The ultimate aim of modelling a hydrocarbon reservoir is to predict rates and volumes to maximize economic recovery. The basis of this must be a 3D representation of storage/transmissivity as governed by sedimentary architecture/facies and the baffles/conduits induced by faults/fractures which compartmentalize this volume. Where the reservoir is structurally complex the upscaling of reservoir properties to allow geologically realistic and computationally tractable simulations of flow behaviour is particularly difficult, even with current processing power. The business need to tackle this problem is driving major growth in research and was the rationale for a Burlington House conference in early 2006. This book, produced in commendably short time, is the result. It is aimed at the interface between structural geology and reservoir engineering, an objective which arguably might have been more explicit in the title, and manages to combine practical realities of industrial experience with cutting-edge academic research in a very well balanced fashion.

Content comprises 25 papers, the first of which doubles as a comprehensive editorial introduction. The mapping of complex structures per se is not treated, it being sensibly assumed that the basis of all realistic modelling should be a robust interpretation of 3D seismic to the limits of resolution. Hence the focus is on the modelling of what may or must plausibly exist below this resolution, and a paper on the challenges and opportunities of landslide reservoirs uses modern analogues to address this problem. Sub-seismic fracture prediction is approached from both geomechanical stress modelling and seismic anisotropy, the latter with discussion of the potential to invert damage parameters from seismic anisotropy and including a paper of major importance on the work flow for quantification of anisotropy in terms of that induced by fracturing and that inherent to the sediment fabric. The thorny topic of fracture prediction by the use of bed curvature receives an elegant critical testing.

Many papers tackle various aspects of fault seal evaluation, notable among which is a use of percolation theory in the analysis of connectivity in faulted turbidites and a fine case study from the West Sole gas fields. The computational problems of managing, and updating, complex volumes receive limited attention, but seven papers deal with flow simulation and production history matching. They include fascinating statistical demonstration of the correlation of far-field pressure responses to depletion/injection which suggests the stress state in some reservoirs to lie on the verge of failure – if so with important implications for directionality of flow in response to dynamically induced changes in poroperm. Also evident is renewed focus on the multi-phase flow properties of faults, a topic conceptually simple but computationally complex.

The book has a full index and makes generous use of colour illustrations. It can be strongly recommended to industry professionals for whom it is splendid value, particularly at the discounted prices. Moreover several papers including the editorial introduction, the treatment of faults in production simulation models and the modelling of fractured reservoirs will be valuable supplementary reading for course work in petroleum geology.