Faults is the main channels for hydrocarbon migration. The internal structure characteristics of fault zones have always been the focus and difficulty in petroleum geology. Fault includes interlaced fracture plane or fault zone which showing as deformation based-band, joint-based faulting and brittle faulting. The property of a fault and its formed stages control fault architecture, which may be divided into host rock, induced fracture zone with main slip plane, and fault damage zone. Fault architecture control the migration and sealing properties which showing complex permeability and displacement pressure in geological events. These properties could evaluation by clay content, fault zone width, depth and other feature. Fluid migration in fault zone follows porosity seepage characteristics as it does in reservoir. Cross-fault pressure and petroleum column height cannot be converted to seal capacities because charge history and sealing type influence sealing. In the future, with the innovation of research methods, logging data will be used to characterize the internal structure of faults more effectively. Meanwhile, quantitative fluorescence analysis of hydrocarbon fluid inclusions will be used to analyze reservoir plugging evolution history more quantitatively.

Douxing Zhu, Siyu Wang, Jianxiong Zheng, Yongli Wang, Cunying Shi, Ruifeng Zhao, Chaolong Ding, Xujiao Zang, Yang Meng, Bing Han, Ning Sun, Zhe Liu. Faults Internal Structure and Its Influence on Hydrocarbon Migration. Academic Journal of Environment & Earth Science (2024), Vol. 6, Issue 4: 26-36. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJEE.2024.060404.

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