Petroleum geochemistry

Terms you must know Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. It consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds. Geochemistry- The science concerned with the chemistry of the Earth as a whole and of its component parts (atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, crust, mantle and core). Thus, Geochemistry combines principles of geology and chemistry to understand the behaviors and distribution of elements in various Earth compartments.

Petroleum geochemistry
Petroleum geochemistry is the application of chemical principles to the study of the origin, migration, accumulation, and alteration of petroleum. OR Petroleum geochemistry is a branch of organic chemistry that deals with the study of distribution, composition and constitution of petroleum, its constituents and its precursors in sedimentoshere at gross and molecular levels to define principles of occurrence and origin of petroleum in sedimentary basins, the ubiquitous natural habitats of economically attractive accumulations

Petroleum geochemistry in prospecting.

The petroleum geoscientist uses a wide range of tools to help explore and produce petroleum. In the earlier, frontier, phase of exploration in an unexplored basin, much effort is expended on determining if the basin has petroleum source rock and weather such source rocks have yielded their petroleum.

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Satellite images, gravity and magnetic survey are most commonly used during the early or midterm phase of basin exploration. The methods tend to be used more often to evaluate a whole basin, or at least a substantial part of a basin, rather than an individual prospect of the area. This is not a function of the resolution of the tools particularly that of satellite images but rather, a function of easy and low cost of obtaining information over a large area.

Cont.
Satellite image In using satellite to try to image the solid subsurface or subsurface, we must consider that the image captured include contribution from atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, soil, and subsoil. Nonetheless, satellite images can be used to identify large scale basinal structures that would prove difficult and expensive to capture by other means.

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Spectral data have yet to find common usage in the oil industry. And yet they have been successful in seep detection.

Cont.
petroleum geochemistry can significantly be used as follow-up on areas having microseepage/seepage on sate image or on, gravity and magnetic survey The geochemical methods used included free soil gas, sorbed soil gas and microbial The properly acquired and interpreted hydrocarbon microseepage data are very important in prospect identification and help to prioritize basinal area for conducting further stages of exploration.

Cont
The contribution of geochemical surveys to increased discovery ratios can be ascertained by comparing geochemical results with subsequent drilling. "A review of 2774 U.S. and international exploration wells -all drilled after completion of micro seepage surveys - documents that 82% of wells on prospects with a microseepage anomaly were completed as oil or gas discoveries; in contrast only 11% of wells drilled on prospects with no seepage anomaly resulted in a discovery.

Advantages of geochemical prospecting

Cost and time effective tool for hydocarbon exploration Helpful in carving interesting areas for hydrocarbon in large frontier basins Prioritizing areas area for further exploration activities and extending existing fields for further exploration in petroliterous basins.

Note..
Detailed geochemical studies largely helped to improve our understanding on The distribution of different types and classes of organic compounds in sedimentary rocks, Organic digenesis and maturation Source rock identification and Effect of time and temperature on petroleum generation

Risk reduction in hydrocarbon exploration and production

Oil and gas companies are faced with the problem of replacing reserves that are rapidly depleting to meet the growing needs of world markets. As the cost of replacement is constantly increasing, companies are very interested in any technology that reduces the risk of exploration for oil and gas. Geologic concepts are uncertain with respect to structure, reservoir, seal, and hydrocarbon charge.

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These uncertainties originated from geological models and coupled with economic and engineering models involve high-risk decision scenarios, with no guarantee of successfully discovering and developing hydrocarbons.

Note
Soil gas geochemical exploration is one of the technologies because at minimum cost it can find deep-seated oil and gas reservoirs by detecting their leakage patterns at the surface. Seismic exploration is another method but it is relatively costly, especially for 3-D. Petro-Find surveys are a fraction of the cost of 2-D singleline seismic surveys.

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On the other hand, economic evaluations contain uncertainties related to costs, probability of finding and producing economically viable reservoirs, and oil price. Even at the development and production stage the engineering parameters embody a high level of uncertainties in relation to their critical variables (infrastructure, production schedule, quality of oil, operational costs, reservoir characteristics, etc.).

Risk Analysis
During the exploration phase, major uncertainties are related to volumes in place and economics. As the level of information increases, these uncertainties are mitigated and consequently the importance of the uncertainties related to the recovery factor increases. The situation is more critical in offshore fields and for heavy-oil reservoirs,

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In the preparation of development plans, field management decisions are complex issues because of (1) number and type of decisions, (2) great effort required to predict production with the necessary accuracy and (3) dependency of the production strategy definition with the several types of uncertainty with significant impact on risk quantification

Categories of exploration risks

Traditional oil and gas exploration drilling may be divided roughly into three risk categories depending on how far it is from the nearest producing well: Wildcat drilling (extremely high risk). This type of drilling is by definition conducted in areas that are greater than 1.5 miles (oil) or 3 miles (gas) from the nearest producing well or at greater depth over known pools. Rank wildcats refer to wells drilled at least ten miles from the nearest producing well. Wildcatting is without question the highestrisk venture in the petroleum industry. Historically, only 6-12 % of wildcat wells find enough petroleum to pay for the drilling. Only 2-3% yields enough petroleum to economically justify drilling of an adjacent well and only 0.15% (1 out of 700) will discover enough petroleum to warrant developing a field.

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Outpost drilling (moderate risk). An outpost well is not as risky as a Wildcat well because it is located closer to the nearest producing well: either 1/2 - 1.5 miles (oil) or 1-3 miles (gas). Geochemisty is far more cost efficient in locating the outer limits of newly discovered fields. Developmental drilling (low risk) is conducted at locations that are within 1/2 mile (oil) or one mile (gas) adjacent to wells already drilled. The need for geochemistry is not as acute because the risks are low. However, geochemistry can be extremely useful in finding blind compartments of stratigraphic traps.

HOW EXPLORATION RISK CAN BE REDUCED

The basic approach to any exploration program is to use methods that provide the maximum information at the lowest cost possible. Ideally, geochemistry should be used first followed by seismic then drilling. In this way the financial risk of finding oil and gas is reduced substantially. Here are some ways to obtain as much information as possible about hydrocarbon projects to minimize risk and increase success ratios:

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Confirm before drilling whether seismic structures are charged with hydrocarbons. Good seismic structures are often found to be dry. Find out before drilling whether the target formation contains gas, condensate or oil. Prioritize the best drilling targets in conjunction with seismic. Confirm whether a discovery is in the optimum location.

Cont.
Narrow down the search in large frontier areas with reconnaissance surveys. Anomalous trends are defined by high-density surveys as well as seismic. Find stratigraphic and other types of hydrocarbon traps invisible to seismic. Find hydrocarbon traps with poor seismic signal due to sandy overburden and thick salt formations. Explore for non-conventional gas reservoirs where seismic does not work very well.

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Find edges of pools instead of using offset drilling. Assess the efficiency of secondary/tertiary recovery operations. Access areas such as community pastures, fields in crop and environmentally sensistive areas without causing surface damage.

Sedimentary basins
Sedimentary basins are regions of the earth of long-term subsidence creating accommodation space for infilling by sediments.

Types of sedimentary basins

We can distinguish between (1) active sedimentary basins still accumulating sediments (2) inactive, but little deformed sedimentary basins showing more or less their original shape and sedimentary fill and (3)strongly deformed and incomplete former sedimentary basins, where the original fill has been partly lost to erosion.

Methods of formation
Sedimentary basins form primarily in convergent, divergent and transform settings. Convergent boundaries create foreland basins through tectonic compression of oceanic and continental crust during lithospheric flexure. Tectonic extension at divergent boundaries where continental rifting is occurring can create a nascent ocean basin leading to either an ocean or the failure of the rift zone. In tectonic strike-slip settings, accommodation spaces occur as transpressional, transtensional or transrotational basins according to the motion of the plates along the fault zone and the local topography pull-apart basins

Rift-related basins
Rift basin Geological Origin -The down-dropped basin formed during rifting because of stretching and thinning of the continental crust Example- East Africa Rift

Rift-related basins
Passive margin basin Geological Origin- Subsidence along a passive margin, mostly due to long-term accumulation of sediments on the continental shelf Example- East coast of North America

Subduction-related basins
Trench (accretionary wedge) Geological Origin- Downward flexure of the subducting and non-subducting plates (sites of accretionary wedges) Example- Western edge of Vancouver Island

Subduction-related basins
Forearc basin Geological Origin- The area between the accretionary wedge and the magmatic arc, largely caused by the negative buoyancy of the subducting plate pulling down on the overlying continental crust Example- Georgia Strait

Subduction-related basins
Foreland basin Geological Origin- A depression caused by the weight of a large mountain range pushing the adjacent crust below sea level Example- The sediment filled plain south of the Himalayas

Transform-fault basins
Strike-slip basin Geological Origin- A pull-apart block (eg. between two transform faults) that subsides significantly Example- Various locations on the San Andreas Fault or the Anatolian Fault

Cont
Transform fault may be associated with tensional component (transrensional) or with a compressional component(transcompresional). Transtentional fault locally cause crustal thinning and therefore create narrow elongated pull apart basins. If they evolve on continental crust continuing transform motion may lead to crustal separation perpendicular to the transform fault and initiate accreation of new oceanic crust in limited spreading centers. Until this development occur the rate of subsdence is usually high.

Delta basin
The river basin does form due to the formation of bottom-set beds, consisting of finer materials carried farthest seaward and laid down on the floor of the embayment, on which the delta is formed. Fore-set beds are somewhat coarser and they represent the advancing front of the delta and the greater part of its bulk. They usually have a distinctly steeper dip than the bottom-set beds and are in reality a continuation of the alluvial plain of which the delta is the terminal position.

Hydrocarbon Richness
Petroleum is a generative product of organic matter disseminated in the shale and therefore the quantity of hydrocarbon directly correlates with organic matter concentration of the potential source rocks.

SEDIMENTARY BASINS OF TANZANIA

SEDIMENTARY BASINS OF TANZANIA

Out of approximately 1,000,000 square kilometres covered by Tanzania one third of this total area is occupied by sedimentary basins with substantial thickness of sediments They include:-

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Inland Rift Basins and Modern Rift System: 114,000 sq km Coastal and Continental Shelf Basins (onshore and offshore including the Islands of Zanzibar Pemba and Mafia : 280,000sq km Deep Sea Basins: Basins (300m to 3000m of water depths) 140,000 sq km TOTAL: 534,000 sq km

Hydrocarbon Occurences
Gas shows have been encountered in most of the deep wells in offshore and onshore Coastal Basin. Biogenic gas has also been reported in some shallow bore holes in the Msimbati area, Ruvuma Basin.

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Oil shows have been reported in several wells. Significant oil shows were observed in a couple of formations encountered in Mita G-1and Mbate-1 wells, in the Mandawa Basin. SongoSongo wells, Mafia-1, Makarawe-1, Mnazi Bay-1, Mandawa-7 and Pemba-5. Bitumen staining are reported in the Lower Cretaceous Kipatimu Beds from Wingayongo1borehole, Bathonian limestone cores in Kisangire-1, and Miocene sands in the Mtwara-1 borehole in the Ruvuma Basin are thought to be related to residue oil.

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Methane and heavier hydrocarbon gases and geothermal fluids have been reported in lake water at the northern part of Lake Tanganyika. Such hydrothermal hydrocarbons are attributed to early maturation products of oil prone lacustrine organic matter in the lake sediments.

Tanzania basins of proven commercial production.

1) Songo Songo: Gas reserves estimated to be 1TCF were discovered in the Lower Cretaceous sands and were encountered in seven appraisal wells in SongoSongo area, offshore Coastal Basin. The gas tested up to 23 million cubic feet per day and minor volumes of oil with 33-47API

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2) Mnazi Bay: Estimated gas reserves of about 1TCF have been discovered in Mnazi Bay area, Ruvuma Basin. Mnazi Bay-1 well tested gas at rates of up to 14 million cubic feet per day from the Oligocene sands.

NATURAL GAS DISCOVERIES

ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM
The origin of Petroleum is still a debate, Old theories Justifying the inorganic formation of compounds equivalent to those found in Petroleum have never been disputed Any hypothesis trying to explain the origin of Petroleum must satisfy the geological requirement with respect to;

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The source material The transformation process The Universal association of Petroleum with sedimentary rocks The physical and chemical properties of Petroleum. Two theories have been at the front of debate so far the Organic and the inorganic theory of Petroleum.

inorganic formation of oil include

Lab experiments have shown that action of metallic carbides with water forms methane and other lower hydrocarbon organic gases 2CaC + 2H2O = CH4 + 2CaOH But in principle only lower hydrocarbon series can be formed in this way. Higher hydrocarbon series found in crude oils cannot be explained by this type of reactions

Cont.
Methane is also found in the atmosphere of other planets, also detected in meteorites, igneous dykes and old Proterozoic rocks long before life began. This implies that the oil we find on earth today may have formed long before life began on earth. Duplex origin of hydrocarbons being formed by Fischer Tropsch type of reactions occurring long before the first sediments was formed through atmospheric radioactivity or cosmic radiations.

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All these evidences fail to explain the universal association of hydrocarbons with sedimentary rocks which is an un-denied fact already realized as early as 1920s in the history of the oil industry.

Evidences in favor of Organic origin of Petroleum

The universal association of oil with sedimentary rocks suggests its association with life. Petroleum is found in Sedimentary areas of Great Biosynthesis. Processes that form igneous and metamorphic rocks normally involve high temperature where life cannot survive. By 1920s it was already realized that old Sedimentary rocks were not prospective than the relatively young once We know that life first appears in Cambrian and most oils are of Late Paleozoic and later ages.

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Compounds found in Petroleum are similar to types of organic compounds synthesized by living organisms that cannot be synthesized biogenically. These include Chlorophyll products, Nitrogenous compounds e.g. Proteins, Amines Stable isotope studies have shown that the 13C/12C ratio of crude oils is much more related to organic matter rather than carbonates

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Most Petroleum product have the ability to rotate the plane of polarization an action proved to be done by only organic compounds Petroleum like all other organic compounds can be destroyed by heat. At the moment the organic theories of origin find more acceptance than the inorganic origin theories.

Cont.
If it is accepted that oil is found in association with sedimentary rocks then it must have formed in sedimentary employment. This implies that looking for oil is looking for sedimentary rocks Marine or non marine it will be clarified latter. Actually it is known that oil forms in sedimentary environment of prolific Organic Matter development.