Sills as fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs: examples and models
Sills as fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs: examples and models
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DOI:
10.1144/sp374.5
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发表时间:
2012-09
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
Agust Gudmundsson;Ingrid Fjeldskaar Løtveit
中科院分区:
文献类型:
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作者:
Agust Gudmundsson;Ingrid Fjeldskaar Løtveit
Abstract Sills are common in sedimentary basins and, through thermal effects, may contribute significantly to the transformation of organic material into oil and gas. In addition, many sills act as hydrocarbon reservoirs, either as seals or as fractured reservoirs themselves. The seals are related to glassy margins and/or low permeable metamorphosed host rocks at the contacts between the sills and their host rocks. Reservoir formation may then be encouraged at sill-fault or sill-dyke contacts, provided the dykes/faults have low permeabilities. If the seal at the lower margin of a sill is ruptured (because of changes in tectonic loading) while the seal at the upper margin is maintained, the sill may itself act as a fractured hydrocarbon reservoir. Major sills in sedimentary basins are mostly c. 15–150 m thick and are mostly fed by (much thinner) dykes. Deflection of dykes into sills is primarily due to three related factors: (1) opening of contacts ahead of the feeder dyke (the ‘Cook–Gordon debonding’); (2) dykes meeting layers with local stresses unfavourable to dykes but favourable to sills (‘stress barriers’); and (3) abrupt increase in Young's modulus (‘elastic mismatch’) across a contact. Theoretical models predict common lateral dimension/maximum thickness (aspect) ratios of sills between 150 and 500, in agreement with actual measurements of sill dimensions. Many thick sills worldwide are currently exploited as hydrocarbon reservoirs.