Dedication	6
	Preface	8
	Acknowledgements	10
	Contents	12
	About the Author	20
	Chapter 1: Introduction to the Oil Industry and Oil Show Evaluation: A Personal Retrospective	21
	1.1 Introduction and Vocabulary of Oil and Gas	22
	1.2 The Art of Exploration	27
	1.2.1 A History of Drilling and Exploration	28
	1.2.2 Generational Challenges and Evolving Technology	30
	1.2.3 Some Personal Experiences in Learning About Seals and Shows	31
	1.2.4 The Art of Exploration: Plays Versus Prospects and Getting Proper Experience Early	34
	1.2.5 Creaming Curves and New Plays Versus Prospects: Challenging the ‘Peak oil’ Paradigm	35
	1.2.6 Looking at Rocks, Dealing with People and Your Learning Curve	38
	1.2.7 Break from Paradigms: Believe in Yourself and Your Data	40
	1.2.8 Pay Attention to the Fluids and the Key Well Concept	41
	1.2.9 The Value of Teams, Peer Assists and Risk Assessment	43
	1.2.10 The Need to Get It Right Needs to Be Balanced by a Need for Speed	44
	1.2.11 Looking for the NULF (Nasty, Ugly, Little Fact) to Break Paradigms	44
	1.2.12 Pay Attention to Tight Rocks with Oil and Gas Shows	46
	1.2.13 You Never Have Enough Data, But Perseverance Pays Off	47
	1.3 Some Background on Seismic	48
	1.4 New Tools: Advances in Migration Modeling and Shows Calibration	55
	1.4.1 Spider Maps to 3D Models	56
	1.4.2 Some Examples of Model Development and Visualization	58
	1.5 Summary	62
	References	62
	Chapter 2: The Basics of Traps, Seals, Reservoirs and Shows	66
	2.1 The Petroleum System: Primary, Secondary Migration, and ‘Unconventional’ Exploration	67
	2.2 Traps, Porosity, Spill Points and Seals	68
	2.2.1 You Don’t Need to Know Why a Trap Exists If You Can Figure Out Where It Is from the Test and Show Data	76
	2.3 Assessing Risk: Thinking About Seals, Structure and Reservoir Quality	79
	2.3.1 Making the Right Maps	82
	2.3.2 Some Thoughts on Stratigraphic Traps	85
	2.4 The Basics of Rock Properties, Free Water Levels, Buoyancy Pressure and Hydrocarbon Shows	90
	2.4.1 Porosity	90
	2.4.2 Buoyancy Pressure (Pb), Pressure vs. Depth Plots, Free Water Levels and Water Saturation	93
	2.4.3 Water and Hydrocarbon Saturations and Height Above Free Water Plots	95
	2.4.4 Oil-Water Contacts, Top of Transition Zones vs. FWL and Relative Permeability	96
	2.4.5 Permeability	99
	2.4.6 Waste Zones	99
	2.4.7 Oil Show Types	101
	2.4.8 Kerogen-Rich Source Rocks	104
	2.4.9 Thinking Like a Molecule	105
	2.5 Summary	105
	References	106
	Chapter 3: Drilling, Mud-Logging, Wireline Logs and Cores	110
	3.1 Historical Context Around Understanding Shows and Drilling Wells	111
	3.1.1 Horizontal Wells and Multi-Stage Fracturing	113
	3.1.2 East vs. West: Evolution of Different Evaluation Techniques	114
	3.1.3 Seeps	116
	3.1.4 Drilling with Mud	117
	3.1.5 Wellbore Design, Pressures and Rig Safety	118
	3.1.6 Background on Muds, Mud-Weights and Circulation Time	119
	3.2 Mud Logs, Gasses and Cuttings Descriptions	120
	3.2.1 The Mud Log	120
	3.2.2 Analyzing Mud Gasses: Wet to Light Gas Ratio Analysis	122
	3.2.3 Wellbore Flushing and Over and Underbalanced Drilling	125
	3.2.4 Cuttings and Oil Shows	129
	3.2.4.1 Residual Shows	129
	3.3 Basics of Well Logs	132
	3.3.1 Well log Formats: Digital vs. Raster	132
	3.3.2 The Well Header and Common Logs	133
	3.3.3 Common Log Displays and the Basics of Log Interpretation	134
	3.3.4 Gamma Ray (GR) and Spontaneous Potential (SP) Logs	140
	3.3.5 Porosity Logs, Volume of Shale Calculations and Total vs. Effective Porosity	141
	3.3.6 Quick Look for Gas Effect and Permeability from Resistivity Profiles	143
	3.3.7 Calculating Lithology	144
	3.4 Capturing and Interpreting Core Data	145
	3.4.1 Core Data	145
	3.4.2 Saturation Changes in Coring	146
	3.5 How to Miss Good Hydrocarbon Shows and Case Histories	148
	3.5.1 Ways to Miss Hydrocarbon Shows	148
	3.5.2 Suppressed Resistivity and ‘Hot Gamma Ray’ Reservoirs	148
	3.5.3 Case History 1: Russian River SE Field: “Hot” Dolomite and by-Passed Pay, Williston Basin, Montana	149
	3.5.4 Case History 2: Using Gas Wetness mud log Analysis to Discover of a New Turbidite Oil Play Fairway, Eocene Dharvi Dungar Formation, Barmer Basin, India	152
	3.5.4.1 Acknowledgements and Introduction	152
	3.5.4.2 Regional Setting	154
	3.5.4.3 Summary and Impact	156
	3.6 Summary	156
	3.6.1 The Worst Thing I Ever Heard a Mud Logger Say	160
	References	160
	Chapter 4: Understanding Seals, Pressures and Hydrodynamics	163
	4.1 Basic Pressure Terms, Uses and Pressure Data Collection	164
	4.1.1 Why Look at Seals from the Standpoint of Pressures and Hydrodynamics?	164
	4.1.2 Some Good References	165
	4.1.3 Pore Pressure	167
	4.1.4 Recognizing Seals on Pressure-Depth Plots and Understanding mud Weights	172
	4.1.5 Tools and Data Capture for Pressure Analysis	176
	4.1.5.1 Data Reporting Formats	178
	4.2 Understanding Facies and Fault Seals Qualitatively	182
	4.2.1 Seals Overview: Facies and Fault Seals	182
	4.2.1.1 Seal Quality, Pressures and Time	183
	4.2.2 Fault Seals	188
	4.2.2.1 Fault Traps, Gouge and Juxtaposition Analysis	188
	4.2.2.2 Stress Direction: Borehole Breakout	195
	4.2.2.3 Testing Fault Models with Shows	197
	4.3 Building and Interpreting Pressure Vs. Depth Plots and Hydrodynamic Flow	199
	4.3.1 The Basics of Pressure-Depth Plots and Recognition of Hydrodynamic Flow	199
	4.3.2 Making Potentiometric Surface Maps and Modeling Hydrodynamic Entrapment	205
	4.3.3 Modeling Hydrodynamic Tilt and Migration Using Potentiometric Surface Maps	207
	4.3.4 A Practical Example of Hydrodynamic Tilting Using Trinity Software	209
	4.3.5 Example of Tilted Contacts in an Overpressured Environment	210
	4.3.6 Building Your Own Hydrodynamic Maps: A Bit More Theory Behind Migration and Hydrodynamics: The U-V-Z Method	212
	4.3.6.1 A Note on the Value of Z in Many Petroleum Systems Software Packages	213
	4.3.6.2 Hubbert’s Full Equation with Seal Capacity Added	214
	4.3.7 Perched Water—Another Problem That Can Look Hydrodynamic	215
	4.3.7.1 Ormen-Lange Field, Norway—Perched or Tilted?	218
	4.4 High Pressure Systems, Pressure Regressions and Fracture Seal Breaching	221
	4.4.1 Maps of Over Pressure	222
	4.4.2 Deep Overpressure and Log and Seismic Methods of Prediction	224
	4.4.3 Pressure Regressions and Fracture Gradients- Casing Design, Room for Accumulations and Enhanced Seal Capacity	228
	4.4.4 Bigger Isn’t Always Better-the Role of Pressures and Centroids in Fracture Seal Breach and Exploration Failure	233
	4.4.5 Summary of Part IV	236
	4.5 Case Histories	237
	4.5.1 Temsah Field: 25 Years to Recognition of a Tilted Gas-­Water Contact	239
	4.5.2 Deep Nile Delta Play Opener: Pressures and Shows Identified the Play	242
	4.6 Summary	245
	References	246
	Chapter 5: Quantifying Seals and Saturations: Capillary Pressure, Pseudo-capillary Pressure and Quantitative Show Assessment	251
	5.1 The Fundamentals of Capillary Pressure	252
	5.1.1 The Importance of Understanding Capillary Pressure	252
	5.1.2 Fluid Potential (Entrapment) Maps Using Capillary Pressure Seals	253
	5.1.3 Capillary Pressure	254
	5.1.3.1 Mercury Injection Capillary Pressure Analysis	257
	5.1.4 Estimating Height Above Free Water from Capillary Pressure Data	263
	5.1.5 Relative Permeability, Water Cut and Oil-Water Contacts	264
	5.1.6 Imbibition Curves and Residual Saturations	267
	5.1.7 Summary	268
	5.2 Flow Units, Winland Plots, Pseudo-capillary Pressure Curves and Mapping Seals	269
	5.2.1 Flow Units and Winland Plots	270
	5.2.2 Pseudo-capillary Pressure Curves	275
	5.2.3 Making a Seal Capacity Estimate When You Do Not Have a Pseudo-capillary Pressure Spreadsheet	278
	5.2.3.1 Weyburn Field Example	279
	5.2.4 Migration with Seals: Examples from Aneth Field Area, Utah-Colorado	279
	5.2.5 Migration with Both Fault Seals and Hydrodynamics-­Temsah Field, Egypt	289
	5.2.6 Summary	290
	5.3 Show Types and Quantitative Assessment	291
	5.3.1 Building and Visualizing a Shows Database	296
	5.3.2 Summary	299
	5.4 Case Histories	299
	5.4.1 Cases 1–4: October Field, Egypt	299
	5.4.1.1 Case 1: Underestimating a Field Size—Failure to Get the Free Water Level Right, GS 184 Field, October Field Complex, Egypt	301
	5.4.1.2 Case 2: Cap Pressure Analysis Leads to Deeper Oil-Water Contact, October Field, Egypt	306
	5.4.1.3 Case 3: Capillary Pressure and Sample Shows in Dry Hole with by-Passed Pay Lead to Updip oil Discovery, October Field, Egypt	311
	5.4.1.4 Case 4: “J” Platform Oil Discovery-Drilling Updip of Residual Oil, October Field, Egypt	314
	5.4.1.5 Case History 5: Buzzard Field, United Kingdom. Missing a Key Oil Show	316
	5.4.1.6 Case History 6: Hugoton Field: Giant re-Migration Along Residual Migration Pathway	318
	5.4.1.7 Case History 7: West Siberian Basin, Russia: Perhaps the World’s Largest Residual Migration Pathway	322
	5.5 Summary	327
	References	329
	Chapter 6: Basic Log Analysis, Quick-Look Techniques, Pitfalls and Volumetrics	333
	6.1 Overview	334
	6.2 The Archie Equation and Finding Rw	335
	6.2.1 Archie Equation Limits Due to Shaliness	335
	6.2.2 Archie Equation Steps	336
	6.2.3 Finding Rw	337
	6.3 Porosity Logs and Calculations	338
	6.3.1 Sonic Log Porosity	340
	6.3.2 Density Log Porosity	340
	6.3.3 Porosity from Combination Neutron-Density Logs	342
	6.4 Some Quick Look Techniques: Pickett and Buckles Plots	342
	6.4.1 Pickett Plots	343
	6.4.2 Buckles Plots and Bulk Volume Water (BVW)	344
	6.5 Pattern Recognition of Pay	345
	6.5.1 Example 1: Eocene Wilcox Sandstone	346
	6.6 Residual Shows on Logs	347
	6.7 Pitfalls: Clays, Shales, Laminated Pays	348
	6.7.1 Low Resistivity-Low Contrast Pays (LCLR)	350
	6.7.2 Using Micro-resistivity and NMR Logs in Shaly and Difficult Pay Zones	352
	6.7.2.1 NMR Logs	352
	6.7.3 More Pitfalls: Clays, Conductive Minerals and Formation Damage	356
	6.8 A Note on Calculating Reserves	360
	6.9 Summary	360
	References	362
	Chapter 7: Using Fluid Inclusion Data in Exploration	366
	7.1 Introduction and Overview of Fluid Inclusions	367
	7.1.1 The Reality of Migration: It Is Complicated!	369
	7.2 Conventional Fluid Inclusion Analysis	370
	7.2.1 Using Microthermometry Data and Identifying Hydrocarbon Types and Salinities	372
	7.3 Bulk Fluid Inclusion Analysis with FIS	378
	7.3.1 Proximity to Pay	382
	7.3.2 Bacterial and Thermal Alteration	385
	7.3.3 A Note on Drill Bit Metamorphism (DBM)	387
	7.4 FIS Interpretation Examples	389
	7.4.1 Northwest Coast of Australia	390
	7.4.2 Prospect Ranking	391
	7.4.3 Barents Sea	391
	7.4.4 Sogn Graben	392
	7.4.5 Unconventional Well Performance-Mancos Shale, Utah	394
	7.4.6 Example of Detecting Oil Shows Missed on Mud Logs: Barmer Basin, India	396
	7.5 Summary	398
	References	398
	Chapter 8: Shows and Geochemistry: Extracting More Information from Source Rocks and Hydrocarbons	401
	8.1 Introduction	402
	8.2 Source Rock Quality and Maturation	403
	8.2.1 The Language of Source Rocks	403
	8.2.2 Rock Eval Pyrolysis	404
	8.2.3 Source Rock Quality	405
	8.2.4 Maturation and Source Rock Type	408
	8.2.4.1 Maturation and Rock Eval Numbers: What you see is not What you Had	412
	8.2.4.2 Delta LogR and Resistivity Mapping	418
	8.2.5 Building Maturation Models and Understanding Heat Flow	420
	8.2.5.1 Geothermal Gradient and Heat Flow	422
	8.2.5.2 Heat Flow Modelling	424
	8.2.5.3 An Example of Basement Control on Heat Flow and Maturation-­Bakken Formation, Williston Basin	427
	8.2.5.4 1-D Burial Models	429
	8.2.6 Summary: Source Rock Quality and Maturation	434
	8.3 Rig Data Collection: Headspace gas and mud Isotubes	435
	8.3.1 Summary	443
	8.4 Some Source Rock Play Screening Criteria	444
	8.4.1 Sweet Spots	447
	8.4.1.1 A Note on Calculating Volumes of Oil or Gas in Shale	447
	8.5 Oil to Source Correlations	450
	8.5.1 Examples of Utility of Understanding Basic Oil and Rock Geochemistry Correlations	451
	8.5.1.1 Nile Delta, Egypt	452
	8.5.1.2 Barmer Basin, India	454
	8.5.2 A Case History of Migration Modeling from Oil to Source Correlations: Cutbank Field, Montana	456
	8.6 Summary	459
	References	459
	Chapter 9: Building and Testing Migration Models	466
	9.1 The Scale Challenge in Migration Modelling	467
	9.2 Some Migration Concepts	468
	9.3 Long Range Migration	470
	9.4 Building Migration Models and Recognizing Limits with Risk Maps	473
	9.5 Making Migration Risk Index Maps	476
	9.6 Summary	477
	References	478
	Appendix A Common Conversion Equations and Fluid Classifications	480
	References	483
	Appendix B Constructing Winland Pore Throat Graphs in Excel	484
	References	486
	Appendix C Equations in Excel to Convert Mercury-­Injection Capillary Pressure Data to Height Above Free Water	487
	References, Capillary Pressure Conversion, Appendix B	489
	Appendix D Equations in Excel to Make Pseudo-­Capillary Pressure Curves	490
	Example 2: Using R in Centimeters Instead of Mu	494
	References	494
	Appendix E Converting Paleogeographic Maps or Shapefiles in ARCGIS to Grids	495