fold That are related with Fault
B) Folds that are Fault Free
2. Fault Dominated Traps
 Structural traps, which are dominated by faults at reservoir-seal level
are divided into;

A) Normal Fault Traps


B) Reverse/Thrust Fault Traps
C) Strike Separation Traps
a) Normal faults — commonly associated with graben (rift) structures.
b) Strike-slip faults — these may not be sealed due to incremental
movements, but basement-controlled strike-slip faults commonly
produce good anticlinal structures in overlying softer sediments.
c) Thrust faults — commonly associated with compressional tectonics
(e.g., the Front Ranges in Alberta).
d) Growth faults
Growth faults typically form in sediments that are deposited rapidly,
especially at deltas.
Faulting occurs during sedimentation (i.e. syndepositionally), such
that the equivalent strata on the downthrow side will be thicker than on
the upthrow side.
The throw between corresponding strata declines upwards along the
fault plane. Minor fault planes with an opposite throw (antithetic
faults) may also form in the strata that curve inward towards the main
fault plane.
The fault plane is commonly sealed, preventing further upward
migration of oil and gas.
Fault traps may also form when sandstone beds are offset against the
fault plane.
Some petroleum traps, however, form in "roll-over" anticlines on the
down-faulted block.
Growth faults may reduce porewater circulation in sedimentary
basins; consequently, undercompacted clays, which may develop into
clay diapirs, are often associated with growth faults.
A) Normal Fault Traps
B) Reverse/Thrust Fault Traps
C) Strike Slip Fault Traps

3. Piercement Traps
Some general points about fault traps…
The geometry and timing determine whether faults will be effective in
forming fault traps:
1. Dead faults that predate basinal sediments only affect the underlying
basement they play no direct role in hydrocarbon trapping in the
younger sedimentary pile.
2. Continuously developing faults (growth faults) — these are active
during sedimentation and are major petroleum traps (e.g., Niger Delta).
3. Young (late) faults —these form late during sedimentation;
depending on their initiation and growth, they may or may not be
effective as traps.
4. Late regenerated faults —these are new movements on old faults —
they are more likely to destroy than form traps, but may be effective.
Many petroleum fields are closely linked to faulting, but traps that result
from faulting alone are less common.
There are three common fault – petroleum pool associations:
1. The fault itself makes the trap without an ancillary trapping
mechanism such as a fold .
normal faults are the most common examples.
2. The fault creates another structure (e.g., a fold or horst) that in turn
forms the main trap.
3. The fault may be a consequence of another structure that forms the
main trap — e.g., the extensional crestal faults that form above some
anticlines.
Important point: Faults are highly ambiguous features. They may leak, acting as
permeable conduits for fluid flow (including oil and gas migration), but more
commonly act as seals unless they are rejuvenated after petroleum has pooled.
They form seals because of fault gouges or differential pressures either
side of the fault plane:
2. Stratigraphic Traps
 Levorsen (1936) proposed the term stratigraphic traps for the features “in which a
variation in the stratigraphy is chief confining element in the reservoir which trap the
oil”.
 Stratigraphic traps are created by any variation in the stratigraphy that is independent of
structural deformation.

 This arrangement of seal and reservoir is independent of structural deformation except


the tilting.

 According to Rittenhouse (1972), he divides the stratigraphic traps into;

A) Primary or Depositional Stratigraphic Traps


B) Secondary Stratigraphic Traps
C) Stratigraphic Traps Associated with Unconformities
A) Primary or Depositional Stratigraphic Traps
 Created by the changes in the contemporaneous deposition (there is no
unconformity).

 Can be divided into two classes;

(i). Those formed by the lateral facies change/depositional pinchouts


(ii). Those formed by buried depositional ridges
Primary pinch out of strata, e.g., strata that pinch out updip in less
permeable rocks such as shale;
Fluvial channels of sandstone that are isolated and surrounded by
impermeable clay-rich sediments;
Submarine channels and sandstone turbidites in strata rich in shale;
Porous reefs that are surrounded by shale, etc.
B) Secondary Stratigraphic Traps

 Traps produced by the post-deposition alteration of the strata.


 Such alteration may either create reservoir quality rock or create
seals form former reservoir.
i. Porosity Enhanced by dolomitization, which is an example.
ii.Porosity Loss by Cementation, Limestone as an example.
C) Stratigraphic Traps Associated with Unconformities

 Rittenhouse (1972), has proposed that traps associated with unconformity


can be grouped into;
i. Those occurring beneath the unconformity
ii. Those occurring above the unconformity
Those occurring beneath the unconformity
3. Combination Traps
 Levorsen (1967) restricted the term to the trap feature in which
neither structure nor stratigraphic elements alone form the trap but
both are essential to it.
 Two example, in both the examples, there is depositional pinch out of
the porous permeable rock in updip area.
Hydrodynamic Traps
Explorationists have known since about mid-century that oil-water contacts
in many hydrocarbon-bearing traps are tilted (Levorsen, 1967; North, 1985).
In other cases, traps that have no static closure contain hydrocarbons, and
traps that do have static closure and should reasonably contain
hydrocarbons do not (North, 1985).
If porewater flow in a sedimentary basin is strong enough, the oil-water
contact may deviate from the horizontal because of the hydrodynamic shear
stress that is set up.
In some cases, oil may accumulate without closure.
Flow of fresh (meteoric) water down through oil-bearing rocks commonly
results in biodegradation of the oil and formation of asphalt, which may
then form a cap rock for oil.
An explanation that is commonly proposed for these observations is
that reservoir conditions are hydrodynamic rather than hydrostatic.
In general, dips of oil-water contacts seldom exceed a few degrees,
but higher dips have been reported (up to 10°) (North, 1985).
If the dip (or tilt) of the oil-water contact exceeds the dip of the trap
flanks, the trap will be flushed (generally, if trap flank dips exceed 5°,
there is little risk of flushing.
Therefore, in the evaluation of structural traps with relatively gently
dipping flanks, consideration should be given to hydrodynamic
conditions (Dahlberg, 1982).
It is important to note that tilted oil-water contacts may be related to
phenomena other than hydrodynamics (e.g., variations in reservoir
characteristics and neotectonics), and that present-day hydrodynamic
conditions may not reflect those in the past.

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