Navigation:  Prospect/Field evaluation > Entering probability distributions > Input Variables > Degree of Fill

See also 'Entering probability distributions'.

 

Degree of fill is one of those topics which can cause vigorous discussion.

 

One school of thought - the "excess charge" advocacy - considers that there is always so much potential hydrocarbon charge that any structure will be full to the spill point (always assuming that there is any, of course). By this theory, if a structure is not full to what you consider the spill point, then you have probably got the wrong spill point.

 

The alternative school allows that structures may not be full to spill, because of leakage through the seal or perhaps some other mechanism. It is possible to calculate the strength of a seal and therefore to estimate what pressure differential (which you can equate with hydrocarbon column) the seal will support.

 

Of course, the excess charge school recognizes seal problems but mostly argue that these considerations are of second order in a prospect evaluation and always hard to quantify. So they set the degree of fill to a single value of 100%, and think deeply about the spill point.

 

The maybe-not-full school allows for a variable degree of fill and may or may not give such profound study to the spill point issue.