It really is about the seal!

Sedimentologists have for 100 years concerned themselves with issues of reservoir presence, reservoir quality and reservoir properties, with some noted exceptions. However, data suggest that it is seal quality that often compromises hydrocarbon and CO2 trapping. This talk will compile multiple lines of research regarding seals in a variety of settings; mass failures, shoreline tidal systems and wave dominated shorelines. Mass failure proliferation in global basins mean the potential for multiple sealed traps underlying these deposits. We will talk about tools for assessing the efficacy of mass failure sealing properties, and discuss plays and traps associated with these phenomena. We will examine compiled shale thickness and length data in a huge variety of settings to evaluate how we use these data sets to build 4D reservoir models of tidal and wave dominated systems. This talk will close with a discussion of where we have been and where the world is going in conditions AI models for exploration and development of extractive resources as well as sequestration of CO2, and the role of sedimentary geologists and engineers in providing quality data inputs.