Integration between Pore Pressure Prediction and Petroleum System Modelling Methodologies

The necessity to satisfy the world needs of oil & gas presses Oil Companies to drill in conditions that are getting harder and harder in terms of geopressure environment. In exploration, pore pressure prediction is critical for the evaluation of vertical and lateral sealing, the estimation of maximum possible column of hydrocarbons in place, and consequently to rank the prospects and evaluate the economics. Moreover, the overpressures have created serious problems during drilling operations in the past and also at the present time; for all these reasons, the geopressures prediction is important to define the best well design in order to reduce NPT, costs and reservoir damages. In order to build the appropriate model and to face this complex problem in the right way, the<br>necessary information have to be collect, interpreted, elaborated and evaluated by several disciplines and for this kind of item, geology, geophysics and engineering have to be strongly integrated to give the best. We know from several years that information about geopressure can be derived from seismic velocities, and several relationships exist and applied with considerable success, but generally, in complex and deep areas, conventional velocity fields derived from seismic time processing are often<br>not accurate enough to make a correct pore pressure prediction. For this reason, several methods have been developed trying to obtain more appropriate velocity fields.