Using Oil Biomarkers in Petroleum Exploration
Biomarkers are a group of compounds, primarily hydrocarbons, found in oils, rock extracts, Recent sediment extracts, and soil extracts. What distinguishes biomarkers from other compounds in oil is that biomarkers can reasonably be called “molecular fossils”. Biomarkers are structurally similar to, and are diagenetic alteration products of, specific natural products (compounds produced by living organisms). Typically, biomarkers retain all or most of the original carbon skeleton of the original natural product, and this structural similarity is what leads to the term “molecular fossils”.
Biomarkers
Biomarkers are a group of compounds, primarily hydrocarbons, found in oils, rock extracts, Recent sediment extracts, and soil extracts. What distinguishes biomarkers from other compounds in oil is that biomarkers can reasonably be called “molecular fossils”. Biomarkers are structurally similar to, and are diagenetic alteration products of, specific natural products (compounds produced by living organisms). Typically, biomarkers retain all or most of the original carbon skeleton of the original natural product, and this structural similarity is what leads to the term “molecular fossils”.
Biomarkers have a variety of applications in petroleum exploration. For example:
Petroleum Biomarkers Indicative of Source Rock Organic Matter Input and Depositional Conditions (Table 1)
Below are a few examples of oil biomarker parameters that provide information about the depositional environment of the source rock and the origin of the organic matter in the source rock.
Petroleum Biomarkers Indicative of Source Rock Organic Matter Input and Depositional Conditions Table 1
To characterize charge risk, these biomarker parameters can be used in a variety of innovative ways. For example, specific biomarker parameters can be calibrated against specific kerogen quality parameters in a given basin. Then, the biomarker ratios are measured in an oil sample from the basin, and the values are projected onto calibration curves to quantitatively predict characteristics of the source rock. This approach, pioneered by the founders of OilTracers, allows explorationists to assess whether an oil was generated primarily from an oil-prone or gas-prone organic facies (Dahl et al., 1994; McCaffrey et al., 1994). The information gained from oil biomarkers (source type, age, maturity, kerogen quality) when integrated into a basin model has substantial economic impact because it provides early estimates of oil quantity and GOR for exploration targets in the area of interest.
Using Biomarkers in Oil to Assess Source Thermal Maturity
The relative abundances of certain biomarkers in petroleum change as a function of source rock maturity. As a result, a variety of biomarker parameters have been identified that are very useful for characterizing the source rock maturity simply from analysis of the migrated oil (e.g., Peters and Moldowan, 1993).
Biomarker maturity parameters (e.g., parameters such as those in Table 2) make use of several processes that occur during source rock maturation:
۱-Cracking–large molecules break into smaller molecules
۳-Aromatization–formation of aromatic rings loss of hydrogen from naphthenes
Petroleum Biomarkers Indicative of Source Rock Maturity (Table 2)
Several considerations must be kept in mind when using petroleum biomarkers to assess source rock thermal maturity. For example:
Despite these limitations, biomarker indicators of source maturity can be extremely useful. For example, biomarker maturity parameters can be used to determine what the API gravity of a biodegraded oil was prior to biodegradation. This is accomplished by collecting a suite of non-degraded oils from the same petroleum system as the degraded oils. Using the non-degraded oils, the geochemist develops a correlation or “transform” between a biomarker maturity parameter and API gravity. The same biomarker parameter is then measured on a degraded oil, and the original gravity is determined using the transform developed from the non-degraded oil suite. Moldowan, et al. (1992) provide an excellent example of this approach in which they determine the original gravity of degraded Adriatic oils. For this application, the most effective biomarker parameters are those based on compounds that are highly resistant to biodegradation, such as [Triaromatic/(Monaromatic +Triaromatic steroids)].
Source Rock descriptions and source rock maturity information derived from oil biomarkers are often key input data for basin modeling of a prospect or block.
Biomarkers in Petroleum are analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or gas chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS-MS). Analyses are typically performed on the saturated hydrocarbon fraction or the aromatic hydrocarbon fractions. The oil fractions are prepared by liquid chromatography.
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