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Hot Rocks and Oil:

Are Volcanic Margins the
New Frontier?
ASSESSING THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF FINDING AND
EXTRACTING NATURAL RESOURCES FROM A VOLATILE
ENVIRONMENT
By: Dougal A. Jerram
VISITING MODERN VOLCANOES: LEARNING FROM PAST AND PRESENT
Every new volcanic eruption is a real-time opportunity to capture exactly what
happens over
time and allows researchers to examine the resultant lava flows, explosive ash horizons
and
other deposits.
Older rock masses also provide clues of where ancient volcanic episodes occurred,
their timing and their relationship to surrounding rocks and Earth history. Modern
systems provide the key to understanding the past volcanic events, and geoscientists
use the ancient dissected systems to help them understand what happens within and
beneath volcanoes as they build volcanic constructions. Examining modern volcanoes
and the ancient volcanic past can offer insights into the relationships between volcanic
rocks, the sediment/petroleum systems associated with them and the exploration
potential in volcanic basins – between hot rocks and oil. Seeing how modern sedimentary
systems interact with volcanic eruptions and the resultant deposits provides a direct view
of how both competing processes act on one another. Studying the ancient deposits
preserved in onshore segments of volcanic systems also allows analogues to be drawn
with offshore exploration targets.

WHAT ARE VOLCANIC MARGINS AND WHY MIGHT THEY BE IMPORTANT FOR
NATURAL RESOURCE EXPLORATION?
Many of the sedimentary basins that have accumulated the rocks that can create,
transport
and store oil and gas in the subsurface have also been the sites of major volcanic
episodes in Earth’s history.
These flood basalts and their magma feeding systems are often found intricately
associated with some of the major sedimentary basins. Geoscientists define areas where
exploration of the sediments will be affected by volcanic rocks along ‘volcanic margins’.
Hydrocarbons, as well as aquifer reservoirs, occur in many of these prospective volcanic
basins. It is believed that many more exist and are yet to be discovered.

ISSUES WITH VOLCANIC ROCKS AND EXPLORATION

In order to get an oil or gas prospect one needs what is known as the
‘5 steps to heaven’ :
1. Reservoir – the rock mass that has void space to host the hydrocarbon.
2. Seal – a rock that is impermeable to the migration of hydrocarbons.
3. Trap – a structure/orientation of rock strata that will trap the migration of hydrocarbons
to the surface.
4. Source – an organic-rich sediment that will mature with burial and lead to the
production of hydrocarbons (e.g. organic shales, coal, etc.).
5. Timing/migration – the set of events that allows the maturation and migration of
the hydrocarbons to occur after the trap is in place so that they are successfully fed
into the reservoir.
 How these ‘5 steps to heaven’ are found in a volcanic basin will depend on the
timing of the
volcanic events, the intrusion of the magma through the sediments and the development
of traps prior to any charging of hydrocarbons. Hot magma can, in principle, act as a heat
source to mature the petroleum system. The existing and potential exploration into these
thicker zones, however, can prove problematic. Technical issues include imaging within
and beneath the volcanics and the prospect
of drilling through thick lava flows.
IMAGING BENEATH VOLCANICS
Two possible solutions to the Sub-Basalt Imaging problem are to:
1. Find better ways to process existing data to emphasize the signal that one gets in the
‘sub-basalt’ domain.
2. Better design and plan new acquisitions where thick volcanic sequences are known
to present a challenge.
Improvements in acquiring new data include:
1. The position and recording of the seismic source at specific depths in the water.
2. The types of source fired.
3. The types and position of the receivers used. For example: long offset arrays of
receivers, bespoke 3D seismic surveys and even ocean bottom situated seismometers.

DRILLING THROUGH VOLCANICS

After identifying a target, the second major issue is drilling through the volcanic rocks
themselves. This may not seem like such a big issue. The volcanic rocks will be quite hard
and competent, providing a slow but predictable medium to plan a drilling campaign.
Volcanic rocks can contain variations of rock properties such as velocity within a single flow
spanning almost the entire range of rock types. It’s all down to bubbles, cracks and
weathering, as well as certain key volcanic facies types.
A key issue is predicting a drilling rig’s rate of penetration (ROP) and the potential
hazards of moving from fast to slow and back in repeated succession of lava flows.
Additionally, fractured and vesicle rich zones that contain very high porosity/permeability
are also concerns, as drilling fluids may be lost which adds further hazards to the planned
well. All this, combined with an uncertain depth to the base of the volcanics, makes for a
challenging set of drilling issues that are present when attempting to penetrate moderate to
thick volcanic successions. Drilling through volcanics. Oil and gas companies require good
images in order to see ‘through’ volcanics and generate a best estimate of where the
volcanics end. Drilling teams can encounter a number of problems from high to low ROP and
fluid loss to the drill bit sticking. A number of new technologies can help with drilling, as well
as with post-well analysis of what volcanics one has.

SUCCESS AND FAILURE; WHAT LESSONS HAVE BEEN LEARNED

Failure comes at an excessive cost where little to no hydrocarbons are found, or
other technical difficulties lead to the early abandonment of wells. Problems with the
interpretation of the base basalt position and the target depth of the reservoir have often
meant that far more volcanic material has been encountered whilst drilling than
predicted. Also, the complex rock properties associated with lava flows and volcaniclastic
rocks can result in drilling problems during penetration. In this example, the volcanic
plumbing systems often cut into organic rich shale horizons which are the main source
rock in the region. The hot magma can locally mature this horizon where it has not been
buried deep enough. It may also fracture and contract when they cool, providing their
own fracture networks that acts as a reservoir. Somewhat surprisingly, petroleum
reservoirs have also been found beneath volcanoes themselves. Actually drilling into a
volcano may seem undoable. Normally, one would avoid any major volcanic rocks or
active volcano systems. Yet in the volcanoes and volcanic plumbing in the Neuquén
Basin, Argentina, a tale of hot rocks and oil exists that
has been repeatedly successful for oil and gas production.

IS THE FUTURE VOLCANIC?

Volcanic rocks have actually always been useful in sedimentary successions as
they may be used to date sequences due to radioactive elements hidden within them.
These rock ages that result from erupted episodes provide valuable marker horizons with
which one can better understand the
conditions within sedimentary rocks. However, these dateable examples are usually of
low volume, such as thin ash beds that once blanketed the basins. But, it is the volcanic
margins that potentially hold big prizes if the industry can successfully explore in the
sub-basalt domain. Our best chance of properly identifying the types of volcanic rocks
and systems is through taking an integrated approach. This includes looking at all the
available data from the rate of penetration at the drill bit, through the cuttings that arrive
at the surface, and down to borehole geophysics and imaging with a volcanics
perspective. This,along with systematic post well analysis of the available sampled
volcanic material
(cuttings, side wall cores, etc.), can help with additional temperature, density and, where
possible, age constraints of the system in question. These insights, when applied with
other research findings, are the ways to improve our understanding of exploration plays,
reduce the risks and lead to better exploration outcomes, as the industry ventures
further into the volcanic basins and margins of the world.