Professor Kenneth Mccaffrey k.j.w.mccaffrey@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Basement reservoir plumbing: Fracture aperture, length and topology analysis of the Lewisian Complex, NW Scotland
McCaffrey, K.J.W.; Holdsworth, R.E.; Pless, J.; Franklin, B.S.G.; Hardman, K
Authors
Professor Bob Holdsworth r.e.holdsworth@durham.ac.uk
Professor
J. Pless
B.S.G. Franklin
K Hardman
Abstract
Upfaulted ridges of Neoarchean crystalline basement rocks formed in the Faeroe-Shetland basin as a consequence of Mesozoic rift processes and are an active target for oil exploration. We carried out a comprehensive fault and fracture attribute study on the extensive exposures of geologically equivalent crystalline basement rocks onshore in NW Scotland (Lewisian Gneiss Complex) as an analogue for the offshore oil and gas reservoirs of the uplifted Rona Ridge basement high. Our analysis shows a power-law distribution for fracture sizes (aperture and length), with random to clustered spacing, and high connectivity indices. Regional variations between the Scottish mainland and the Outer Hebrides are recognised that compare directly with variations observed along the Rona Ridge in the Faeroe-Shetland basin. Here we develop a model for the scaling properties of the fracture systems in which variations in the aperture attributes are a function of the depth of erosion beneath the top basement unconformity. More generally, the combination of size, spatial, and connectivity attributes we found in these basement highs demonstrates that they can form highly effective, well plumbed reservoir systems in their own right.
Citation
McCaffrey, K., Holdsworth, R., Pless, J., Franklin, B., & Hardman, K. (2020). Basement reservoir plumbing: Fracture aperture, length and topology analysis of the Lewisian Complex, NW Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, 177(6), 1281-1293. https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2019-143
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jun 10, 2020 |
Online Publication Date | Jul 22, 2020 |
Publication Date | 2020-11 |
Deposit Date | Jun 11, 2020 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 26, 2020 |
Journal | Journal of the Geological Society |
Print ISSN | 0016-7649 |
Electronic ISSN | 2041-479X |
Publisher | The Geological Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 177 |
Issue | 6 |
Pages | 1281-1293 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2019-143 |
Files
Accepted Journal Article
(4 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Accepted Journal Article (Supplementary information)
(3.3 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright Statement
Supplementary information
Published Journal Article
(5.1 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You might also like
Sensitivity of Santorini eruption model predictions to input conditions
(2023)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search