In addition to simulating the standard pressure and temperature, source rock generation, and hydrocarbon migration through geological time, PetroMod petroleum systems modeling software contains additional functionality to solve more advanced problems related to geomechanics and pore pressure prediction at the basin scale. This functionality is complementary to other packages such as the VISAGE finite-element geomechanics simulator.
Basin-scale geomechanics
Input properties for PetroMod Geomechanics can be defined in a separate Rock Stress tab in the Lithology Editor. Users can define rock properties such as Poisson’s ratio and the bulk modulus of elasticity and their evolution through geological time. Additionally, users can define a material law. Currently isotropic and anisotropic elastic, poroelastic, and poroplastic material behavior can be defined. The simulator takes into account the compaction, pore pressure, and eventual pressure boundary conditions to predict stress, effective stress, elastic or plastic strain, and eventual rock failure. Results can be viewed as overlays, stress tensors, and vectors and in Mohr circle or P/Q space.
Applications of PetroMod Geomechanics include:
- Evolution of stress around salt domes during geological time.
- Evolution of stress around faults and prediction of the likelihood of fault reactivation.
- Prediction of present-day elastic properties such as Poisson’s ratio for use in seismic processing.
Basin-scale pore pressure prediction
Pore pressure prediction in PetroMod software includes compaction effects, the centroid effect, smectite-illite transformation, cementation aquathermal pressure, aquifer-driven background pressure, hydrocarbon generation effects, and the effect of sealing faults and their potential changes through geological time.
Pore pressure prediction results can be visualized as 3D overlays or in 1D extractions along the wellbore in absolute pressure units or in mud-weight equivalent.
