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Pre-drilling prediction techniques on the high-temperature high-pressure hydrocarbon reservoirs offshore Hainan Island, China

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Abstract

Decreasing the risks and geohazards associated with drilling engineering in high-temperature high-pressure (HTHP) geologic settings begins with the implementation of pre-drilling prediction techniques (PPTs). To improve the accuracy of geopressure prediction in HTHP hydrocarbon reservoirs offshore Hainan Island, we made a comprehensive summary of current PPTs to identify existing problems and challenges by analyzing the global distribution of HTHP hydrocarbon reservoirs, the research status of PPTs, and the geologic setting and its HTHP formation mechanism. Our research results indicate that the HTHP formation mechanism in the study area is caused by multiple factors, including rapid loading, diapir intrusions, hydrocarbon generation, and the thermal expansion of pore fluids. Due to this multi-factor interaction, a cloud of HTHP hydrocarbon reservoirs has developed in the Ying-Qiong Basin, but only traditional PPTs have been implemented, based on the assumption of conditions that do not conform to the actual geologic environment, e.g., Bellotti’s law and Eaton’s law. In this paper, we focus on these issues, identify some challenges and solutions, and call for further PPT research to address the drawbacks of previous works and meet the challenges associated with the deepwater technology gap. In this way, we hope to contribute to the improved accuracy of geopressure prediction prior to drilling and provide support for future HTHP drilling offshore Hainan Island.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Prof. Jingen Deng for providing the support that made this work possible. This work was funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2015CB251201), the NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers (No. U1606401), the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project financially supported by Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (No. 2016ASKJ13), the Major National Science and Technology Programs (No. 016ZX05024-001-002), the Natural Science Foundation of Hainan (No. ZDYF2016215), and Key Science and Technology Foundation of Sanya (Nos. 2017PT13, 2017PT2014). We express our sincere gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which greatly improved this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Marine Geophysics and Georesource, Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Science, Sanya, 572000, China

    Hanyu Zhang, Shiguo Wu, Jin Sun, Yangbing Xie, Chuanxu Chen, Jinwei Gao & Jiliang Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences and Prospecting Techniques, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Huaishan Liu

  3. Laboratory for Marine Geology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266061, China

    Shiguo Wu

  4. Shenzhen Branch of CNOOC, Shenzhen, 518000, China

    Chaoqun Yang

  5. College of Earth Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shiguo Wu

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  1. Hanyu Zhang
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  4. Jin Sun
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Correspondence to Huaishan Liu or Shiguo Wu.

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Zhang, H., Liu, H., Wu, S. et al. Pre-drilling prediction techniques on the high-temperature high-pressure hydrocarbon reservoirs offshore Hainan Island, China. J. Ocean Univ. China 17, 72–82 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-018-3488-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-018-3488-8

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