Oil & Gas

From exploration to distribution

Week 2 V07 Exploration: Regional Evaluation
Anne Jardin

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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015

Introduction
In this session, we will explore the sedimentary basins where geologists search for oil and
gas fields.
1. Firstly, we will define the concept of petroleum systems.
2. Secondly, we will explain how geologists simulate the petroleum system process with
basin modeling to guide hydrocarbon exploration.
3. Finally, we will briefly describe the main characteristics of petroleum regions all
around the world .

Petroleum System
To discover hydrocarbons we must explore the earth but not only the present-day surface
geology also the evolution of the earth throughout the old geological times.
Earth's history extends over a very long period of 540 million years from the beginning of the
Paleozoic period until the present day, which is the latest part of the Cenozoic era.

Hydrocarbon fields are discovered in sedimentary basins. These basins are now spread over
the continents (shown here in brown) and oceans (in blue).
Accumulation of sediments deposited on the sea floor has formed sedimentary basins which
have been deformed over the years by tectonic movements.

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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015

Studying petroleum exploration means answering the next three questions:

1. Which are the main geological features at the present day and during past times?
2. When were hydrocarbons generated?
3. Is it possible to find large accumulations of oil and gas?
To help answer these questions geologists have developed a key concept called a petroleum
system.
A petroleum system includes all the parameters required for hydrocarbon accumulations to
exist.
It is characterized by three main components related to geology.
1. The presence of a source rock:
a. This is the rock which could produce hydrocarbons from its preserved organic
matter.
b. It is generally an impermeable rock such as thin sediments or shales.
2. The presence of a reservoir rock:
a. This is the rock in which hydrocarbons are accumulated over time.
b. It is a permeable rock, such as carbonates or sandstones.
3. The presence of a seal rock:
a. This is the rock which prevents hydrocarbon leaks.
b. Seal rocks are impermeable rocks such as salt or shales.
The petroleum system is also characterized by dynamic processes due to fluid movement:
1. The first process is the migration of hydrocarbons:
Once the organic matter has been transformed to oil or gas hydrocarbons could be
expelled from the source rock under specific conditions.
Then, hydrocarbons continue to move across the permeable sediments and faults to
reach the reservoir rock.
This migration can take place over very short or long distances.
Usually this is a complex phenomenon depending on the geological history of the
basin.
2. The second process is called trapping:
A large volume of hydrocarbon migrating into a trap results in fluid or gas
accumulation.
Gas on top, water below and oil in between.

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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015

Geologists distinguish structural traps, related to tectonic movements, such as anticlines and
faults.

And stratigraphic traps, related to sedimentological variations, such as pinchouts and lenses.

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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015

Basin Modelling
Discovering reservoirs and traps is very challenging especially in underexplored basins.
So to guide this difficult task, a modelling tool has been developed by geologists to simulate
the basin geology and the hydrocarbon generation processes through geological times.
Each step of basin modelling is able to answer the key questions asked at the beginning of
our session.
We will now illustrate the three main steps by a basin modelling study.

The first key question was: What is the present day and past geology?
This can be answered by simulating the backward sedimentary deposition through times
until retrieving the present day geology.
In our example, backward geological models have been built from one hundred and thirteen
million years until the present day, with a step of around fifty million years.

Now if we want to answer the second question : When was hydrocarbon generated? we
proceed to the next step.
Geologists can determine in which formation and at which geological period, hydrocarbons
were generated and became mature.
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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015

In this example, the maturation of organic matter inside the source rock is displayed and
hydrocarbon maturation happened during the Cretaceous period.

The last step of basin modelling is to answer the key question: Is it possible to find large
accumulations of oil and gas in this basin?
This is done by simulating the various oil migration pathways. In this picture, once the oil has
been generated, oil migration is modelled along directions indicated by small arrows.
In conclusion we can define a petroleum system when all the phenomena that make the
accumulation of oil possible,/ are present.

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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015

We can summarize graphically by a table all the information we have explained.

This table is called the petroleum system chart.
The first column of this chart shows the geological time table.
With three other columns the geologist indicates the occurrence of source rocks, reservoir
rocks and seal rocks after they have been identified by basin analysis.
The last columns present the timing for oil and gas generation and migration.
Each possible trap in this basin is drawn schematically.
Good timing between trap formation and hydrocarbon migration is very important:
The trap must be formed before and during hydrocarbon migration and the trap integrity
must be preserved until a sufficient quantity of hydrocarbon has been generated to fill up
the trap.
Stars indicate the formations where accumulations could be present and which could
become potential hydrocarbon reservoirs.

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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015

Petroleum Regions
Lets briefly recognize the main petroleum regions in the world.
Hydrocarbon exploration has been extensively developed over the past seventy years.
The USA, where onshore and offshore exploration began at the first part of the twenty
century and the North Sea offshore basin where exploration began in the nineteenseventies are good examples of extensive explored basins.

Deep offshore zones with a water depth between 1 and 3 km are more recently explored
basins.
The Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic margins like Offshore Brazil and West Africa are the
most prolific deep offshore areas.
Exploration inside these regions requires risky and costly techniques.

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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015

Frontier basins are the more recent areas for exploration.

These zones require innovative techniques because of the difficulties of accessibility and
climatic conditions.
The Arctic is the most significant example of these frontier basins.

A lot of challenges remain to discover new hydrocarbon resources, depending on the type of
reservoir.
These reservoirs range from:
1. deep buried reservoirs in extensively exploration basins
2. through high pressure reservoirs which make the drilling very risky in deep offshore
basins
3. to ultra-deep offshore basins with a water depth of more 3.5 km which are the most
promising areas but which also have the highest risks and costs.

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IFPEN - IFP School 2015 / TOTAL SA 2015 / IFP Training 2015