Initiation of a global pore pressure magnitude database (World Pressure Map)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Drews
• Subject Area: Palaeontology ; Geophysics
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 517908693

Pore fluid pressure or simply pore pressure is a key parameter to describe the mechanical integrity of the Earth’s subsurface, which is often described by the difference between stress and pore pressure (effective stress). Effective stress and pore pressure drive many geological processes, such as fluid migration, sediment compaction, fault slip and seismicity. In the context of mastering the energy transition, a quantification of effective stress and pore pressure, also plays a key role to safely explore, drill and operate reservoirs for geothermal energy applications or hydrogen and CO2 storage. Stress orientation and more recently also stress magnitude data are collected, quality-ranked and stored in the World Stress Map (WSM) database. The missing building block in order to describe effective stress is a compilation of pore pressure data, which are available from deep drillings. However, a public and quality-ranked global database for this parameter is missing, despite the obvious significance of pore pressure for fundamental geoscientific research questions and subsurface operations. This proposal therefore aims to develop a global database for pore pressure magnitude data. The database will be made publicly available through the existing WSM services to ensure long-term availability as a key future resource for a broad community. The resulting “World Pressure Map” database is going to be initiated with publicly available datasets from drilled ICDP wells and published and public datasets from Europe, Australia and the USA, but also other parts of the World. A globally valid quality ranking scheme for pore pressure magnitude data, such as pressure build up during production and formation testing and well control situations (kicks and influxes) and combinations of mud gas and measured pressures within the wellbore is planned to be developed based on these datasets. Relationships between geophysical properties of shales (in particular seismic and sonic velocity, short: shale velocity) and vertical effective stress (difference between vertical stress and pore pressure) have been proven useful to predict pore pressure in areas, where no pore pressure measurements are available, but the derivation of these relationships usually remains an expert task. A global and quality-ranked pore pressure magnitude database offers the first-time opportunity to investigate and compare quality-weighted relationships between vertical effective stress and shale velocity on a global scale and to provide a basis for first order pore pressure predictions by the non-expert. A key aspect of the proposed research project is to build a peer network group from both academic and industrial pore pressure and geomechanics communities to support the project with local geological/geomechanical expertise and to advocate the usage and extension of a World Pressure Map database and anticipated quality ranking scheme in the relevant scientific and industrial communities.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1006: International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
• International Connection: Australia, Norway, United Kingdom, USA
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Oliver Heidbach, Ph.D.
• Cooperation Partners: Stephen O' Connor; Professor Dr. Peter B Flemings; Ane Lothe, Ph.D.; Dr. Mojtaba Rajabi