NEW!
Pore Pressure Prediction in Practice

INSTRUCTOR :

Martin Traugott, Consultant, New Orleans, LA

DATES:

June 12, 2013

LOCATION:

Norris Conference Center, Fort Worth, Texas

TUITION:

Member: $500.00
(if purchased individually)
Registration for the entire week is $1,795 for members, $2,095 nonmembers. Goes up to $1995/$2295, and/or individual course prices increase by $50/course day after 5/13/2013. Includes refreshments and buffet lunch each day in addition to course notes.
No refunds for cancellations after 5/13/2013.

CONTENT:

.75 CEU What is a CEU?

Who Should Attend

Geologists, geophysicists, engineers, basin modelers and managers working overpressured issues in shale-rich environments particularly in deepwater settings, for example, exploration geologists and geophysicists who need a determination of seal capacity on large overpressured structures; and, engineers and managers who need a drilling operation that avoids major well control problems should attend. Those who may not want to attend, i.e., who may not find the course helpful, are those working overpressured issues in carbonate environments or in areas in a thrust-belt or mountainous settings where the methods taught here do not apply.

Objectives

The objectives are multi purpose. The participant who needs to generate depth versus pore pressure plots (using seismic or wellbore derived acoustic velocity) will learn step-by-step procedures for making reasonably expert pore pressure and fracture gradients predictions and will learn how to check those predictions using a simple dimensionless 1d basin model. The participant working large and highly overpressured prospects will gain the skill to estimate which structures are likely to have a breached seal based on an analysis of lateral pressure transfer i.e., centroid effects. The participant who uses service-group-provided pore pressure interpretations will gain the skills to quality control and to understand the uncertainties in those interpretations. The participant who manages drilling operations in overpressured environments will learn the safe practice of (1) not drilling at the apex of highly overpressured structures and (2) not drilling deeper than a safe distance into an overpressured hydrostatic cell without setting protective casing. And last, the participant who is an academic or a researcher will gain insight into the new notion that bound water, i.e., non-ordinary low-dielectric water, plays an important role in pore pressure entrapment and pressure prediction.

Content

The above describes the main course contents. What is important to the potential participant is what is not included. This course does not, for example, include a discussion of the many different mechanisms that generate overpressures, i.e., only the compaction disequilibrium and lateral pressure transfer (centroid) mechanisms are discussed. And, this course does not include a description of the many different competing models for predicting pore pressure gradient - only the effective-stress Eaton method and the 1d basin model are discussed. And last, while there is a good set of exercises taken from worldwide examples, there is no comprehensive class manual available (much note taking is necessary).

The principal goal of the course is to teach participants how pressure data relate to the safe and efficient exploration and exploitation of petroleum reservoirs. The course is a mixture of short lectures, ample "hands on" exercises with pressure data and case studies. Material for the course will include many of the classic overpressure areas, such as Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, Trinidad and Nile Delta.

Key topics include:

• Definitions and units
• Sources of pressure data - direct and indirect
• Abnormal pressures - recognition and causes
• Pore pressure in well design
• Pressure prediction methods and limitations of each
• Deep-water drilling - a special area in relation to pore pressures