GE3244 SUMMARAY

1 INTRODUCTION
 Barrel of oil: 42 US gallons, 158.987 liters, $108.22 @ Aug 12th 2013
 Petroleum is flammable liquid found in rock formations with complex mixtures of hydrocarbons
 Natural gas is made from paraffin-like hydrocarbon molecules; Methane (mostly) CH4, Ethane
C2H6, Propane C3H8, Butane C4H10, H2S Rotten Eggs (very corrosive), inert gas (Co2, N, He)
 Condensate: Shorter chain liquid hydrocarbons (5-7C) that condense out of wet gas (reservoirs
at high temp, surface low temp > change phase)
 Wet gas are natural gas that contains condensate
 Crude oil shrink when produced because pressure increase with depth, gas dissolved in oil. At
surface, the pressure is relieved and solution gas bubbles out. (Gas Oil Ratio)
 Type of hydrocarbons: Alkanes (CnH2n+2), cycloalkanes (CnH2n), aromatic hydrocarbons (CnHn)
 API = density scale, API of crude oils from 5 to 55, Light oil (35-45), Heavy oil (<25)
 Principle components of kerogen: organic material like zooplankton, algae, terrestrial plants
 Diagenesis (Cooking): burial process under high levels of heat (T) and pressure (P)
 Petroleum production varying with geothermal gradient and depth of burial
  Van Krevelin Diagram: classifying kerogens

Type I = algal, found in

lakes: oil prone
Type II = marine limestones
and shales: oil and gas
prone
Type III = land plants = coal
+ gas and oil + gas prone
Type IV = charcoal


 Petroleum oil and gas forms from thermal maturation of buried kerogen.
(Oil @ 70-200 oC, gas @ >200 to 400 oC window)
 Crude oil is refined by fractional distillation and cracking

2 MATURATION, MIGRATION, TRAPS AND SEALS

2.1 MIGRATION
 Migration: Migrate through primary migration (density difference between oil and water, and
compaction of source rocks by surface, microfractures from cooking) and secondary migration
(migration along paths of established permeability, seals)
 Compaction: effect of weight of layers of rock lying above
 Large amount of pore water squeezed out and escaped to surface
 Mud (~20% water) > Clay (~10%water) > Shale (~5% water)
 Porosity decrease with increasing depth ( water squeezed out)
 Porosity is a measure of the void spaces in a rock (Void Volume/Total Volume). Measured by
Volume/density method, Water evaporation method, mercury intrusion, gas expansion method
 Secondary porosity(cause overpressure) is caused by clay mineral reactions (lower density clay
breaking down to high density products) and organic reactions (Fluid P>tensile strength of rock =
fracture)
  Permeability is the measure of the ease which fluid flows through a material. Measured by
forcing He or Hg through. (Darcy)
 Wettability = ability of fluid to coat the mineral surface. Affects the amount of oil and gas that
can be extracted from reservoirs
 Irreducible = percentage of effective porosity occupied by a fluid. Cannot be driven out
 Most reservoirs are water wet, most oil source rocks are oil wet, carbonate reservoirs are mixed
 Permeability is affected by presence of another phase (Oil and water)
 Reservoir enhancement:
 Increase Pressure by gas or water injection from nearby well
 Reduce surface tension of oil (reduce viscosity) by add surfactants or heat oil with steam
 Dissolve the oil in water, steam or carbon dioxide
 Expand pore throats with dissolving acids (change wettability)
 Oil must be pushed by
 Strong Pressure differential from source to trap
 Strong water flow from source to trap
 Long, continuous phase hydrocarbon column = buoyancy force (density difference)
 Capillary pressure: limiting pressure before start of migration of oil globules

2.2 RESERVOIRS, TRAPS AND SEALS

 3 features of Traps
 Reservoir rock: enough porosity to store economic quantity of petroleum and enough
permeability for production (sandstone, limestone)
 Seal: relatively impermeable rock that prevent escape of petroleum to other rock
(shales, limestone, salt)
 Closure: 3D closure to stop petroleum migrating away (anticline, faults, salt domes)
 Sedimentary rocks: Clastic rocks (fragments from rock), Biogenic activity( broken shells, corals),
Chemical precipitation
 Sandstone: quartz and/or feldspar grains, high porosity good reservoirs
 Shale: very fine-grained sedimentary rock, clay minerals weathered from feldspar and deposited
as mud, good seal
 Limestone: composed largely of mineral calcite
 Rock salt: evaporated lake/seawater, good seal
 Good seal: small pore sizes(fine grained seeds), high ductility( compacted clays, rock salt), large
thickness, and wide lateral extent
 Two type of seal
 Membrane seal: petroleum unable to force it way through the largest pores, seal
capacity determine height of petroleum column, reservoir start leaking when buoyancy
pressure > capillary entry pressure
 Hydraulic seal: petroleum can only escape by creating fractures (pore pressure > tensile
strength of rocks), pore pressure increase as clay dehydrate, kerogen cook
 Oil Formation Process: Source Rock > Burial > Kitchen (Thermal Maturation) > Migration >
Reservoir Rocks > Trap > Seal
 Fault Traps:
 Dip Slip fault
 


 Strike Slip Fault (Left Right)


 Strength of fault seal quantified by subsurface pressure(capillary threshold pressure),
arising from buoyancy forces within hydrocarbon column that the fault can support
before leaking
 Shale Gouge Ratio: net shale/clay content of the rocks
 Hot water reacts with feldspars at fault zone to form impermeable clay layer
 Salt Domes: formed which thick bed of evaporate minerals found at depth intrudes vertically
into surrounding rock strata, forming a diaper

 Drill down here
1. Dome
Above Salt

2 true Fault trap

4. Carbonate
Reef or Bank 3 cap rock

6 Fault trap on
5 side of dome side of dome

7 Angular unformity

 8 pinch out
of sandstone

3 EXPLORATION & DRILLING TECHNIQUES

3.1 EXPLORATION METHODS

 Gravity surveys: the denser the rock underneath, the more deflection of gravimeters
 Gravity high = higher density basement rock near surface, possible reservoirs
 Gravity low = deep basins full of low density sediments, possible sources
 Magnetic Surveys: Measurement of magnetic strength of a mineral/rock, magnetic susceptibility
 Measured with a magnetometer by testing the magnetic “pull”
 Red = magnetic rocks basement high
 Green = non-magnetic rocks of deep basins
 Seismic surveys: investigating subterranean structure based on determination of the time
interval that elapses between the initiation of a seismic wave at a selected point and arrival of
reflected/refracted impulse at one or more seismic detector

3.2 DRILLING TECHNIQUES

 Drilling utilizes hydraulic-rotary drilling
 Turbine drilling: powered by pressure of the drilling mud, no rotation of pipe
 Drilling mud: water + bentonite clay + barite (density 4.5) mix
 Mud logging: examine rock chips extracted from the mud
 Drilling mud benefits:
 Lubricate, cool and clean the drilling bit
 Control down-hole pressure
  Stabilize the wall of the borehole
 Remove drill cutting
 Drilling mud weight is kept above formation pressure to prevent blow out, not so much that it
exceed the formation’s tensile strength and causes hydraulic fracturing and break-out of the
wall rock
 Need to add mud weight at unconformity
 Powdered barytes (BaSO4 density 4.5gm/cm3) to increase mud weight
 Drilling time log: time log accurately locate changes in lithology or porosity
 Average: Shale
 Slow: Limestone, dolomite, porous zone
 Fast: Sandstone
 Very slow: Granite
 4 steps to oil well completion:
 1 – casing is installed to protect potable water zones near the surface and provide a
smooth conduit for moving tool into and out of the hole
 2 – completion fluid is pumped into the hole to remove the drilling mud from the hole
and prepare the well for reservoir fluids
 3 – the formation is perforated to allow fluids from the reservoir to flow into the well
bore
 4 – a string of production tubing is put into the well to bring the reservoir fluids to the
surface

4 WELL LOGGING & PRINCIPLES OF STRATIGRAPHY

4.1 WELL LOGGING

 Measurement tool = sonde, 19m long 10cm diameter cylinder filled w various instruments
 Resistivity Logging
 Electric current passed through between 2 electrodes
 Resistivity of porous rock depends on whether water, gas or oil is present
 Salt water = conduct some electricity, moderately low resistivity
 Oil and gas = very high resistivity
 Spontaneous Logging
 One sensor on surface, the other in sonde
 Two fluids of different salinities in contact, potential electric current
 Sonic Logging
 Measure porosity
 The more porous a rock, the more gas or liquid it contains and the slower its sonic
velocity
 Natural Gamma Ray Logging
 Shale = lots of potassium rich clay, log kick to right (high)
 Sandstones and limestone less radioactive, log kick to left (low)
 Can calibrate to estimate shale content
 NPHI: Neutron Porosity
  Primary use: Lithology, fluid and volume of shales
 More porous rocks will emit more slow neutrons and gamma ray
 The less dense (more porous) formation has more H, cl = less neutrons reach far detect
= higher near/far ratio
 Gas effect: plot near and far count rate, adjust scales so 2 curve overlay in a known
water wet reservoir
 Gas/oil or gas/water contact occurs where curves separate
 Gamma-gamma Logging: Formation density log
 Dense rocks return less gamma ray
 More porous rocks (less dense) return more gamma rays
 Gas Effect


 Ultrasonic: micro imaging, can see bedding and fracture orientation

4.2 PRINCIPLES OF STRATIGRAPHY

1. Principle of superposition
a. In undisturbed succession of sedimentary layers, oldest is on bottom
2. Principle of Original Horizontality
a. Sediment is originally deposit in horizontal layer
3. Principle of Lateral Continuity (Steno)
a. Sediment extends laterally in all direction until it thin or pinches out
4. Principle of Fossil Succession
a. Fossil on bottom of a sequence must be older than the top, correlate succession
5. Principle of Rock Correlation
a. Guide fossils are fossils that are easily identified and geographically widespread, lived
for brief periods of geologic time
6. Principle of Unconformities
a. Unconformities are surfaces of discontinuity in the rock deposition sequence which
encompass significant period of time, layers not in sequence due to erosion etc.
b. Disconformity: erosional surface that separates younger from older sedimentary strata
that are parallel to each other
c. Angular unconformity: erosional surface on tilted or folded rocks, over which younger
sedimentary rocks are deposit
 d. Nonconformity: erosional surface cut into igneous or metamorphic rocks and overlain
by younger sedimentary rocks
7. Principle of Deep Geological Time
a. Vastness of geological time that set geology apart from other sciences
b. No vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end
8. Principle of the Rock Cycle

a.
9. Principle of Uniformitarianism
a. Law of nature have been uniform and constant through time
b. Same processes operating today have been operated in the past, e.g. rock cycle
c. The present is the key to the past
10. Principle of Relative Dating
a. Places events in sequential order but not how long ago an event took place
b. Mean to interpret geologic history and develop a relative geologic time scale
c. Fundamental Principles of Relative Dating
i. Superposition
ii. Original horizontality
iii. Cross-cutting relationships
1. E.g. An igneous intrusion must be young than the rock it intrudes
iv. Lateral continuity
v. Inclusion
 1. Inclusions in a rock are older than the rock layer itself
vi. Fossil succession
11. Principle of absolute Dating
a. Radiometric dating: many elements have unstable radioactive isotopes
i. Measure proportion of radioactive parents isotope to stable daughter isotope,
determine number of half-lives cycle
b. Long-Lived Radoactive Isotope Pair
i. Uranium: half-life 4.47 billion years, date ancient igneous rock, lunar samples,
meteorites
ii. Rubidium-strontium: half-life 47 billion years, used on old igeneous and met
rocks
iii. Potassium-argon: half-life 1.3 billion years, use to date volcanic rocks
12. Principle of the Geologic Time Scale
a. Absolute age of most sedimentary rocks and their contained fossils are established
indirectly

5 PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF SANDSTONES AND SHALES

 Rounding and sorting important
 Determine porosity and permeability
 Amount of rounding and sorting depend on particle size, distance of transportation, and
depositional processes
 Depositional settings: continental, transitional, and marine (only glacial environment not source)


 Glacial Environment (not source)
 Lake
 Sand dunes (dessert environment, well rounded sandstones, ideal reservoirs)
 Alluvial fan (sand & gravel = reservoir)
  Lake (lacustrine) environment
 Lagoon
 Continental Shelf environment (<200m depth)
 Submarine Fan environment (depositional environment)
 Barrier island environment
 Deep marine environment
 Tidal flat
 Delta environment
 Beach environment
 Fluvial (river) environment
 Siliciclastic rocks: quartz, potassium and sodium feldspar, rock fragment
 Gravel >2mm : Conglomerate (rounded clasts), sedimentary breccia (angular clasts)
 Sand 1/16mm to 2mm: Quartz sandstone(mostly quartz), Arkose (>25% feldspars)
 Silt 1/256mm to 1/16mm: Siltstone (not good seal, will slowly leak, good gas reservoirs)
 Clay <1/256mm: Claystone (shale if fissile)
 Silt + clay: Mudstone (shale if fissile)
 Clay minerals formed by chemical weathering (water + granite = clay)
 Shale only deposited in the least energetic environment (quiet places like lakes, delta swamps,
tidal flats, lagoons, mangrove swamps, outer continental shelf, abyssal plains)

6 PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF LIMESTONE
 Limestone made from calcium carbonate CaCO3
 Increased silicate weathering>increased drawdown of CO2>global cooling
 Colder ocean dissolves more CO2, decreases atmospheric CO2
 Carbonate ion concentration of seawater regulates atmospheric CO2
 Seawater is supersaturated with respect to calcite by a factor of ~5
 Triggering Mechanism for deposition of calcite
1. Increased Temperature
 Lower Temperature = Increase CO2 solubility = less calcite
2. Agitated Water (decreased agitation)
 Less agitation = CO2 increase = CaCO3 precipitate as lime mud
3. Saline Water (high salt content)
 Increased salinity = precipitate more calcite
4. Organisms (increased organic activity)
 Most carbonate is formed by organisms
 Reefs (communities of plant (algae) and animals(coral, sponges, etc.)
 Calcite compensation depth (CCD): above CCD calcite precipitates, ~ 4.5km below sea level
 Most carbonates forming today in:
1. Warm Water
 Calcite is precipitated easily
 Growth of calcareous (mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate)
organisms is stimulated
2. No silicate detritus (quartz/feldspar sand, mud)
  Silicate clastics choke growth of calcareous-shelled organisms
3. Typically in shallow rather than deep water
 As shells of planktonic forams sink below CCD, they dissolve
 Extensive shallow shelf seas are absent today because temperatures are colder and ice caps and
glaciers have taken up water as ice
 Shallow marine carbonate environments are influenced by:
1. Concentration of CO2 dissolved in seawater
2. Water temperature, water chemistry, including salinity
3. Availability of sunlight & nutrients (biological growth)
4. Weather systems (waves & pressure systems, storms, etc.)
5. Sea level changes, relative and tidal
6. Amount of sediment delivered to the shoreline by rivers
 Major marine carbonate environments are tidal flats, sub tidal environments (lagoons), reefs,
open shallow and deep marine shelf ramps, deep basin and deep submarine fan environment
(Carbonate factory below)

1.
 Limestone CaCO3 (density 2.71), from modern carbonate shells, corals, etc (aragonite).
 Dolostone (CaMg)(CO3)2 forms during lithification with Mg+2 from seawater replacing Ca2+ in
calcite
1. Density of calcite = 2.71, dolomite = 2.84
2. Increased porosity because same amount of limestone change to dolomite results in
cracking
 Test for calcite or dolomite: diluted hydrochloric acid (HCl)
1. Calcite will bubbles visibly releasing CO2 gas
2. Dolostone will not react unless crushed and powdered
 Limestone classification
 1.
 Ramp margin carbonate environment: supratidal and subtidal regions, lagoons, shaloow ramp
shoals of ooids, steeper ramp region, basin sea floor environments: all carbonate no siliclastics

1.
 Rimmed margin carbonate environment: shelf edge barrier reefs, sharp shelf edge reef “walls”,
foreslope reef debris and turbidite fans to basin sea floor environments: all carbonate, no
siliclastics
 1.
 Sandstone and limestones are brittle: when they are bent (folded) they fracture and break to
form joint
1. Joint patterns have a tremendous influence on the productivity of gas and oil reservoirs
 Fracture reservoirs in limestone
1. Provide permeability for a porous but low permeability reservoirs
2. Open fractures enhance already permeable rocks
 Limemud (micrite) matrix: micro-crystalline calcite
 Sparite matrix: cemented as coarse carbonate crystals (calcite spar) precipitated from
supersaturated pore fluids