Railsback's Petroleum Geoscience and Subsurface Geology
Diagenetic Traps
Reservoir is partially filled
with petroleum
A diagenetic trap exists when sedi-
mentary rock that would otherwise be
of uniform porosity and permeability
has been locally modified so that it acts
as a barrier to petroleum migration
(and thus as a seal). One way that this
could happen is if petroleum filled part
but not all of a potential reservoir. The
presence of the petroleum as a non-
aqueous phase in the pores would pre-
clude cementation (chemical precipita-
Water-filled portion of reservoir is cemented
(i.e., pore-filling minerals are precipitated from With later tilting, petroleum does not move
aqueous solution into water-saturated pores) from pores that it previously occupied –
it is diagenetically trapped.
No cementation occurs.
tion of pore-filling minerals from
aqueous solution) in those pores – but
cementation could proceed below the
petroleum accumulation. Cementation
would cause a less porous and less
permeable zone that would be a barrier With later tilting, petroleum moves
to hydrocarbons. This barrier would from pores that it previously occupied –
become apparent if the reservoir were it is not diagenetically trapped.
later tilted tectonically. That is the
scenario illustrated here.
LBR DiageneticTrap01.odg 10/2011