Oil Traps ~ Petro Pedia

There are three basic forms of a structural trap in petroleum geology:

-Anticline Trap

-Fault Trap
-Salt Dome Trap

The common link between these three is simple: some part of the earth has moved in the past, creating an impedence to oil flow.

Anticline Trap

An anticline is an example of rocks which were previously flat, but have been bent into an arch. Oil that finds its way into a reservoir rock that has been bent into an arch will flow to the crest of the arch, and get stuck (provided, of course, that there is a trap rock above the arch to seal the oil in place).

Fault Trap

Fault traps are formed by movement of rock along a fault line. In some cases, the reservoir rock has moved opposite a layer of impermeable rock. The impermeable rock thus prevents the oil from escaping. In other cases, the fault itself can be a very effective trap. Clays within the fault zone are smeared as the layers of rock slip past one another. This is known as fault gouge.

Salt Dome Trap

Salt is a peculiar substance. If you put enough heat and pressure on it, the salt will slowly flow, much like a glacier that slowly but continually moves downhill. Unike glaciers, salt which is buried kilometers below the surface of the Earth can move upwarduntil it breaks through to the Earth's surface, where it is then dissolved by ground- and rain-water. To get all the way to the Earth's surface, salt has to push aside and break through many layers of rock in its path. This is what ultimately will create the oil trap.

Stratigraphic Traps

A stratigraphic trap accumulates oil due to changes of rock character rather than faulting or folding of the rock. The term "stratigraphy" basically means "the study of the rocks and their variations". One thing stratigraphy has shown us is that many layers of rock change, sometimes over short distances, even within the same rock layer. As an example, it is possible that a layer of rock which is a sandstone at one location is a siltstone or a shale at another location. In between, the rock grades between the two rock types. From the section on reservoir rocks, we learned that sandstones make a good reservoir because of the many pore spaces contained within. On the other hand, shale, made up of clay particles, does NOT make a good reservoir, because it does not contain large pore spaces. Therefore, if oil migrates into the sandstone, it will flow along this rock layer until it hits the low-porosity shale. Voilà, a stratigraphic trap is born!

An example of a stratigraphic trap

Combination Traps

As the name implies, a combination trap is where two (or more) trapping mechanisms come together to create the trap. In reality, many successful oil traps are combination traps.

geology formation basin trap oil: