When Geology is the Primary Impediment to Making Money (or not losing it), you can get a lot of Spectacular Data Very Quickly that you then have to Interpret: Overpressure and Slope Failure in the Oil Industry

HR: 16:35h
AN: OS24A-03 INVITED [Abstracts]
TI: When Geology is the Primary Impediment to Making Money (or not losing it), you can get a lot of Spectacular Data Very Quickly that you then have to Interpret: Overpressure and Slope Failure in the Oil Industry
AU: * Orange, D L
EM: DaN_orange@aoageophysics.com
AF: AOA Geophysics Inc., 7532 Sandholdt Rd., Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: * Orange, D L
EM: DaN_orange@aoageophysics.com
AF: UCSC, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064 United States
AU: McConnell, D
EM: Dan_Mcconnell@aoageophysics.com
AF: AOA Geophysics Inc., 1300 West Sam Pkwy. S, Houston, TX 77042 United States
AU: Jeanjean, P
EM:
AF: BP Corporation, 501 West Lake Park Blvd., Houston, TX 77253 United States
AU: Thomson, J
EM:
AF: BP Corporation, 501 West Lake Park Blvd., Houston, TX 77253 United States
AU: Saffer, D
EM: dsaffer@uwyo.edu
AF: University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave., Wyoming, WY 82071 United States
AU: Demetriou, D
EM:
AF: Project Development International Limited, Surrey, Guilford, GU27XH United Kingdom
AU: Decker, J
EM:
AF: Unocal Indonesia Co., PO Box 1078, Jakarta, JKS Indonesia
AU: Teas, P A
EM:
AF: Unocal Indonesia Co., PO Box 1078, Jakarta, JKS Indonesia
AU: Angell, M
EM: angell@lettis.com
AF: W. Lettis and Associates, 1777 Botelho Dr., Walnut Creek, CA 94596 United States
AB: IODP Leg 308 is one of those cases where academia is following industry. Since the early to mid 1990's, the oil industry has recognized that confined zones of overpressure, particularly in the case of unconsolidated sand units, can lead to the total loss of an offshore well (whose cost may easily exceed 10M). The recognition of this phenomenon, termed "Shallow Water Flow" in the oil patch, lead to a renewed effort to identify hazardous horizons ahead of drilling, and to quantify their hazard potential ("geohazard") through detailed field studies and in situ measurements.Shallow water flow affects individual wells and well templates, but overpressure-driven slope failure can impact an entire deepwater facility (whose cost can approach or exceed billions of dollars). In this presentation, we will introduce a number of seafloor developments (including both Gulf of Mexico and international projects) where geophysical data suggested the presence of overpressure and the possibility of overpressure-driven slope failure. We will show high resolution seafloor and sub-surface geophysical data of distinctive failures that suggest internal forcing, and show in situ pore pressure measurements (to 500m below sea floor) that quantify the magnitude and distribution of overpressure. In all of the cases we will show, wells and/or seafloor facilities were moved to take advantage of less hazardous locations.
DE: 3025 Marine seismics (0935, 7294)
DE: 3045 Seafloor morphology, geology, and geophysics
DE: 3070 Submarine landslides
DE: 4219 Continental shelf and slope processes (3002)
DE: 8045 Role of fluids
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005