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Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Campus Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Geophysics (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Advisor 1

Wayne D. Pennington

Committee Member 1

Roger M. Turpening

Committee Member 2

Mir Sadri

Abstract

Faulted and fractured strata are very important features of potential hydrocarbon reservoir areas. Sometimes the faults form traps for the accumulation and concentration of hydrocarbon fluids, and sometimes faults and/or fractures create an escape route for the hydrocarbons from reservoirs. They, therefore, play a significant role especially in controlling the migration of oil and gas in both horizontal and vertical directions. When the predominant migrating hydrocarbon is gas, it becomes more important due to potential drilling hazards. In this study, I concentrate on the chaotic reflection patterns directly beneath major faults and on the footwall sides of those faults. The main interest is the cause of these time distortions of reflecting horizons, compared to deeper reflectors that have not been distorted, using data from the Penobscot area of Scotian Basin, on the shelf of Nova Scotia, Canada.

First, I applied the coherence attribute with and without full dip-steered data to the 3D Penobscot data set. Two major faults and two minor faults were identified, and some anomalies were identified on the north sides (footwalls) of the faults. Second, I created a chimney cube in an attempt to image hydrocarbon migration in the area. The resulting images suggest that along the major two faults there is natural gas leakage that is creating gas clouds in shallower layers.

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