Restoration of Salt diapir: a mixed approach

in: 28th gOcad Meeting, ASGA

Abstract

Salt diapirs occur in geological complex areas on which hydrocarbons are suspected to be trapped. However, the complexity of phenomena engaged in diapiric structures with salt may severely impeach simple reversibility (imposed by Dahlstrom, 1969), at least in a mechanical (elastic) point of view. When a simple 3D classic restoration is done, several issues may be pointed out: • Meshing in complex explicit geometries is a difficult topics; • Eroded and pierced surfaces do not exist anymore locally above the salt; • Unconformities are due to halokinetic sequences and may be good traps during oil migration. In this paper, a mixed approach is proposed for the restoration of salt diapir: multi-surface restoration for stratigraphic horizons for overburden units (kinematic) and no loss of salt volume backwards in time (volumetric). A sequential restoration of halokinetic sequences around salt diapirs is therefore a handy tool for evaluating changes of salt stocks through time. This method will be applied on a representative example of an passive salt diapir.

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    BibTeX Reference

    @inproceedings{TiteuxRM2008,
     abstract = { Salt diapirs occur in geological complex areas on which hydrocarbons are suspected to be trapped. However, the complexity of phenomena engaged in diapiric structures with salt may severely impeach simple reversibility (imposed by Dahlstrom, 1969), at least in a mechanical (elastic) point of view. When a simple 3D classic restoration is done, several issues may be pointed out: • Meshing in complex explicit geometries is a difficult topics; • Eroded and pierced surfaces do not exist anymore locally above the salt; • Unconformities are due to halokinetic sequences and may be good traps during oil migration. In this paper, a mixed approach is proposed for the restoration of salt diapir: multi-surface restoration for stratigraphic horizons for overburden units (kinematic) and no loss of salt volume backwards in time (volumetric). A sequential restoration of halokinetic sequences around salt diapirs is therefore a handy tool for evaluating changes of salt stocks through time. This method will be applied on a representative example of an passive salt diapir. },
     author = { Titeux, Marc-Olivier },
     booktitle = { 28th gOcad Meeting },
     month = { "june" },
     publisher = { ASGA },
     title = { Restoration of Salt diapir: a mixed approach },
     year = { 2008 }
    }