PETROLEUM TRAPS

GROUP MEMBERS
 AmmaraDawood
Hadia Razi
 CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• FORMATION OF TRAP
• TYPES OF TRAP
• STRUCTURAL TRAP
• STRATIGRAPHIC TRAP
• HYDRODYNAMIC TRAP
• TIMING OF TRAP FORMATION
• CONCLUSION AND REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
• “Petroleum” is the general term used for all the natural hydrocarbon found in the
rocks.
• “ Petroleum” refers only to the liquid oil. Gaseous varieties are called “natural
gas” and highly viscous to solid varieties are called “bitumen”.
• The fined grained muddy sediments in which petroleum originates are called “
source rock”, the source rock generally shales , silts and limestone.
• Term `Trap was 1st introduced by McCullough in 1934.
• It is the accumulation of Petroleum hydrocarbons in a reservoir rock when its
migration and escape is prevented.
• It reserves the hydrocarbons in porous and permeable rocks. Such permeable rocks
are called “ Reservoir rocks”
• The common reservoir rocks are sandstone, conglomerates, porous limestone,
fractured shales and jointed igneous and metamorphic rocks.
DEFINATION OF TRAP
• A Trap can be defined as any geometric arrangement of rock, regardless of origin,
that permits significant accumulation of oil or gas , both in the subsurface
accumulation.
NOMENCLATURE OF A TRAP
• CREST OR CULMINATION; highest point in the trap.
• SPILL POINT; lowest point of the trap up to which hydrocarbon is contained.
• SPILL PLANE; horizontal contour cutting spill point.
• PAY: The productive reservoir i.e, vertical interval of hydrocarbon.
• CLOSURE; Vertical distance from crest to spill plane.
NOMENCLATURE OF A TRAP
FORMATION OF A TRAP

• A TRAP is formed where the capillary displacement pressure of a seal exceeds the
upward buoyancy pressure of petroleum in the adjoining porous and permeable
reservoir rocks.
• It is also formed by as a result of changes of subsurface structures due to tectonism,
compressional, extensional, diapiric, depositional and gravitational processes.
• These changes block the upward movement of hydrocarbon and can lead to a
formation of a trap.
TYPES OF TRAP CLASSIFICATION BY ALLEN AND
ALLEN
Extensional, Contractional
Tectonic

Compactional Drape structures

Structural Salt Movement, Mud
Diapiric Movement

Gravitational
--------

Reefs, Pinch-outs,
Depositional
Channels, Bars
Stratigraphic Unconformity Truncation, On lap
Mineral, Tar-mats, Gas
Diagenetic
hydrates, Permafrost
Hydrodynamic ---------- --------
TYPES OF TRAP
A. STRUCTURAL TRAP
• In petroleum geology, a structural trap is a type of geological trap that forms as a
result of changes in the structure of the subsurface, due to tectonic, diapiric,
gravitational and compactional processes.
• These changes block the upward migration of hydrocarbons and can lead to the
formation of a petroleum reservoir.
• There are three basic forms of structural trap are the anticlinal trap, the fault trap,
and the salt dome trap.
A. STRUCTURAL TRAP
 Common in convergent  Faulting moves reservoir rock  Deeply buried Salt intrudes
tectonic settings. opposite to impermeable rock. vertically, makes salt an
effective trap rock.

Anticlinal Traps Fault related Traps Salt Diapiric Trap

A. Structural traps
1. Extensional trap 2. Contractional trap
• Stretching of crust or lithosphere • Traps develop along contractional
by tectonic process. faults that forms as a result of
tectonic convergent.
B. Stratigraphic traps
• variations within the rock strata such as facie change, Variable porosity and permeability,
diagenetic, or by unconformity.
Types of stratigraphic traps:
1. Depositional: trap geometry is related to sedimentary facies change.
2. Unconformity: A type of hydrocarbon trap whose closure is controlled by the presence
of an unconformity.
3. Diagenetic: Trap boundaries created by plugging original reservoir porosity and
permeability by diagenetic cements or minerals.
 1. Depositional traps
• Fluvial channel:
fluvial deposits are laterally and vertically sealed by delta plain and abandoned channel
mudstone.
• Pinch-outs:
termination by thinning or tapering out of a reservoir against a nonporous sealing rock
creates a favorable geometry to trap hydrocarbons.
• Reef type:
traps form by change in the regional environment caused the reefs to be buried by muds,
forming an impermeable seal and cap rock.
1. Depositional traps
shale
HC

HC
Isolated sand body

shale

HC
Isolated sand body

Fluvial channel type trap Pinch-outs Reef type trap

2. Unconformity traps
1. Super-unconformity:
• Form beneath unconformity
• Traps developed beneath an
unconformity by truncation of
reservoir beds.
• e.g. angular, disconformity, Para
unconformity.
Angular unconformity
2. On lap:
• Form above unconformity
• successively wedge-shaped younger
rock strata extending progressively
further across an erosion surface cut in
older rocks.
3. Diagenetic traps
1. Cementation: provides seal to an accumulation by effecting porosity and
permeability.
2. Tar-mat: Impermeable tar mat form by bacterial degradation of oil in presence
of meteoric water at temp < 70°C.
3. Permafrost: a frozen ground (soil or rock) < 0°C, provide an up-dip seal to
petroleum accumulation.
4. Solid Hydrates: trap gas within or accumulate in reservoir underlying zone of
hydrate formation.
C. Hydrodynamic Traps:
• Hydrodynamic traps are a far less common type of trap.
• They are caused by the differences in water pressure, that are associated with water flow,
creating a tilt of the hydrocarbon-water contact (Pressure induced blockage of fluid flow).
• high water saturation reduces hydrocarbon permeability to near zero, resulting in a water
block.
• Petroleum is accumulated down the structural dip of a sedimentary bed below the water in
the sedimentary formation.

Hydrodynamic flow Hydrodynamic trap with

increased water flow or oil density
Timing of trap formation
• The tarp is form before migration, It will be productive.
• On the other hand, where trap formation Post-dates its petroleum migration, they
could be barren by permitting Petroleum to undergo Further migration.
• Depositional and unconformity traps are very early, which makes sealing
effective, thus they are ready to receive charge from very early stage.
• However, some structural traps are very late in relation to petroleum charge.
• Uplift of sedimentary cover due to shortening results in cooling of the over thrust
sheet, which switches off petroleum generation.
 References
• https://petgeo.weebly.com/stratigraphic-trap.html
• https://www.britannica.com/science/stratigraphic-trap.
• https://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/en/Terms/u/unconformity_trap.aspx
• https://wiki.aapg.org/Diagenetic_trap_regime.
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312176613_Reservoir_geometry_of_flu
vial_distributary_channels_-
_implications_for_Nothwest_shelf_Australia_Deltaic_Successions.
• http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-
eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&index=ent&srchtxt=STRATIGRAPHIC%20REEF%
20TRAP.
• https://www.britannica.com/science/hydrodynamic-trapping.
THE END
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