Fault sealing controls in Gullfaks and Gullfaks Sør inferred from production data
This Master's project was assigned to Josephine Wilda Nauli who started the Master's program in Earth sciences, UiB, fall 2024. The Master's project is given by the research group Geodynamics and basin studies.
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Project description
The faults that separate individual fault blocks in Gullfaks and Gullfaks Sør have different sealing properties, as the preproduction fluid contacts and overpressures in the water phase vary significantly at Gullfaks Sør but not so at the shallower Gullfaks Field. This difference may be related to burial depth, but it could also be due to the factors, such as fluid pressures being at the fracture limit at Gullfaks but not at Gullfaks Sør. Furthermore, studies of across-fault sealing in deep fields suggest the relationship between clay content and fault sealing can be overprinted by other factors. The goal of the thesis is to (a) improve the understanding of across-fault sealing at Gullfaks and Gullfaks Sør, and (b) to improve the general understanding of across-fault sealing and how well such sealing can be predicted. Such knowledge will be important to understanding subsurface fluid flow in a broader sense and its importance for Co2 storage, oil and gas exploration and production, and groundwater movement.
The thesis will mainly address the results of history matching of production data to characterize the sealing capacities of (smaller) faults that do not delineate major fault blocks. Such analyses will include attempts to refine the current models for across-fault sealing. The work will build on previous work based on exploration data from these fields as well as history matching experience from the fields. It will include seismic interpretation work as well as work with reservoir models and analyses of production / injection data.
Proposed course plan during the master's degree (60 ECTS):
GEOV251 (10), GEOV272 (10), SDG207 (10), GEOV274 (10), GEOV352 (5), GEOV361 (10), Special curriculum Geosoftware (5)
Felt- lab- og analysearbeid
Analysis of data from Equinor and CGG