Geological Features There are three geological features that need to be present before oil may be present underground:

source rock, reservoir rock, and geological traps. The source rock is where the oil was formed(if you accept the organic theory), but because it is relatively non-porous, it cannot hold oil in appreciable amounts. Instead, the oil migrates to more porous rock like sandstone or limestone. These are examples of reservoir rock. It is possible for the oil to move through the reservoir rock all the way to the surface of the earth. However, this rarely happens because its progress is blocked by some impermeable rock barrier. This causes the oil to accumulate to form a reservoir. The barrier and the resulting reservoir form what is known as a trap Hydrocarbons usually occur in specific types of underground rocks. All oil and gas fields have four general features known to geologists as sources, structure, reservoirs, and seals. The sources are sedimentary rocks, principally shales. These rocks contain carbon from dead plants and animals which were deposited when the rocks were formed from sediments millions of years ago; for example, fine clay, rich in plankton, built up over eons at the bottom of an ancient sea. The organic remains gradually rot, and are buried and compressed by new sediments. The underground heat and pressure, if conditions are right, change the carbon from the rocks into hydrocarbons. Oil tends to form in rocks which were deposited in the basins of ancient seas, with the carbon largely coming from marine plants and animals. Gas, on the other hand, frequently comes from deposits which contain carbon largely from land plants such as trees and woody debris. Either way, suitable source rocks have to be present for hydrocarbons to form. When hydrocarbons form, they gradually seep from the source rock and travel along the path of least resistance, usually up, to areas of lower pressure. Gas and oil are lighter than water, and tend to collect in relatively high pockets. Since the rock layers hydrocarbons encounter on their way vary in shape and composition, and lie at odd angles to one another, the gas and oil often follows a winding migration path. Often the movement is through porous rocks such as sandstone formed from sand deposits, or through faults & other breaks in the rock. Usually, one or more broad rock trends or traps help funnel the hydrocarbons into small areas. Common traps include salt domes (dome-like structures formed by the flowing of salt deposits under pressure), ancient reefs, and areas where folding and faulting of the rock layers create suitable pockets. Petroleum geologists hope to find underground traps that contain hydrocarbons; to do this, they look at the types and combinations of rock layers there. Below is a very simple example of such a structure.

It is one thing for a potential trap to exist; it is another to be able to get at hydrocarbons which may be there. Coarse sandy sediments form porous rocks, such as sandstone, which act as reservoirs for underground hydrocarbons. Because they are so porous, reservoir rocks allow hydrocarbons both to collect inside them, and to pass through so that the gas or oil can be extracted. Geologists and geophysicists can determine from seismic studies and exploratory drilling whether suitable reservoir rocks may be present. Finally, there must be a seal a layer of rock above the reservoir rocks to prevent the hydrocarbons from moving further upward. Common seals include shales, carbonate rocks such as limestone, and evaporites (rocks such as salt and anhydrite, the source rock for gypsum). Offshore hydrocarbons which do not end up trapped within rock formations continue moving up, and eventually vent in the ocean.

Reservoir Rocks The oil that migrates through the reservoir rock is not pure oil. Rather it is a mixture of oil, water, and natural gas. When the reservoir forms, the three components will separate, with the gas at the top, the oil in the middle, and the water at the bottom. Depending on the pressure in the reservoir, the gas may stay in solution. If the gas does form a separate layer at the top, it is referred to as the gas cap. It is important to note that the oil/water/gas mixture does not form a large pool of liquid as some people often envision; it is actually dispersed throughout the reservoir rock. Reservoir Properties
The key properties for describing a petroleum reservoir are porosity, pore saturation, and permeability. Definitions of these terms are as follows. Porosity refers to the capacity of the reservoir to hold fluids. It is basically the interstices, or pores, present within the reservoir rock. Typical porosities of oil reservoirs are of the order of 20%. While porosity represents the maximum capacity of a reservoir to hold fluids, pore saturation quantifies how much of this available capacity actually does contain fluids. For example, if a reservoir is 50% saturated with oil, this means that half of the available pore space in the reservoir actually contains oil.

Permeability is a factor that quantifies how hard or how easy it is for the fluid to flow through the reservoir to the oil producing well; the greater the permeability, the easier the fluid flows.

Traps There are two basic kinds of traps: structural and stratigraphic. Structural traps are the result of deformations of the rock layer. Examples of structural traps are anticlines and fault traps. The fault trap is associated with the shifting of fault layers along a fault line, something that we are familiar with as the cause of earthquakes if the shifting motion is strong enough. Stratigraphic traps form when reservoir rock is cut off by a horizontal layer of impermeable rock. The figure below shows oil pooling in the two different types of structural traps. The dome-like structure on the right is an anticline, while the structure on the left is a trap formed along a fault.

Encyclopaedia Britannica online shows this figure in more detail.

Predicting a fault 3D An advanced tool aids in natural resource exploration as well as groundwater flow studies and seismic and volcanic hazard analyses

Stress is always just beneath the surface -- the surface of the Earth, that is. And where faults and fractures exist in the brittle rock layers of the Earth's crust, stress can have quite an impact, from triggering earthquakes to redirecting natural resources. Using 3DStress , a unique computer program developed at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), geologists and geophysicists can now quickly and accurately determine the tendencies of faults and fractures to slip or dilate. Slip can result in an earthquake, whereas dilation widens existing fractures, creating channels through which water, hydrocarbons, or magma can travel. 3DStress is thus a valuable tool for oil and gas exploration, earthquake and volcanic hazard analyses, and groundwater flow and transport analyses. The program applies computed stresses in three dimensions to fault traces on maps or three-dimensional surfaces of known or suspected faults. Fault data exported from 3DMove, developed by Midland Valley Exploration in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and ARC-INFO, developed by the Environmental Systems Research Institute in Redlands, California, can be loaded into 3DStress, as can user-created files. The three-dimensional stress states are entered through a straightforward, graphical user interface. The results, which can be displayed in two or three dimensions, can be interactively adjusted by modifying the stresses to investigate slip tendency and direction on each individual surface. The ratio of shear stress (parallel to a fault's surface) to normal stress (perpendicular to the surface) determines slip tendency. Fault dilation tendency is computed from the three-dimensional stress state and the stress normal to a fault or extension fracture surface. Previously, these complex calculations were done manually for one fault orientation at a time. With 3DStress, calculations are made for all fault and fracture orientations and simultaneously displayed using stereographic projections, fault maps, and three-dimensional models of faults. "Oil and gas companies can use 3DStress before drilling to determine the risk of leakage from a hydrocarbon trap," says Dr. David A. Ferrill, structural geologist at SwRI. A leaky trap is a naturally occurring potential gas or oil reservoir that may contain intersecting faults that channel the hydrocarbon away from the trap, resulting in little or no hydrocarbon accumulation. Volcanic hazard analyses rely to a great extent on probabilistic techniques. Ferrill explains that 3DStress provides a deterministic complement to these techniques by revealing the dilation tendencies of faults that could, under the right conditions, act

as conduits for ascending magmas. The program can also be used to predict the effects of changing stress fields on existing faults in earthquake-prone areas. "Groundwater flow in fractured aquifers is strongly controlled by fracture orientation and aperture, the product of dilation," Ferrill adds. "3DStress provides a rapid means for evaluating dilation tendency in naturally fractured aquifers and can thus be used to predict groundwater flow direction and contaminant migration." 3DStress was developed under sponsorship of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Codevelopers are Ferrill and D. Brent Henderson of the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, SwRI, and Dr. Alan Morris, associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Commercial licensing is being handled by Midland Valley Services in Boerne, Texas.