Summary Geochemistry

Mateo Ospino & Daniela Noches

in recent decades the use of organic geochemistry in different areas of can be

as the exploitation and production of oil has given a strong advance and new
ideas for the future, oil geochemistry first met all its bases in the Tissot manual
and Welte in 1984 and there are many advances that have been formed so far
and has become a great reference for what is organic geochemistry

The interest of this one focuses mainly on the characterization of a type of rock
called mother rock which is where all the processes are formed, it is that rock
that gives life to the organic chemistry which at one time was on the surface its
formation and benefited with suitable sediment so that in its compaction and at
appropriate pressures and temperatures it would provide inside what fossil fuels
are, this is what it mainly studies and the relationship of all this with a principal
medium which is the sedimentary It also studies what is the knowledge of its
organic composition and its degree of transformation of its beginnings or
maturation. Different analytical techniques appear for the study of mother rocks
such as Rock-Eval pyrolysis and this contributes in a very important way to the
interaction and growth of this type of research both by independent researchers
and giant oil companies.

Demaison & Moore among others are related to the great step that took place in
the knowledge of the sedimentary environments which are propitious for the
deposition of organic matter and the factors that can be of physical and
chemical type that can favor the accumulation and preservation of these. The
study that has been carried out by a large number of researchers of the
constant evolution in the sedimentary medium of organic matter and the
different diagenetic stages that it has lead to the definition of windows for the
generation of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons such as oil and gas. and its
interaction with time and temperature which is what gives way to the
transformation of organic matter in as it was already said, oil or gas, the
success of each of each exploration depends on many factors but are
summarized in three independent which is in itself are the existence of a trap a
warehouse rock and another that allows it can not escape from the place where
it is and that this leads me to a good time of preservation so that here we see
that different chemical and geological characters are united involved from
sedimentation to the processes that together will form what are the
hydrocarbons that are known to have many Real-use features for today.

At the same time there were other aspects related to oil that were already taking
action, since there were studies of biodegradation of crude in the reservoirs,
thermal alteration and washing by water and asphalt phenomena on the one
hand and also the correlation between oils and the mother rocks.

Geochemestry in the reservoirs are usually highly complex geological structures

in which the oil is stored and can be distributed in different directions through
the rock in different directions, where the appearance of fluids can cause
different phenomena such as biodegradation. The physical elements of
reservoir compartmentation detection do not always solve these different
problems and that is where geochemistry enters into the paper. In this case of
biodegradation we see that a loss of quality of crude oil and its properties, and
in summary of its commercial value, while when the precipitation of some heavy
compounds (asphaltenes) by causing of natural reason or as another effect,
puts production is at risk, not only due to obstruction of ducts, but also due to
other more serious phenomena such as elimination of porosity and permeability
of the warehouse itself.

There is a molecular simplicity of natural gas and its analysis is really limited as
for the oils but as this does not make it impossible in a reservoir, in these
analyzes you can make gas identifications in order to extract what is most
interesting to the company or entity interested in extracting

Normally different analyzes are used to distinguish the gas and know if it is a
reservoir in source rock to see if it is useful to explore the gas in that place.
To what are the liquids in an organic reservoir of oil and gas, the analysis is less
than the gas by the amount of explicit information that can be disclosed, such
as what are the elements that contain transition, rare earth, etc. . Analyzes or
geochemical analytical approaches to oil, conventional and unconventional, are
similar because they use common data.

There are different techniques to evaluate what oil is in a reservoir as the

maturity evaluation, the ultra high selectivity technique and others.

There are important processes in what is the formation of reserves of organic

origin first we will see how all these processes occur in the rock that gives me to
understand what is generation and expulsion of these, The previous section
was an appetizer for what is to come, as it was talked about what the reserves
were, and some methods for evaluating hydrocarbons and also about the
changes that exist in the matter.

The sources or mother rocks can be classified according to the quality or

maturity and obviously the amount of organic material trapped inside it, also
some of the diagenetic changes. Catagnetic and metagenetic these changes
occur already after the deposition.

All this is evaluated from the beginning by the amount of organic material that
has propitiated the environment to the basin in which it would be deposited
later, in this case to be successful it should be deposited, conserved and
preserved and there are different agents which intervene to an effective
maintenance of this organic matter such as sufficient light, climate, water and
the availability of nutrients; the environment in which sediments deposit organic
matter also affects productivity, for example, the photic zone of a shallow sea is
relatively constant compared to deeper water environments where the constant
and oscillating appearance of water rich in nutrients can affect productivity .
normally the reservoir rocks must have a large part of bituminous material and
its rocks, such as dark clays, very fine grained carbonates and coals, which
obviously contain high concentrations of organic matter. The presence of
organic matter is due to the addition of remains of living organisms during the
deposition of the rock. The presence of this reservoir rock or where it is formed
is one of the essential requirements for the generation of hydrocarbons, and
although the other factors and elements concur, if there is no reserve rock, the
different types of hydrocarbons can not exist. The determination of the
presence or absence of reservoir rocks, their great content in organic matter,
and their capacity to generate hydrocarbons and the totally thermal state that
these have reached obtenet is done by geochemical techniques in the
laboratory.

Hydrocarbons are found in the pores of rocks. In the subsoil there are rocks,
which in a way similar to a sponge are able to absorb loose fluids. This type of
rock is the storage rock. The most common types of store rocks are sandstones
and carbonate rocks. Porosity and permeability are the essential characteristics
of a storage rock.

The porosity in this is the measure mainly of the gaps or pores that exist
between the grains present internally of a rock, and expresses the capacity of
the rock to store fluids. Permeability is the property of a liquid to flow through
the pores of some rock. These parameters can be measured in the laboratory
directly from samples taken in the rock and analyzed geochemically and
physically.

The geochemical exploration carried out on the surface attempts to investigate

the presence of chemically identifiable hydrocarbons that are likely to be found
on or near the surface, as well as the changes induced by these hydrocarbons
in the place where they are located in order to find important accumulations in
the sub. soil that probably originated its range of observation goes beyond
those outcrops of oil or gas on a larger scale that are easily visible also to those
of microscopic scale which need to see traces or traces in which they are not
can see or infer them through the identification of visible changes in the
geography or the soil in which we are.

The main objective of a geochemical exploration program is to establish the

presence and distribution of hydrocarbons in any area and, above all, the most
relevant is to determine the probable effective hydrocarbon extraction of a
prospect. In recognition programs, the presence of micro or macro hydrocarbon
resources provide direct evidence of their generation. In other words, the
presence of an oil system that is likely to be active is evident and the sectors of
the basin that are more attractive for exploitation are identified. Additionally, the
chemical composition of these outcrops can indicate if it is a basin more prone
to generate gas or oil of any kind. If the objective is to obtain an evaluation of
the prospective potential of a prospect, the results of a geochemical program
can lead us to better evaluate the risk, identifying those prospects associated
with strong geochemical anomalies and highlighting the prospects based on
their possible hydrocarbon load. The choice of a method depends on a wide
variety of questions that one expects the method to answer. The objectives
must be realized and the presence of an active petroleum system must be
demonstrated or a previously defined reserve must be assessed or the type of
liquid or gaseous hydrocarbon must be determined. The advantages and
limitations of specific sampling methods should also be discussed. As a
specification, the exploration methods that are direct have a relevance on
indirect methods, because they probably provide evidence of the hydrocarbons
expected to be found in the traps and reservoirs present. Additionally, isotopic
and chemical analyzes of all hydrocarbons, especially those of high molecular
weight, can give us a little more information about the nature and maturity of the
parent rock that generated them. If surface conditions, or limitations of some
kind of budget, exclude the use of some direct methods of hydrocarbon
detection, it is better to use one of the indirect methods that provide information
that may be useful for hydrocarbons and commercial accumulations of
hydrocarbons. When possible, the use of several geochemical exploration
methods is recommended, such as combining a direct method with an indirect
method. The use of several methods can lead to a better interpretation
accuracy, because the strong mishaps related to hydrocarbon outcrops tend to
be highlighted, while the random ones tend to be annulled.

Although the generating rocks have been studied extensively during the last 50
years, the latest trend towards the exploitation of productive extensions
centered around gas shales and oil shales generated a reappearance of
research activities and much geochemical development. This reappearance
encouraged the expansion of the use of established techniques and the
development of new tools.

In particular, the last decade saw the rebirth of the main modeling tools for oil
systems. The kinetics of the generating rocks, an input that is key to these
models, identifies the chemical reactions and the present petroleum compounds
that are generated in the thermal maturation of the rock. There are two useful
analysis techniques for the distinctive simulation of maturation processes, micro
scale evaluation and pyrolysis, confined, masked, gold. By enabling these
techniques, scientists can examine processes such as cracking to generate gas
from oil, in which it causes the existing oil to become gas. At the same time, all
the investigations related to the process led to the identification of thermally
resistant carbon molecules, to determine how gas is generated from petroleum
under conditions of a high temperature. The analysis of stable isotopes of
carbon and other elements, such as hydrogen, oxygen or sulfur, is also
experiencing a growth in its application in organic geochemistry. Recent
observations of the ethane carbon isotopes led to interesting correlations
between the dry gas and the overpressure zones present in gas lutites. The
graphs of the isotopes show an inversion of maturity, which is contrary to trends
normally related to depth. The origin of these investments is unknown, but in
the wells that exhibit them, there has been a tendency to generate high
production regimes.

Scientists are also focusing on the physical structure of the kerogen that is
present in the mineral matrix of the rocks called generators. Formation of
secondary permeability and porosity in shales rich in organic content during on-
site maturation is considered a key facilitating element for the production of
shale gas in many source rocks (above). Therefore, organic petrography, which
uses basic and advanced microscopy techniques to focus on organic matter, is
experiencing a resurgence in the evaluation of kerogens. Beyond the
laboratory, the new gas monitoring techniques found During drilling, they are
helping geoscientists determine the composition of hydrocarbons, locate fluid
contacts and assist in the identification of reservoir compositional gradients. The
fluid acquisition and analysis service FLAIR extracts the gas from the drilling
mud under constant pressure, flow, volume and temperature conditions.

Although operators devote a large part of their exploration efforts to the study of
the depositary and structural characteristics of a prospective area, many also
focus on the processes that control the formation of oil and gas. The
geochemical reactions and the conversion of organic matter are essential for
the generation of oil; In turn, the characterization of organic matter is becoming
increasingly critical for the development of new productive areas. These tools
are proving to be fundamental for the opening of new frontiers of exploration.

In itself, during the exploration of the use of the source rock for years, it has
become a basic pillar for the exploitation of hydrocarbons and its good use,
carrying out the necessary techniques to know where and how to extract it in a
beneficial way, although all the techniques are not valid or effective with a good
and dedicated process can reach a good result, these techniques used by
scientists every day are changing and are helping to gradually can have
investigative advances that lead to each time produce a better extraction of
what are the hydrocarbons, taking into account that the main issue is the
geochemistry that is the base pillar of all this studying what is the rock in which
the chemical reaction that formed by geological processes will be present
propitiated in its place of origin, it can be said that even this science has yet to
be explored and investigated because everything that has to do with the basic
areas of the earth and also those that change every day.