Enabling 3D geomechanical restoration of strike- and oblique-slip faults using geological constraints, with applications to the deep-water Niger Delta

We present a new approach of using local constraints on fault slip to perform three-dimensional geomechanical restorations. Geomechanical restoration has been performed previously on extensional and contractional systems, yet attempts to restore strike- and oblique-slip fault systems have generally failed to recover viable fault-slip patterns. The use of local measures of slip as constraints in the restoration overcomes this difficulty and enables restorations of complex strike- and oblique slip-systems. To explore this approach, we develop a synthetic restraining bend system to evaluate different ways that local slip constraints can be applied. Our restorations show that classical boundary conditions fail to reproduce the fault offset and strain pattern. In contrast, adding piercing points and/or properly constraining lateral walls enables restoration of the structure and resolves the correct pattern of slip along the faults. We then restore a complex system of tear-faults in the deepwater Niger Delta basin. We use channel offsets imaged by the seismic data to define local fault-slip constraints. Balancing these constraints equally on both sides of the major faults yields the most consistent restoration outcomes. This approach resolves reasonable slip styles on the complex set of thrust, normal, and strike-slip faults in the structure. This suggests that limited geologic fault slip constraints can be effectively incorporated in geomechanical restorations, yielding accurate restoration kinematics and thereby forecasting faults slip patterns within the structures.