Dating and duration of hot fluid flow events determined using AFTA® and vitrinite reflectance-based thermal history reconstruction

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Abstract
Heating due to lateral introduction of hot fluids is becoming an increasingly recognized feature of the thermal histories of sedimentary basins. In some basins, heating by fluids may have an important effect on hydrocarbon source rock maturation history, so that quantification of the magnitude and timing of heating become essential elements in hydrocarbon prospectivity. In other cases, determining the time of fluid heating in a reservoir may provide a key constraint on hydrocarbon migration history. Examples are presented using AFTA apatite fission track analysis and vitrinite reflectance (VR) data to identify and quantify fluid heating in well sequences from several regions. In the West of Shetland region, in the vicinity of the Rona Ridge, non-linear palaeotemperature profiles defined by AFTA and VR results provide evidence of local heating shallow in the section. AFTA timing constraints suggest introduction of heated fluids produced by nearby Tertiary intrusive activity, although the time constraints are broad because of the low maximum palaeotemperatures involved ( R 0 max < 0.6%). In a well from Asia, transient maximum palaeotemperatures > 120°C resulted in R 0 max > 0.6% in an Eocene section, with AFTA constraining the fluid flow event responsible for the early to mid Miocene (25 to 10 Ma). On the North West Shelf of Australia transient fluid flow associated with hydrocarbon leakage, and possibly charge, has been previously identified by a combination of AFTA, VR and fluid inclusion homogenization temperature ( T h ) results. In the East Swan-2 well, a fracture inclusion in quartz from shallow Eocene sandstones gives a minimum T h value of 88°C, c. 40°C higher than the present temperature. AFTA and VR data show no direct evidence of sustained heating at such a temperature, and can only be reconciled if the duration of heating was c. 20 000 years. The results are consistent with this event being associated with passage of a hot brine and hydrocarbon fluid (O’Brien and Woods, 1995). These case studies demonstrate that a combination of thermal history tools can be used to identify and quantify the thermal effect of fluid flow, potentially allowing much tighter constraints on hydrocarbon generation and migration histories.
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