PETROLEUM SYSTEMS

Presented by Sabrina Halli

January, 2020
 OUTLINE
• FOUR LEVEL OF INVESTIGATIONS
• PETROLEUM SYSTEMS
• CRITICAL MOMENT
• SYSTEMS RELATED TO BASIN GENESIS
• PETROLEUM SYSTEMS CLASSIFICATION
• PETROLEUM SOURCE ROCKS
• KEROGEN TYPES
• HYDROCARBON GENERATION WINDOW
• VITRINITE REFLECTANCE
• EXPULSION
• MIGRATION
• MATURATION
• RESERVOIRS
• SEALS AND TRAPS
 FOUR LEVEL OF INVESTIGATIONS

Magoon and Dow (1994) suggested that petroleum systems analysis is one of four major levels of investigation in
petroleum exploration.
PETROLEUM SYSTEM
 WHAT IS A PETROLEUM SYSTEM?
• System is defined by the elements and processes that form the
functional unit responsible of the hydrocarbon accumulations.

• The essential elements are :

✓Source rock
✓Reservoir rock
✓Seal rock
✓Overburden

• Petroleum systems have two processes:

✓Trap formation
✓Generation-migration-accumulation of hydrocarbons
ESSENTIEL ELEMENTS

Magoon and Dow (1994)

CRITICAL MOMENT: 250 M.Y.

 CRITICAL MOMENT

The Critical Moment:

is the time selected by
the investigator that
best illustrates the
generation, migration
and accumulation of
most hydrocarbons in a
petroleum system.

Magoon and Dow (1994)

EVENT CHART

Magoon and Dow (1994)

NORTH SLOPE EVENT CHARTS
 SYSTEMS RELATED TO DIVERGENT
BASINS
• Basin types: Rift, Pull-Apart, Back-Arc.
• Strong subsidence and sedimentation rate, good conditions for confined
environment, high heat flux (favorable for the formation and the rapid
maturation of the source rock).
• Variable reservoirs, heterogeneous, often scattered.
• Mainly vertical migration along active faults.
• Traps: faults, horsts, anticlines, echelon folding along wrench zone.
• Dismigration related issues due to overpressure and seal rock quality.
 SYSTEMS RELATED TO CRATONIC BASINS
• Basin type: Cratonic, Divergent Margins.

• Relatively low subsidence, numerous discontinuities, moderate thermic

flux over a long period of time (slow maturation of the source rock yet with
a great extension).

• Numerous quality reservoirs with a small or large geographic extension.

• Lateral distally migration to stratigraphic or structural traps.

• Moderate pressure.
 SYSTEMS RELATED TO FOLD THRUST
BELT CONVERGENT BASINS
• Basin type: Foreland and Orogenic.

• Subsidence mainly due to loading with low thermic flow (scarce source
rocks and irregular sedimentation).

• Variable reservoirs, and complex migration path.

• Numerous structural traps, simple (foreland), complex (orogenic zone).

• Risks related to dismigration and erosional destruction and sometimes

very high pressure.
 PETROLEUM SYSTEMS CLASSIFICATION

Demaison and Huizinga’s (1994)

A ‘petroleum system’ comprises a pod of mature source rock and all of the migration paths, reservoir rocks,
caprocks and traps that can be charged by that source rock to produce oil and gas accumulations.
 PETROLEUM SYSTEMS CLASSIFICATION
• Charge factor: Volume of hydrocarbon available for entrapment. Charge
potential defined relative to source rock potential (thickness, richness, and
density) and size of the basin.

The Source Potential Index (SPI) combines source rock richness and source rock thickness
into a single parameter.

✓ Supercharged – adequate source potential to charge many traps to spillpoint.

✓ Normally charged – adequate source potential to charge available traps,

though not necessarily to spillpoint.

✓Undercharged – inadequate source potential to charge available traps.

 PETROLEUM SYSTEMS CLASSIFICATION
• Migration-Drainage Style: based on spatial relationship of
accumulation to source rock.

✓ Vertically drained – source rocks below reservoir rocks.

✓ Laterally drained – source rocks downdip from reservoir rocks; major

lateral migration required to explain hydrocarbon accumulations.
 PETROLEUM SYSTEMS CLASSIFICATION
• Entrapment Style: based on abundance of sealing strata in
petroleum system.

✓ High impedance – Several sealing strata in petroleum system.

✓ Low impedance – few, if any, sealing strata in petroleum system.

 NORTH SEA TYPE

• Basin Type?

• Charge Factor?
Demaisonan Huizinga (1994)

• Migration Style?

• Entrapment Style?
 WESTERN CANADA TYPE

• Basin Type?
Demaisonan Huizinga (1994)

• Charge Factor?

• Migration Style?

• Entrapment Style?
 WILLISTON TYPE

• Basin Type?
Demaisonan Huizinga (1994)

• Charge Factor?

• Migration Style?

• Entrapment Style?
 LOS ANGELES TYPE

Demaisonan Huizinga (1994)

• Basin Type?

• Charge Factor?

• Migration Style?

• Entrapment Style?
 PETROLEUM SOURCE ROCKS

• Organic-Rich Shale: > 0.5 TOC; oil and gas.

• Organic-Rich Carbonate, including micrite, chalk

and marl: > 0.5 TOC; oil and gas.

• Coal: > 0.5 TOC major gas source, oil questionable.

VAN KREVELEN DIAGRAM

Eike-Klima Energie, 2017

HYDROCARBON GENERATION WINDOW

Tissot and Welte (1978)

 METHANOGENESIS

• Methanogens- micro-organisms
generator of methane gas by
breaking down organic matter under
anaerobic conditions.

• General reaction

CO2 + 4H2 CH4 + 2H2O

SULFATE REDUCING BACTERIA

HYDROGEN
SULFIDE

Under anoxic conditions, anaerobic

PYRITE
microorganisms (sulfate-reducing bacteria) use
the sulfate within the water body to oxidize organic
molecules, producing hydrogen sulfide (H2S).
 THERMOGENIC GASES

HUMIC AND SAPROPELIC SOURCES

VITRINITE REFLECTANCE VERSUS
TEMPERATURE

• Vitrinite is a maceral of coal (organic component).

• Vitrinite Reflectance (R0) is the proportion of

incident light reflected from a polished vitrinite
surface.
 VITRINITE REFLECTANCE

Microscopic measurement of the

relative reflectance of vitrinite
macerals (Ro) compared to coal
rank, fixed carbon (FC), volatile
matter (VM), moisture (M), and gas
and oil generation. (Figure by
Cortland Eble, based on data in
ASTM, Stach and others, 1992, and
Bustin and others, 1985).

Kentucky Geological Survey

 EXPULSION
• What factors influence the expulsion of hydrocarbons from the
source rock?

✓Compaction- Minor; most compaction occurs before sediments reaches thermal

maturity.

✓Volumetric expansion and overpressuring- conversion of solid kerogen to

hydrocarbons liquids and gases results in major volumetric expansion, thus increasing
pore pressure.

✓Fracturing- increasing pore pressure can result in closely spaced fractures in source
rocks.
 MIGRATION
• What factors influence the migration of hydrocarbons from source to reservoir?

✓ Carrier beds, seals, barriers, fractures, faults- Determine flow paths from source to reservoir;
heterogeneity affects tortuosity.

✓ Darcy flow, solubility- Forms the basis of most migration models and seems to work adequately.

✓ Buoyancy- Oil and gas tend to rise toward seals and, ultimately accumulating in traps (driving force).

✓ Capillary forces- Capillary forces reduce flow (restricting force).

✓ Relative permeability- Relative permeability effects in multiphase systems (gas, oil, water) can affect
mobility.
RELATIVE PERMEABILITY
 RESERVOIR ROCKS
• Reservoir rocks- sandstone, limestone,
dolostone, chalk.

• Interconnected pores to allow fluids to

flow through (permeability).

• Majority of producing carbonate

reservoirs are located in intracratonic,
foreland basins & passive margins.

• Diagenesis- detrimental effect on

reservoir Ø + K.
 RESERVOIR PROPERTIES

• Porosity (Ø) + hydrocarbon (HC) saturation,

affect the reserves of a prospect or play.

• Permeability (K)- rate at which petroleum fluids

may be drawn off from the reservoir during
production.

• Ø + K - influenced by pore geometry + diagenesis.

 CARBONATE
RESERVOIR

• Different pore types + geometries- biological

origin & strong chemical reactivity.

• Ø + K extremely heterogenous.

• Diagenetic changes- dissolution,

dolomitization, fracturing, recrystallization,
and cementation.
 SANDSTONE
RESERVOIRS

• Ø + K- controlled by depositional factors

(grain size, sorting, presence of ductile
clasts) + compaction & cementation.

• Reservoir presence & quality- tectonic

setting + sediment provenance.

• Burial diagenesis- growth of clay

minerals + quartz cements (temperature-
dependent).
 POROSITY AND PERMEABILITY
• Pore volume expressed by

✓Absolute porosity
Vb & Vs- bulk and solid volumes

✓Effective porosity
Vi- interconnected pore volume.

✓Porosity- void space relative to the solid volume (void ratio: e).
 POROSITY AND PERMEABILITY
• Permeability K (hydraulic conductivity)- measures the ability of a
medium to transmit fluids and is defined according to the Darcy
equation.
Q- volume of transmitted flow per unit time (flow rate).
A- cross-sectional area.
dP/dl- pressure gradient over distance l (hydraulic gradient).
• K depends on rock properties and on the medium being transmitted.
Specific permeability k
γ - specific weight of the fluid
μ - its absolute viscosity.
 RESERVOIR PARAMETERS
• Good-quality reservoirs- Ø = 20 - 30%, but 10 to 20% Ø is not uncommon.

• Very low-porosity rocks (few percent)- may represent productive reservoirs if

fractured.

• Rock permeability- k= 0.1 mD to >10 D

1 - 30 mD- chalk and fractured Permian carbonate reservoirs
hundreds mD- several darcys- Jurassic, Cretaceous & Tertiary sandstone
reservoirs.
• Gas reservoirs may be productive at K=1 mD.

• Light oil- relative K & flow rates will require much higher absolute K >10 mD.
 PRIMARY OR DEPOSITIONAL FACTORS
AFFECTING RESERVOIR QUALITY
• Carbonate pore geometry
✓ several carbonate Ø types vs. siliciclastic
(intergranular).
✓ Primary fabric-selective Ø- interparticle,
intraparticle, fenestral, shelter & growth
framework + Secondary fabric-selective Ø-
intercrystal & moldic.
✓Not related to fabric- fracture porosity, channel,
vug and cavern types.
✓Either fabric-selective or not- breccia, boring,
burrow and shrinkage.
• Ø types- associated with depositional
environment, diagenetic history, & seal-level
change.
 PRIMARY FACTORS AFFECTING
SANDSTONE RESERVOIR QUALITY
• Sandstone
✓Ø + K- depositional factors (grain size, sorting, presence of ductile
clasts) + compaction & cementation.
✓Dominant pore type- intergranular (intragranular secondary Ø may
occur by partial dissolution of mineral grains during diagenesis).
✓Primary Ø- grain size, sorting and packing (easier to predict than
carbonate).
✓ Ø varies with sorting- 28% (very poorly sorted sand) to over 42%
(extremely well-sorted sand).
✓ K- pore throat size + interconnected pores.
• Grain size- coarser grains have large pore throats & higher K.
• Sorting- poorer sorting results in small mean pore throat diameters & low K.
• Sphericity (grain shape) & angularity (grain roundness)- influence K
low sphericity + high angularity, increase Ø + K of unconsolidated
sand.
• Clay Intraclasts- reduce Ø + K (if compacted to form pseudomatrix).
• Compaction- reduces pore throat size & blocks them.
• Ø + K- positively affected by early clay mineral growth (chlorite rims inhibit later
quartz cementation & pressure dissolution).
• Early Introduction of Oil in Ø- stops or slows clay diagenesis in sandstones &
improves Ø + K.
 EFFECT OF SEDIMENT PROVENANCE ON
RESERVOIR COMPOSITION
• Provenance & sediment routing systems- help understanding the
distribution & reservoir quality to develop more sophisticated models.
• Provenance- mineralogy analysis of the light fraction of siliciclastic
sediments (ternary diagrams of quartz (Q), feldspars (F), and lithics or rock
fragments (L)) - Heavy-mineral analysis (fission track thermochronology
of detrital apatites and zircons, isotopic studies U–Pb dating of detrital
zircons and Sm–Nd analysis).
- Techniques: understand the mineralogy, geochronology,
& thermal evolution of the source regions.
• Transport- impacts composition of sandstone reservoir. Transport in
terrestrial systems modifies sand composition. Effects controlled by
climate & river system type.
 EFFECT OF SEDIMENT PROVENANCE ON
RESERVOIR COMPOSITION
• Tectonic setting & sediment provenance affect reservoir quality.
✓Continental sags- shallow marine, fluviatile, aeolian, lacustrine reservoirs.
✓Rifts- restricted & volcanic-rich reservoir units of poor quality + younger, more
extensive, fluviatile, deltaic and marine good-quality reservoirs.
✓Passive margins- shallow marine and deltaic sands or thick carbonate
reservoirs, and deep water turbiditic reservoirs.
✓Strike-slip basins- sedimentary infill determined by the nature of the adjacent
plates. Ocean–ocean boundaries: poor reservoirs owing to contamination by
pelagic and volcanogenic material; continent– ocean & continent–continent
zones have more chance of providing sources of sand.
✓Forearc and trench- large amounts of volcanogenic material. Ø+K severely
reduced during diagenesis.
DIAGENETIC CHANGES
TO RESERVOIR ROCKS
• Depositional fabrics undergo early diagenetic changes &
deep burial diagenesis (mesogenesis).

• Carbonate rocks- diagenetic changes impacts Ø+K & result

from five processes:

✓ Dissolution (leaching)- improves Ø + K.

✓ Dolomitisation- improve Ø (larger pores), or reduce it interlocking
dolomite crystals. - increases K (solution vugs & post burial
fracturing).
✓ Fracturing- increase K (brecciation, faulting and jointing).
✓ Recrystallisation- enhances Ø (neomorphism of micrite into larger
crystal sizes).
Relationship between early & deep burial diagenesis of
✓ Cementation- decreases Ø + k (cements in pore throats). carbonate grainstones & OM maturation (After Heydari, 1997a).
DIAGENETIC CHANGES
TO RESERVOIR ROCKS
• Hydrology of deep basins depends on their large-scale tectonics.

✓ Passive Margin Wedges- high-velocity, near-surface, gravity-driven

flow towards distal basin & deep, moderate velocity, compaction-driven
flow to shallow levels. Mechanical & chemical compaction dominate Ø
changes. Cementation unimportant. CaCO3 source for cementation is
pressure solution or dissolution caused by the action of aggressive pore
fluids produced during organic diagenesis.

✓ Active Fold-Thrust Belt & Foreland Basin- hot fluid flows caused by
tectonic loading forms conduits for migration, causing recrystallisation of
early-formed calcite & dolomite, dolomitization, evaporites dissolution &
precipitation up-dip.

✓ Less active settings (post-tectonic)- meteoric waters recharge

aquifers exposed in the mountain belt, setting up a gravity-driven flow
into the basin. Little effects on carbonate Ø unless evaporites are
dissolved. Gypsum dissolution promotes dolomite dissolution & calcite
precipitation (dedolomitization), enhancing Ø.
Heydari 1997b and Moore 2001
 SECONDARY POROSITY IN CARBONATE
RESERVOIRS
• Dissolution- burial dominates development of secondary Ø.
✓Eogenetic zone (early burial)- secondary Ø is fabric-selective.

✓Mesogenetic (beyond the influence of surficial processes) + Telogenetic

zone (exhumation back to the region of surficial processes)- Ø generation
is not fabric-selective.

• Dolomitization
✓ Cementation (CO3 import) or Ø formation (CO3 locally sourced).

✓ Dissolution by meteoric water during exposure- most important process

enhancing Ø during dolomitization.
 SECONDARY POROSITY IN CARBONATE
RESERVOIRS
• Breccias- due to evaporite solution collapse, limestone solution collapse,
faulting & soil formation.
• Example- solution collapse breccias produced during periods of influx of
fresh meteoric waters at times of subaerial exposure enhanced Ø of the
Ordovician Ellenburger carbonate reservoir in the Puckett Field, west
Texas (Loucks & Anderson 1985).
-Major karstic dissolution associated with major unconformities is
responsible for a number of important carbonate reservoirs, such as the
Mississippian Northwest Lisbon Field, Utah & the Permian Yates Field, west
Texas.
• Fractures- enhances Ø in carbonate rocks.
• Example- the Oligocene Asmari Limestone of Iran. Despite a matrix
porosity of just 9%, the reservoir produces up to 80,000 barrels of oil per
day from a fractured reservoir.
 DIAGENESIS IN SANDSTONE RESERVOIRS
• Burial diagenesis (mesogenesis zone)- temperature control the formation of clay
minerals.
• Eogenetic kaolinite, berthierine & smectite replaced by mesogenetic dickite, illite
and chlorite.
• Above 70–90 °C (2–3 km burial depth)- kaolinite crystals replaced by dickite.
• With burial & heating- smectite pass to illite.
• Above 70 – 130 °C- Kaolinite transforms to illite
- Feldspar + kaolinite produce illite + quartz (overgrowths).
• At high temperatures- Dickite transforms to illite.
• Mesogenesis- chloritization (volcaniclastic grains breakdown, smectite transformation,
alteration of previous ‘green mineral’ grain coatings).
 DIAGENESIS IN SANDSTONE RESERVOIRS
• 5 diagenetic styles- related to original depositional environment, detrital
composition and burial history:

✓Quartz-dominated diagenesis

➢ Most common with smaller quantities of neo-formed clays (kaolinite

and/or illite) & late diagenetic ferroan carbonate.
➢ Setting- mineralogically mature sandstones, deposited in high-energy
aeolian, deltaic and shallow-marine environments.
➢ Temperatures >75 °C- Quartz cements (large volumes).
 DIAGENESIS IN SANDSTONE RESERVOIRS
✓Clay minerals

➢ Illite or kaolinite with smaller quantities of quartz or zeolite & late

diagenetic carbonate.

➢Below 100 °C- Illite rarely forms.

➢Kaolinite is common in more mineralogically mature sandstones.

➢Chlorite is common in immature sandstones.

➢Smectite only occurs in immature sandstones (deep-marine deposits).

 DIAGENESIS IN SANDSTONE RESERVOIRS
✓Early diagenetic (low temperature) grain coating clay mineral cements-
chlorite inhibit quartz cementation during later burial.
✓ Early diagenetic carbonate or evaporite cement- reduces Ø at very
shallow burial depths.
➢ Siderite - common early carbonate cement in mature sandstones
(fluviatile and shallow-marine).
➢Ferroan dolomite & calcite cements- late diagenetic, most common in
mineralogically immature sandstones.
✓Zeolites - wide range of burial temperature.
➢ Associated with clay minerals (smectite or chlorite) + late diagenetic non-
ferroan carbonates, occurs in immature sandstones.
➢Setting - common in deep-marine sandstones, especially sandstones
derived from volcanogenic terrains.
 DIAGENESIS IN SANDSTONE RESERVOIRS
✓Telogenetic - uplift & erosion leave a distinctive fingerprint on sandstone
reservoirs.
➢ Meteoric water fluxes - dilute, oxidising, saturated with CO2 (acidic).

➢ Along basin margins & uplifted fault blocks.

➢ Feldspars alter to clay minerals, reduced iron-bearing cements are

oxidized & calcite, dolomite, and sulphate cements are dissolved.
 DIAGENETIC CONTROLLING FACTORS ON
SANDSTONE RESERVOIRS
• Original mineralogical composition of sand- a clean quartzose sand is less
chemically reactive than a volcaniclastic sand.
• Initial pore water composition- controlled by the depositional environment, for
example, marine pore waters are richer in dissolved calcium & bicarbonate than
aeolian pore waters.
• Composition of neighboring lithologies (for example, evaporites & carbonates),
owing to their chemical interaction with the reservoir rock;
• Burial history, including maximum burial depth and any subsequent uplift,
particularly if it involves exposure and freshwater influx;
• Thermal history- temperature controls cementation of certain diagenetic minerals
such as illite & quartz.
• Timing of cementation relative to petroleum accumulation- early presence of
petroleum in the pore space may reduce cementation by limiting access to the
reservoir by migrating mineral-rich fluids.
RESERVOIR ARCHITECTURE
AND HETEROGENEITY
- Basin scale: sealing fault zones, unconformities
(megasequences).
- Field scale: boundaries of stratigraphic units at the
depositional sequence scale, individual fault segments +
intrusive bodies (sills & dykes).
- Stratigraphic cycles scale: fluviatile channel-belts,
clinoform wedges, lateral shaling-out of shoreface units &
depositional lobes.
- Sedimentary bedding scale: cross-stratification,
interbedding of shales at channel margins, or K contrasts
caused by the coarse-fine stratification of a point bar.
- Laminae sets scale: visible at the core-scale. Inclined
foresets cause a fine-scale alternation of moderate & high
permeabilities, while the toesets of bedforms cause
horizontal low-permeability ‘breaks’ into the reservoir.
Fractures & stylolites.
- Small-scale heterogeneities (pore scale): variations in
grain size, sorting, way in which pores are interconnected.
Gluyas & Swarbrick, 2004
 Fault zones (sealing),
unconformities. RESERVOIR
Pore scale: grain
size, sorting, Individual Fault,
ARCHITECTURE
interconnection. Basin scale sills & dykes.
& HETEROGENEITY
Small scale
Field scale
heterogeneities

RESERVOIR
ARCHITECTURE &
HETEROGENEITY

Laminae sets Stratigraphic

scale cycles scale

Sedimentary
Cross sets, toe Bedding scale Channel,
sets, fractures, Clinoform, lobes,
stylolites. Lateral shaling.
Channel,
Clinoform, lobes,
Lateral shaling. Gluyas & Swarbrick, 2004