Hydrocarbon Generation and

Migration

What is oil and gas? Where does it come

from?

Origin: Plankton
cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=93510

Animal plankton

10,000 of these bugs

would fit on a pinhead!

Plant plankton

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ceratium_hirundinella.jpg

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Copepod.

Most oil and gas starts life as microscopic plants and animals
that live in the ocean.

Introduction
However, under certain conditions there may be very
little oxygen on the sea floor.
This may be because the ocean is deep and stagnant and
oxygen has not been mixed down from the surface
waters.
No animal life can survive where the sea bed is
completely lacking oxygen. Without animals to eat the
dead plankton, the organic mush builds up on the sea
bed.

On the sea bed

When plankton dies it slowly settles to the sea bed where it
forms an organic mush. Usually there are lots of animals living
on the sea floor that feed on this material. One important group is
the polychaete worms. These are detritivores, which means they
eat the dead and decay remains of other organisms
When the plankton dies it rains
down on sea bed to form an
organic mush

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Plankton.j
pg

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nerr0328.jpg

Sea
bed

If there are any animals on the

sea bed these will feed on the
organic particles

Origin: Black Shale

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Plankton.jpg

However, if there is little or no

oxygen in the water then animals
cant survive and the organic
mush accumulates
Where sediment contains
organic matter,
it eventually forms a rock
known as a Black Shale

Earth Science World Image Bank

Interpretation of Total Organic Carbon

(TOC)
(based on early oil window maturity)
Hydrocarbon
Generation
Potential

TOC in Shale
(wt. %)

TOC in Carbonates
(wt. %)

Poor

0.0-0.5

0.0-0.2

Fair

0.5-1.0

0.2-0.5

Good

1.0-2.0

0.5-1.0

Very Good

2.0-5.0

1.0-2.0

>5.0

>2.0

Excellent

Organic Matter in Sedimentary Rocks

Kerogen

Vitrinite

Disseminated Organic Matter in

Sedimentary Rocks That is Insoluble
in Oxidizing Acids, Bases, and
Organic Solvents.
Vitrinite
A nonfluorescent type of organic material
in petroleum source rocks derived
primarily from woody material.
The reflectivity of vitrinite is one of the
best indicators of coal rank and thermal
maturity of petroleum source rock.

Reflected-Light Micrograph
of Coal

Origin: Cooking
As source rock is buried, it is heated.

Kerogen

Oil

Gas

Organic matter is first changed by the

increase in temperature into kerogen,
which is a solid form of hydrocarbon
Around 90C, it is changed into a liquid
state, which we call oil
Around 150C, it is changed into a gas
A rock that has produced oil and gas in
this way is known as a Source Rock

www.oilandgasgeology.com/oil_gas_window.jpg

Progressive Burial and Heating

Schematic Representation of the

Mechanism
of Petroleum Generation and
Destruction
Organic Debris

Diagenesis
Oil Reservoir
Kerogen

Initial Bitumen

Catagenesis Thermal Degradation

Oil and Gas
Cracking
Metagenesis
Carbon

(modified from Tissot and Welte, 1984)

Methane

Migration

Type of hydrocarbon
Sweet
The term "sweet" originates from the fact that a
low level of sulfur provides the oil with a mildly
sweet taste and pleasant smell.
High-quality, low-sulfur crude oil is commonly
used for processing into gasoline and is in high
demand, particularly in the industrialized nations.
"Light sweet crude oil" is the most sought-after
version of crude oil as it contains a
disproportionately large fraction that is directly
processed (fractionation) into gasoline (naphtha),
kerosene, and high-quality diesel (gas oil).

Producers of sweet crude oil

include:
The Far East/Oceania:
Australia
Asia/Pacific:
Brunei
China
India
Indonesia
Malaysia
New Zealand
Vietnam
The Middle East Kurdistan
North America: United States (Pennsylvania)

Sour
Petroleum containing higher levels of sulfur is called
sour crude oil.
Sour crude oil is crude oil containing a high amount
of the impurity sulfur (level in the oil is more than
0.5% ).
The impurities need to be removed before this lower
quality crude can be refined into petrol, thereby
increasing the cost of processing - higher-priced
gasoline than that made from sweet crude oil.
Usually processed into heavy crude oil such as
diesel and fuel oil rather than gasoline to reduce
processing cost.

The majority of the sulfur in crude oil occurs bonded

to carbon atoms, with a small amount occurring as
elemental sulfur in solution and as hydrogen sulfide
(H2S) gas.
Sour oil can be toxic and corrosive, especially when
the oil contains higher levels of hydrogen sulfide, a t
low concentrations has the smell of rotten eggs.
Sour crude oil needs to be stabilized by having
hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) removed from it before
being transported by oil tankers for safety reasons

 Since sour crude is more common than sweet crude

in the U.S. part of the Gulf of Mexico, Platts has
come out in March 2009 with a new sour crude
benchmark (oil marker) called "Americas Crude
Marker (ACM)".

Dubai Crude (and Oman Crude) both sour crude

oils have been used as a benchmark (crude oil) oil
marker for Middle East crude oils for some time.

The major producers of sour crude oil include:

North America: Alberta (Canada), United States'
portion of the Gulf of Mexico, and Mexico.
South America: Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Syria,

Generation, Migration, and Trapping

of Hydrocarbons

Fault
(impermeable)

Oil/water
contact (OWC)
Migration route
Seal

Hydrocarbon
accumulation
in the
reservoir rock
Top of maturity
Source rock

Reservoir
rock

 Secondary migration is any movement in

carrier rocks or reservoir rocks outside the
source rock or movement through
fractures within the source rock.

Tertiary migration includes leakage, seepage,

dissipation and alteration of petroleum as it reaches
the Earths surface