Petroleum: Generation, Migration and Accumulation

Dr. Balram Bhadu, Dy. S. G., KDMIPE

Introduction
Our Core Business: Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production

To find hydrocarbons we must know:

Where and how it originates? Source

Where it is stored? Reservoir

How it comes to the store? Migration

Rocks:
What is a rock?
What is a mineral?
Type of rocks: Igneous, Metamorphic and Sedimentary

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 Introduction

Sedimentary rocks contain

majority of the worlds oil and
natural gas deposits.

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Introduction
ROCK CYCLE

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2 8
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Introduction
Sedimentary rocks are formed by deposition of either clastic
sediments, biogenic, organic matter, or chemical precipitates (
evaporites), followed by compaction of the particulate matter and
cementation during diagenesis. Sedimentary rocks form at or near
the Earth's surface.
Relative abundance of the rocks in the earths crust Relative abundance of the rocks at earths surface

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Sedimentary Rocks

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Sedimentary Rocks

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Sedimentary Rocks

Sandstone

Shale Limestone

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Sedimentary Rocks

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Geological Time Scale

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History of Exploration in India
Indias oil search began in 1866: Mr. Goodenough of Mckillop Steward Co.
drilled a well near Jaypore in Upper Assam, and struck oil- which was not
commercial. This was followed by the Digboi discovery in 1889 in the same
province.
The search for oil after the countrys independence was a marginal success
with the discovery of the Naharkotiya and Moran fields in 1953 and 1956
respectively in Upper Assam.
The country made rapid strides in hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation,
after the setting up of the public sector oil company, ONGC in 1956. A
number of oil and gas fields were discovered by ONGC since its inception.
Cambay, Rajasthan, Bombay Offshore, Assam & Assam-Arakan, Krishna-
Godavari, Cauvery and Mahanadi basins so far have been discovered.

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History of Exploration in India
Out of 26 basins 7 are petroliferous

1889: Assam Shelf

1967: Rajasthan Basin

1973: A&AA FB

1958: Cambay Basin

1980: KG Basin

1974: Mumbai Offshore

1985: Cauvery Basin

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Origin

Petroleum Generation

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What is Petroleum/ Crude Oil?
Petroleum: Petro- rock; oleum- oil

Petroleum or crude oil is a thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of

gaseous, liquid and solid hydrocarbons that occurs naturally beneath the
earth's surface.

It can be separated into fractions including natural gas, gasoline, naphtha,

kerosene, fuel and lubricating oils, paraffin wax and asphalt and is used as
raw material for a wide variety of derivative products.

It occurs generally along with gas and water. However, it may also occur
singly.

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Origin
Origin of petroleum: Inorganic or Organic
Early theories of petroleum generation postulated an inorganic origin.
Now it is well established fact that commercial quantities of hydrocarbon are
formed by the thermal maturation of organic matter.
There must be a rock containing original organic matter, a source rock (mud
rock or shale). Shales/ Mudrocks make up about 80% of the world's
sedimentary rock volume.
The source rock must be buried deeply so that temperature and time can cause
the organic matter to mature into petroleum.
Of all the petroleum generated, only a small part, usually less than 1%, is
able to undergo migration out of the source bed to accumulate within a porous
and permeable reservoir.

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Origin
The majority of petroleum, or even in some cases all of it, will be dispersed
for lack of a good arrangement of strata to trap it, or will leak out to the
surface, due to lack of a good impermeable seal or caprock.

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Origin
ORIGINAL ORGANIC MATTER

KEROGEN

MATURE CRUDE OIL

KEROGEN

GRAPHITE METHANE

LOSING HYDROGEN GAINING HYDROGEN

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 Formation & Preservation of Organic Matter
The original source material of petroleum- organic matter (formed at the earth's
surface).

The process begins with photosynthesis (in which plants, in the presence of sun
light, convert water and carbon dioxide into glucose, water and oxygen)
6CO2 + 12H2O = C6H12O6 + 6H2O + 6O2
(Glucose)

Photosynthesis is part of the larger- scale carbon cycle. Most of the organic
matter produced by photosynthesis gets recycled back to the atmosphere as
CO2.

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Formation & Preservation of Organic Matter

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Preservation and Organic Productivity
All organic matter in the ocean is originally formed through photosynthesis.

The main producers are phytoplankton (a microscopic floating plants such as

diatoms, dinoflagellates and the blue-green algae).

Light is particularly important. The depth penetration of light through the

ocean's surface defines the photic zone.

The second important factor in organic productivity is the rate of nutrient

supply to the photic zone. The most important nutrients are phosphates and
nitrates.

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 Preservation and Organic Productivity
Organic matter is found mostly in fine-grained rock types (shale and lime mud).
However, not all shales contain enough organic matter to be good source rocks.

Organic matter rich shale is favored by both a high rate of production of

organic matter and by a high preservation potential.

Organic matter within these shales also undergo complex changes. Four major
groups of organic compounds or bio-polymers that are biologically
synthesized by plants and animals: Carbohydrates, Proteins, Lignin and Lipids.

They are insoluble compounds that include the fats, oils, waxes and are the
major source materials for the formation of liquid hydrocarbons.

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Evolution of Organic Matter
There are three major phases in the evolution of organic matter in response to
burial- Diagenesis, Catagenesis and Metagenesis
Diagenesis:
Occurs in the shallow subsurface at near normal temperature and pressure.
Includes both biogenic decay aided by bacteria and abiogenic reactions.
Methane, carbon dioxide and water- give off by organic matter results in
complex hydrocarbon termed as kerogen.
Net result- reduction of O2 content of organic matter, leaving hydrogen: carbon
ratio largely unaltered.

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Evolution of Organic Matter
Catagenesis:
Occurs in the deeper subsurface as burial continues and temperature pressure
increase.
Hydrocarbon released from kerogen first oil and later gas.
Hydrogen : carbon ratio declines with no significant change in the O2:C ratio.

Metagenesis:
Occurs at high temperature and pressure
Last hydrocarbons, generally only methane (CH 4), are expelled. H:C ratio
declines. Only carbon is left in the form of graphite.
Porosity and permeability are negligible.

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Evolution of Organic Matter

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Evolution of Organic Matter

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Evolution of Organic Matter

Relative quantities of hydrocarbons in fine grained non-reservoir rocks.

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Evolution of Organic Matter
The organic matter in sedimentary rocks is grouped into bitumen and
kerogen.
The term BITUMEN describes the organic constituent of the sedimentary
rocks that is fusible and soluble in common organic solvents.
The term KEROGEN describes the organic constituent of the sedimentary
rocks that is neither soluble in non-oxidizing aqueous solvents (acids and
bases) nor in common Organic Solvents.

Bitumen/Initial Oil
Total Organic Carbon

Reactive Kerogen

Inert Kerogen (No Hydrocarbon Potential)

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Kerogen
Disseminated organic matter in sediments.
Insoluble in normal petroleum solvents.
Insolubility distinguishes it from bitumen.
Chemically, kerogen consists of C, H and O2 with minor amounts of N2 and S.

Three basic types of kerogen are generally recognized-

Type I (Alginite):
Essentially algal in origin
H : O ratio is about 1.2 - 1.7
H : C ratio is 1.65.
Lipids are dominant compounds with derivatives of oils, fats and waxes.

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Kerogen
Type II (Liptinic):
This type is of intermediate compounds.
Rich in aliphatic compounds.
H : C ratio is >1.
Original organic matter Algal detritus, but contains material derived from
zooplankton and phytoplankton.
Type III (Humic):
Much lower H : C ratio (< 0.84).
Chemically low in aliphatic compounds, but high in aromatic ones.
Produced from the lignin of the higher woody plants which grow on land.
If buried as peat, undergoes diagenesis to coal.
Generates largely gas and little, if any, oil.
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Kerogen
Importance of identifying the nature of organic matter in source rock is to
assess accurately its potential for hydrocarbon generation.
It is just not the quality of kerogen but also the quantity necessary to
generate significant amounts of oil and gas suitable for commercial
production.
The most important factor determining the quantity of oil generated in a
petroleum system is the hydrogen content of the kerogen.
Sediments are defines as oxic, dysoxic, suboxic, and anoxic, depending on
the oxygen content of the overlying water.
Most petroleum is generated from source rocks deposited in anoxic-to-
dysoxic environments because they contain more hydrogen-rich OM than do
oxic sediments.
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Kerogen
Hydrous pyrolysis experiments indicate that type I and II kerogen decompose
to form bitumen and the bitumen decompose to form oil.
The stratigraphic intervals above, within, and below the oil window are
referred to as immature, mature and postmature, respectively, for oil
generation.
Postmature for oil is mature for the gas window. From one-half to two-thirds
of thermogenic gas comes from the thermal cracking of previously formed oil
in both source and reservoir rock and in coal. Gas windows are in the 100-to
-200C temperature range.

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Kerogen
The major sources of the hydrocarbon gases are (1) methanogenic bacteria,
(2) all types of kerogen (3) coal and (4) oil in source and reservoir rocks.
The major non-hydrocarbon gaeses-CO2, H2S, and N2 are formed by both
organic and inorganic processes.
All know hydrocarbons gas accumulations are biogenic in origin in that they
come from the decomposition of organic matter in the earths crust.
About 20% of the methane in conventional reservoirs worldwide is bacterial
in origin. From 40-55% is thought too come from the thermal decomposition
of oil in reservoir and non-reservoir rocks in coal. The remaining 25 to 40%
is directly from the thermal decomposition of kerogen.

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Kerogen
The wet gases- ethane, propane, and the butanes are formed primarily in the
oil window, whereas methane forms throughout the entire sedimentary
column, bacterially during diagenesis and thermally during catagenesis and
metagenesis.
This difference in the temperature of formation of methane and the wet gases
causes a vertical distribution in many sedimentary basin of shallow dry gas
on the stable shelf in the diagenesis zone and wet gas in the deeper
catagenesis zone, underlain by deep dry gas in the metagenesis zone in the
deepest part of the basin.

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Kerogen

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Kerogen

TOC 2.12 WT.% TOC .38 WT.%

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Maturation of Kerogen
When kerogen is immature: no petroleum generation.

With increasing maturity: first oil and then gas are expelled.

When the kerogen is overmature: neither oil nor gas remains.

The maturation of kerogen can be measured by several techniques.

Significant oil generation occurs- between 60 0 and 1750 C.

Significant gas generation- between 120 0 and 2250 C.

Above 2250 C, the kerogen is inert, will expel all hydrocarbons, only carbon

remains as graphite.

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Maturation of Kerogen

Role of temperature

The relationship of increasing kerogen

maturity with increasing temperature.

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Petroleum Migration

Petroleum Migration

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 Petroleum Migration
Migration: Complex processes involved in moving oil and gas from its fine-
grained source rocks to coarse- grained, permeable reservoir rocks.

Primary migration: The process of loss of

hydrocarbons from the source rock.
Secondary migration: Migration from source to
reservoir rock in trap configuration along a carrier
system. Including the migration within the
reservoir rock itself.
Tertiary migration: Migration to the surface,
either from the reservoir or source rock
(dismigration).
Remigration: Migration from one reservoir
system position through an intervening section
into another reservoir position (trap) in the same
or a different reservoir.

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Petroleum Migration
Primary oil migration within the fine grained mature source rock with >2%
TOC occurs initially as a bitumen that decomposes to oil and gas and
migrates out in a hydrocarbon phase.
Generation causes migration. Generation and migration (expulsion) of light
oil, condensate, and gas also may occur from low, <2%, TOC source rock
without an apparent bitumen intermediate, particularly from type III kerogen.
Migration in solution is important only with the smallest and most soluble
hydrocarbon molecules such as methane, ethane, benzene and toluene.
Migration by diffusion is not significant.
Porosities of sandstones and carbonates at depths >3km show much greater
variability than shales, primarily due to chemical diagenesis, cementation,
and dissolution.
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Petroleum Migration
Shales source rocks act like sieves during primary migration, by releasing
more of the small paraffinic and nephthenic molecules and retaining more of
the large aromatic and asphaltic molecules.
The main driving force in secondary petroleum migration is the buoyancy of
the hydrocarbons.
The resisting force is the capillary pressure of the water-rock system.
Modifying forces include hydrodynamic fluid flow and abnormal pressure
compartments.
Under average subsurface conditions, gas has about twice the migration
potential of oil because it buoyancy more than overcomes the higher
interfacial tension of gas-water system, relative to oil-water system.

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Petroleum Migration

Migrating fluids follow the path of least resistance i.e. lowest capillary entry
pressure, usually equated with highest permeability.
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 Petroleum Migration
Primary migration may truly be described as one of the last great mysteries of
petroleum geology. There are two major reasons: Small pore size of the source
rocks and low solubility of hydrocarbons in water.
The various theories/ models for primary migration have been postulated. But
there is no single model entirely accounts for migration of oil and gas out of
the source rock.
Primary migration probably involves several processes acting together and in
sequence. It is likely that different mechanisms dominate under different
geological conditions and at different stages of maturation.
Protopetroleum (Migration occurs before the hydrocarbons are recognised as
crude oil while they are in the form of ketones, acids and esters which are
soluble in water. This transition phase is termed as protopetroleum).

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 Petroleum Migration
Expulsion may be a major mechanism in late diagenesis and early catagenesis.
Followed by microfracturing, expulsion of micelles and droplets and formation of
organic networks at burial conditions of the oil window.

Finally, deeper burial and higher temperature lead to high pressure gas expulsion
and true solution of light hydrocarbon molecules.

There is general agreement that primary migration occurs shortly after the HC
is generated.

Generally <1% of the HC generated in source rocks end up as accumulations in a

reservoir and the highest efficiency is probably not more than 10%.

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Petroleum Accumulation

Petroleum Accumulation

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Petroleum Accumulation
Thickness
Seal Mineralogy
Permeability
Brittleness
Pressure

Reservoir Accumulation Structure

Thickness Size
Mineralogy Relief
Porosity Type
Permeability
Pressure

Hydrocarbon Source rock quality

Source rock volume
Charge Temperature history
Migraton path
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Petroleum Accumulation

8
5 8 7 6
1 4

CC#21 CC#20
Reservoir rock
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Petroleum Accumulation

Sandstone Reservoir

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Petroleum Accumulation

Vuggy porosity in limestone

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Petroleum Accumulation

Moldic porosity in limestone

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Petroleum Accumulation

Solution channel porosity in limestone

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 Petroleum Accumulation

Good intergranular pore spaces and pore are Kaolinite clay developed at pore spaces Closer view of Kaolinite clay in the pore spaces.
filled with kaolinite clay occluding pore occluding pore spaces.
spaces.

Chlorite clay developed in the pore spaces. Illite clay developed in the pore spaces occluding Pyrite grains developed within the pore spaces
pore spaces. destroying porosity.

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Petroleum Accumulation
Trapping mechanisms
It is the stratigraphic or structural feature that ensures the juxtaposition of
reservoir and seal such that hydrocarbons remain trapped in the subsurface, rather
than escaping and being lost.

The common types are Structural, Stratigraphic and Combination Traps.

Structural Trap has been produced by deformation of the beds after they
were deposited, either by folding or faulting.
Stratigraphic Trap is formed by changes in the nature of the rocks
themselves, or in their layering, the only structural effect being a tilt to
allow the oil to migrate through the reservoir.
Combination Trap is formed partly by structural and partly by
stratigraphic effects, but not entirely due to either.
Hydrodynamic traps are due to water flowing through the reservoir and
holding the oil in places where it would not otherwise be trapped.

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Petroleum Accumulation
The three critical factors for a petroleum trap, in order of importance, are (1)
its proximity to a hydrocarbon migration pathway, (2) the permeability of its
seal and (3) the trap size.
Vertical migration is more efficient than lateral migration, but less petroleum
is collected because individual structures drain only the relatively small areas
directly below them.
Lateral migration can drain petroleum from a far larger volume of source
rock. For example, foreland basins and fold belts with huge drainage areas
have trapped over half of the worlds conventional petroleum reserves. In
contrast, deltas with dominantly vertical migration account for only 5%.

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 Petroleum Accumulation
Seal or Cap Rock
It is a unit with low permeability that impedes the escape of hydrocarbons from
the reservoir rock. Common seals include EVAPORITES, CHALKS and
SHALE.
Analysis of seals involves assessment of their thickness and extent, such that
their effectiveness can be quantified.

Cross section through a simple anticline trap

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 Petroleum Accumulation

Structural Traps

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 Petroleum Accumulation

Reef complex Turbidites

Fluviatile point bars Offshore sand bar

Stratigraphic Traps

Truncation trap Onlap trap

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Petroleum Accumulation

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Petroleum Accumulation

Hydrodynamic Trap

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Petroleum Accumulation
Joints, faults, and lineaments may act as fluid conduits or seals, depending on
a variety of factors such as the normal stress across a fault, the nature of the
fault surface, and the strata cut by the fault. Unconformities also may act as
pathways or seals.

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 Petroleum System
A Petroleum System is defined as a natural system that encompasses a pod of
active source rock and related oil and gas which includes all the geologic
elements and processes that are essential for hydrocarbon accumulation to exist.

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 Petroleum System
Petroleum System Elements

Gas
Cap
Oil
Entrapment
Accumulation Water Seal Rock
Reservoir
Rock

Migration
65 C 120 F
Oil window Source
175 C Rock 350 F
Generation
24803

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Thank You !