Geolhermics in Basin Analysis

COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN THE EARTH SCIENCES A series edited by Daniel F. Merriam

1969 - Computer Applications in the Earth Sciences 1970 - Geostatistics 1972 - Mathematical Models of Sedimentary Processes 1981 - Computer Applications in the Earth Sciences: An Update of the 70s 1988 - Current Trends in Geomathematics 1992 - Use of Microcomputers in Geology 1993 - Computerized Basin Analysis: The Prognosis of Energy and Mineral Resources 1996 - Geologic Modeling and Mapping 1999 - Geothermics in Basin Analysis

Geothermics in Basin Analysis

Edited by

Andrea Forster GeoForsehungslentrum Potsdom

Potsdom, Germony

and

Daniel F. Merriam Konsos Geologicol Survey

University of Konsos Lowrenee, Konsos

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Proceedings ol the American Association ol Petroleum Geologists/SEPM (Society ol Sedimentary Geologists), held May 20, 1996, and the Canadian Society ol Petroleum

Geologists/SEPM (Society ol Sedimentary Geologists), he Id June 4,1997

ISBN 978-1-4613-7154-0 ISBN 978-1-4615-4751-8 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-4751-8

© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Kluwer Academic I Plenum Publishers in 1999

Softeover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1999

All rights reserved

No part ol this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any lorm or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microlilming, recording, or otherwise,

without written permission Irom the Publisher

PREFACE

Most of the papers presented here are an outgrowth of sessions on geothermics at two meetings - the American Association of Petroleum Geologists/SEPM (Society of Sedimentary Geologists) in San Diego, California (May 1996) and the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists/SEPM (Society of Sedimentary Geologists) in Calgary, Canada (June 1997). In the geological community there is an increased interest in geothermics as applied in sedimentary basins. The focus is to analyze the thermal state of the sedimentary sequence and the impact of heat flow from the basement as well as the processes that lead to the deposition and alteration of the sediments and their mineral resources. Thus, increased interest also centers in the sophistication in modeling organic matter maturation and petroleum generation. Two good examples of this interest are an earlier publication by the Norwegian Petroleum Society of the proceedings of a conference on Basin Modelling: Advances and Applications (1993), and the recently released book by Colin Barker, Thermal Modeling of Petroleum Generation: Theory and Applications (1996). With this book we offer now another contribution to the study of sedimentary basins stressing essential parts of problems in which geothermics is engaged.

The papers cover a wide variety of topics and show just how varied and diverse the subject of geothermics is and how many aspects of the geosciences it permeates. Subject matter includes the measuring oftemperature logs and capturing of industrial temperature data and their interpretation to delineate subsurface conditions and processes, the importance of porosity and pore filling for modeling thermal fields, the thermal insulation of shales, geothermal anomalies associated with mud diapirs, basin hydrodynamic regimes, temperatures related to magmatic underplating and plate tectonics. Geographically the basins covered include the Taranaki Basin in New Zealand, Alberta Basin in Canada, South Caspian Basin in Azerbaijan, and in the U.S., the Michigan Basin in Michigan and adjacent areas, and Cherokee Basin in Kansas. We believe that the wide and diverse coverage will give the beginner a good place to start with geothermics, the practitioner many things to think about and use, and the casual reader a good idea of the subject.

We would like to thank those who reviewed the papers and helped improve this contribution. We have relied heavily on our respective colleagues: Phil Armstrong (University of Utah), Stefen Bachu (Alberta Geological Survey), Ulf Bayer (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam), Graeme Beardsmore (Southem Methodist University), David Blackwell (Southern Methodist University), David Deming (University of Oklahoma), John Doveton (Kansas Geological Survey), Peter Gretener (University of Alberta), Peer Hoth (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam), Ernst Huenges (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam), Al Macfarlane (Kansas Geological Survey), David Newell (Kansas Geological Survey), JeffNunn (Louisiana State University), Henry Pollack (University of Michigan), John Sass (U.S.

v

VI PREFACE

Geological Survey), Marios Sophocleous (Kansas Geological Survey), Jom Springer (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam), and Lynn Watney (Kansas Geological Survey).

We would like to thank LeaAnn Davidson of the Kansas Geological Survey for help in the final preparation of manuscripts for publication. Her expertise in manuscript processing was much appreciated. Janice Sorensen ofthe Kansas Geological Survey helped locate hard­to-find references; Cora Cowan, also of the Geological Survey assisted with preparation of the Index. All of the authors are to be thanked for their papers and in helping to make this a notable contribution to the subject.

Nice, France Andrea Forster Dan Merriam

CONTENTS

Introduction, by D.D. Blackwell .......................................................................................... .ix

High-resolution temperature logs in a petroleum setting: examples and applications, by D.D. Blackwell, G.R Beardsmore, RK. Nishimori, and RJ. McMullen, Jr .................................................... l

Problems and potential of industrial temperature data from a cratonic basin environment, by A. Forster and D.F. Merriam .......................................... .35

Present heat flow along a profile across the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin: the extent of hydrodynamic influence, by J.A. Majorowicz, G. Garven, A. Jessop, and C. Jessop ................................................... 61

Regional-scale geothermal and hydrodynamic regimes in the Alberta Basin: a synthesis, by S. Bachu ............................................................................... 81

Basin-scale groundwater flow and advective heat flow: an example from the northern Great Plains, by W.D. Gosnold, Jr ................ , .......................... 99

Thermal insulation by low thermal conductivity shales: implications for basin-scale fluid flow and heat transport by J .A. Nunn, G. Lin, and L. Zhang ................................................................................... 117

Temperature and maturity effects of magmatic underplating in the Gjallar Ridge, Norwegian Sea, by W. Fjeldskaar, H. Johansen, T. A. Dodd, andM. Thompson ..................................................................... 131

Combining tectonics and thermal fields in Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, by P.A. Armstrong and D.S. Chapman ..................................................... 151

Thermal history of a deep well in the Michigan Basin: implications for a complex burial history, by W.D. Everham and J.E. Huntoon ............................................................................................................... .177

Rising mud diapirs and their thermal anomalies, by E. Bagirov and I. Lerche ................................................................................................... .203

vii

Vlll

Effect of oil and gas saturation on simulation of temperature history and maturation, by H.S. Poelchau, C. Zwach,

CONTENTS

Th. Hantschel, and D.H. Welte ........................................................................................... 219

Contributors ........................................................................................................................ 237

Index ................................................................................................................................... 239

INTRODUCTION

David D. Blackwell

Department of Geological Sciences Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

The motivation for the technical sessions that led to this book is that geothermal conditions play an important role in basin-scale processes, including subsidence, sedimentation, compaction, and diagenesis, and affect the alteration of organic matter and the generation ofhydrocaroons. In all of the integrated basin modeling computer programs used for hydrocarbon assessment, heat flow is one of the major input parameters and constraints. Research in the past few years, however, suggests that our views on measuring and interpreting terrestrial heat-flow density in sedimentary basin settings should be reevaluated. Special efforts need to be made to evaluate the errors in conventional approaches to the measurement of thermal conditions and to the study of the heat transfer in the subsurface particularly from the point of view of separating conductive heat flow from an advective component. Clarifying the nature of the observed heat flow is essential in characterizing sedimentary basins in terms of their tectonophysical state and their reservoir properties.

There are many comprehensive and elegant numerical simulators available for use in the analysis of basin thermal structure and organic maturation history. All of these programs, however sophisticated, depend on the quality of the input data for useful output calculations. At the present time the weak link in the process is the quality of this input and realistic evaluations of error. There is much to be done in-the form of well constrained case histories, laboratory and field measurements of inputs, and error analysis before the input is up to the standards of the modeling capabilities. Thus as stated in the call for papers the discussions in this volume particularly address two objectives: (1) basic studies of the evaluation and interpretation of heat flow and thermal structure of sedimentary basins; and (2) examples of modeling of modern and paleogeothermal conditions.

There are not many volumes that focus on the thermal aspects of sedimentary basins. Some of the most basic facts about the thermal field in many sedimentary basins remain unknown or are in question. Even the dominant mode of heat transfer, conduction or convection, is uncertain in many areas. In part this lack of understanding is related to the limited applicability in the exploration setting of the methods of classical heat-flow determination (Haenel, Rybach, and Stegena, 1988) because of the nature of the thermal data that the explorationist has to work with, that is BHT's and cuttings, with their lack of detail,

lX

x BLACKWELL

resolving power, and error evaluation capability. Some of these limitations are discussed and ways around some of them are suggested in this volume.

So aside from the introductory material contained in the text books by Gretener (1981), Lerche (1990), and Jessop (1990) those interested in the subject of geothermics of sedimentary basins have to build, in general, a background from the literature. Earlier volumes that contain papers with a similar theme were edited by Durand (1984), by Burris (1986), and by N aeser and McCulloh (1989). As is the situation in most areas of hydrocarbon exploration the advances in the field have been hampered by the financial state ofthe hydrocarbon exploration industry and there is a gap in time in books concerned with this subject. At the same time the importance of understanding the history of hydrocarbon maturation and movement is becoming even more clear (Shirley, 1998). Thus this volume is timely.

The papers in this volume focus on the temperature and heat-flow field but none of the papers address the paleothermal indicators such as apatite fission track dating, diagenetic reactions, details of organic maturation and so forth. However, this aspect ofthe field has been summarized recently in detail by Barker (1996). The papers included in this book can be divided into several groups. The first chapter deals with the collection of detailed temperature data in sedimentary basins. Several of the papers point out limitations of the BHT data sets that must be used at this time. Blackwell, Beardsmore, Nishimori, and McMullen discuss why developments in technology allow the routine collection of a new class of thermal data logs in petroleum exploration situations, that high-resolution, precision equilibrium temperature logs. They give several examples of sets of equilibrium logs from hydrocarbon field studies an demonstrate the detailed information that is available from these types oflogs.

The largest group of papers are concerned with the partitioning of heat transfer into convective and conductive components. The amount of heat that can be carried in long sedimentary aquifers have been the subject of much discussion in the literature. In particular the Prairies Basin in Alberta, Canada has been the site of vastly different interpretations of the thermal effect of regional fluid flow. The papers in this volume by Bachu, and by Majorowicz, Garven, Jessop, and Jessop seem to be approaching a consensus that the scale of the aquifer is too great flow for regional heat transfer from one end to the other. On the other hand Gosnold shows an example of the length scale where advection can become important, the Dakota aquifer system in the north-central plains region of the US. The differences in interpretation have been driven in part by the chronic problems in the BHT data interpretation and lack of good information on in situ thermal conductivity values.

The paper by Fjeldskaar, Johansen, Dood, and Thompson is concerned with a basin in the Norwegian Sea near the continental margin. They use crustal structure determinations to constrain stretching ratios and estimate the amount of underplating. The paper represents examples of the type of thought that goes into preliminary exploration decisions along continental margins where tectonics and the details of continental extension can be critical in determining the thermal history of a package of sediments.

Particularly complicated but lacking in detailed case studies are thermal regimes in basins in areas of active tectonism. The paper by Armstrong and Chapman is concerned with an such an area, the Taranaki Basin in New Zealand. In this active volcanic arclback arc setting the heat flow probably is varying as a function of time and space so careful determination of the basic thermal parameters is necessary to work out the present thermal regime so that the paleothermal conditions can be more closely measured.

Evenham and Huntoon describe a detailed thermal history study of a well in the cratonic Michigan Basin of the United States. The simple cratonic basins in the United States

INTRODUCTION Xl

present difficulties in the application of thermal history models and this paper dissects the case for one well in that basin with a lot of thermal maturity data.

The paper by Nunn and others falls into several of the categories. It is a theoretical study that investigates the effect oflarge-scale fluid flow using the Arkoma foreland basin as an example. So the paper is a theoretical example of the problem of conductive versus advective heat transfer. The thermal effects of this fluid flow depend significantly on the thermal conductivity of the sediment section. Thus even in this theoretical example the authors must point out that an accurate knowledge of the thermal parameters is necessary.

The thermal effect of salt domes has received some attention but that affect on the thermal regime is discussed only briefly in the literature; the effect of mud diapirs is one of these. Although occurring in the Gulf Coast for example, they are little described in the literature. The paper by Bagirov and Lerche describes the Abikh dome in the South Caspian Basin and presents a theoretical model for the effect of the growth of the mud dome on the thermal field around it.

The direct detection of hydrocarbons with thermal techniques has been discussed in the literature although no consensus has been reached. This subject is related to the use of geothermics in basin analysis in a couple of different ways that are discussed in this volume. The fact that this issue has not been resolved yet indicates the distance we have to go in fully understanding the thermal field in sedimentary rocks. Forster and Merriam show results from an area in eastern Kansas where significant temperature anomalies seem to be associated with some anticlines. Forster, Merriam, and Davis (1997) illustrate details of several such anomalies. These types of anomalies might be the result of advection effects or lateral changes in thermal conductivity. Lateral changes in thermal conductivity could be the result of the effect of hydrocarbon in the pore space in and above a reservoir. This effect of the change in thermal conductivity because of the saturation with hydrocarbons is discussed by Poe1chau, Zwach, Hantschel, and Welte as are the implications of this effect. As do the authors of several other papers in this volume Poe1chau, Zwach, Hantschel, and Welte emphasize that simply using default values for thermal conductivity in thermal history numerical modeling programs can be a mistake.

Forster and Merriam also discuss some problems with using BHT data, particularly in a sedimentary environment of thin cover over a Precambrian basement. This discussion corroborates the conclusions of Majorowicz, Garven, Jessop, and Jessop that shallow BHT values (from wells less than 500 m deep) are particularly prone to large errors. Forster and Merriam also point out the impossibility of measuring formation gradients with BHT data (as opposed to averages for a large depth range, 100's of meters) which may be close to the actual mean gradient. Thus interval thermal conductivity cannot be measured and errors in thermal conductivity association with lithology cannot be recognized.

Thus a wide variety oftopics related to Geothermics in Basin Analysis are covered by the papers in this volume. The unified conclusion of all of the papers seems to be that, to reach the type of precision needed to use thermal data for maturation modeling and exploration decisions, fundamental understanding of thermal regimes, and the factors controlling them is vital. And in spite of the progress during the last 20 years there are some basic questions that need resolution and additional study. Furthermore there are large areas ofthe globe for which accurate thermal analyses do not exist. Thus the continuation of studies of the sort described in this book are vital to the increasing accuracy of hydrocarbon exploration.

Xll INTRODUCTION

REFERENCES

Barker, C., 1996, Thermal modeling of petroleum generation: theory and application: Developments in Petroleum Science 45, Elsevter, Amsterdam, 512 p.

Burris, J., ed., 1986, Thermal modeling in sedimentary basins: Colloques et Seminaires 44, Editions Technip, Paris, 600 p.

Durand, B., ed., 1984, Thermal phenomena in sedimentary basins: Colloques et Seminaires 41, Editions Technip, Paris, 325 p.

Forster, A., Merriam, D. F. and Davis, J. c., 1997, Spatial analysis of temperature (BHTIDST) data and consequences for heat flow determination in sedimentary basins: Geol. Rundschau, v. 86, no. 2, p. 252-261.

Gretener, P. E., 1981, Geothermics, using temperature in hydrocarbon exploration: Continuing Education Course Note Series 17, Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 156 p.

Haenel, R., Rybach, 1., and Stegna, 1., eds., 1988, Handbook of terrestrial heat-flow density determination: D. Reidel Publishing, Dordrecht, Holland, xx pp.

Jessop, A. M, 1990, Thermal geophysics: Developments in Solid Earth Geophysics 17: Elsevier, Amsterdam, 306p.

Lerche, I., 1990, Basin analysis, quantitative methods: Academic Press, San Diego, v. 1,510 p. and v. 2, 570 p.

Naeser, N. D., and McCulloh, T. H., eds., 1989, Thermal history of sedimentary basins: methods and case histories: Springer-Verlag, New York, 319 p.

Shirley, K, 1998, Egypt desert an exploration oasis: new concepts expand productive area: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Explorer, v. 19, no 8, 32-34.