1

This is the previous version of the following article: INTEGRATION OF BIODEGRADATION AND
MIGRATION OF HYDROCARBONS IN A 2D PETROLEUM SYSTEMS MODEL: APPLICATION TO THE
POTIGUAR BASIN, NE BRAZIL, M. Ducros+*, B. Carpentier*, S. Wolf* and M-C. Cacas Journal of
Petroleum Geology © 2016 Scientific Press Ltd, Volume 39(I), which has been published in final form
at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpg.12628/abstract.

*IFP Énergies nouvelles, 1 et 4 avenue de Bois-Préau, 92852 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex, France.

+ Corresponding author, mathieu.ducros@ifpen.fr

ABSTRACT

Biodegradation is probably the most important in-reservoir alteration process and is responsible for
the majority of the heavy oil accumulations known. In the present study, biodegradation processes
were integrated within a forward basin and petroleum systems model applied to the Potiguar Basin,
NE Brazil. This basin was chosen because it has been studied in detail and data from previous
investigations are publically available. In order to account for processes occurring during the
biodegradation of hydrocarbons, the evolution of fluid properties were simulated through time. In
the model, a new approach was developed in order to determine the intensity of microbial activity
and the evolution of the oil-water contact, the zone within which biodegradation is confined. The
numerical results obtained by applying the forward simulator to a 2D model of the Potiguar Basin fit
the observed data concerning the composition and quality of the oil in a series of oilfields. These
accumulations are located along the NW-SE oriented “Carnaubais trend” and show progressive
biodegradation along the migration path from the offshore kitchen area. Our results show that the
biodegradation trend observed along the cross section can mostly be explained by the fact that
reservoirs are successively filled by spilling of previous reservoirs and by the continuous hydrocarbon
degradation in the reservoirs. This charge history resulted in differences in the composition of oils
transported from upstream to downstream reservoirs and in a difference between biodegradation
rates and filling rates higher and higher. Thus, in addition to residence time in the biodegradation
temperature window, the rate of reservoir infill, the rate of oil degradation and the migration
pathways are key factors controlling biodegradation. This study also demonstrates how the
approach developed within our petroleum system simulator, which integrates both migration and
biodegradation, may improve the assessment of oil quantity, quality and migration timing.
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Key words: Biodegradation, Potiguar Basin, Brazil, migration, basin model, petroleum systems,
Cretaceous, micro-organisms, oil-water contact.

INTRODUCTION

The quantity and quality of petroleum in a reservoir is controlled by factors including source rock
richness and maturity, and hydrocarbon expulsion, migration and preservation. However much of
the world’s petroleum reserves are thought to have been biodegraded resulting in bituminous and
heavy oils (e.g. Roadifer, 1987), and biodegraded oils will be common in future deep-water
discoveries such as those offshore western Africa (Head et al., 2003). Biodegradation can have
severe economic effects including reduced revenue streams due to high hydrocarbon density and
viscosity, increased corrosion risks and increased refining costs. In the context of high drilling costs,
the accurate prediction of oil quality, which is controlled inter alia by biodegradation, will become a
critical issue.
Hydrocarbons are biodegraded in the subsurface by a complex series of bio-chemical processes (e.g.
Zengler et al., 1999; Aitken et al., 2004). These processes, which generally involve a community of
micro-organisms working in association (e.g. Dolfing et al., 2008), result ultimately in the generation
of methane and carbon dioxide (e.g. Zengler et al., 1999). A number of authors have provided
qualitative tools for the description and prediction of in-reservoir biodegradation. Wenger et al.
(2001) and Peters et al. (2005) proposed qualitative biodegradation scales based on empirical field
observations.
Quantitative approaches based on results of basin modelling studies have also been developed. Yu
et al. (2002) proposed a numerical Biodegradation Index which was designed to predict the degree
of biodegradation as a function of temperature history and residence time in the reservoir. However
this index did not take into account the dynamics of petroleum charging. The index assumed a
simple thermal history with no uplift or erosion, and the possibility of palaeo-pasteurization was not
taken into account. Wilhelms et al. (2004) improved this approach by adding a term which
accounted for the reservoir filling history. However the approach was not fully coupled to petroleum
systems modelling and did not take into account phenomena such as oil mixing and reservoir
spilling. A more quantitative approach was developed by Larter et al. (2006). Blumenstein et al.
(2008) attempted to improve the modelling of biodegradation processes further by strengthening
the link with petroleum systems history; thus they focused on the effects of reservoir geometry,
filling rates and oil composition in the reservoir.
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The aim of the present work is firstly to integrate the modelling of biodegradation processes within a
petroleum systems model. The integrated model is then applied to the Potiguar Basin, NE Brazil,
where extensive biodegradation has been reported. Abundant geological (e.g. Bertani et al., 1990;
Trindade et al., 1992; Morais Neto et al., 2009) and geochemical data (e.g. Blanchet et al., 2005;
Behar et al., 2006; de Barros Penteado et al., 2007) are available for this basin. The study focuses on
the southern Potiguar area where producing oilfields are located along the NE-SW oriented
“Carnaubais Trend” which follows the Carnaubais fault (Fig. 1).
The 2D model of the Potiguar basin used in this study corresponds to that used by de Barros
Penteado et al. (2007). It includes compositional kinetics and stoichiometry developed by IFPEN
(Lorant and Behar, 2002; Behar et al., 1997; 2008; de Barros Penteado et al., 2007) to predict the
composition of oil generated by the principal source rocks: the lacustrine fresh-water shales of the
Valanginian-Barremian Pendência Formation, the lacustrine shales of the Upanema Member and the
limestones and shales deposited in the transitional environment of the PT beds, both part of the
Aptian Alagamar Formation (Fig. 2). Petroleum migrates up-dip along Aptian sandstone carrier beds
from an offshore kitchen area in the NE to oilfields located along the Carnaubais trend. This paper
investigates the filling of reservoir units along the Carnaubais trend fields; the severity of
biodegradation along the migration route; and the differences in oil quality in the reservoirs.

Geological setting

The Potiguar Basin is located on the NE margin of Brazil (Fig. 1) and has an area of about 70,000km²,
30% of which is onshore (Behar et al., 2006). The offshore area extends to water depths of at least
2000 m (Bertani et al., 1990). The basin formed during Neocomian separation of South America and
Africa, and can be considered as a rift basin which evolved to a passive margin (Kingston, 1994;
Morais Neto et al., 2009), with a sedimentary succession up to 8 km thick.
Bertani et al. (1990) recognized three tectono-stratigraphic sequences which characterize the
evolution of the Potiguar Basin during rifting, transitional, and drifting stages of the continental
separation (Fig. 2). The rifting phase corresponds to the Early Neocomian to Early Aptian in the
offshore portion of the basin. A series of deep asymmetric grabens were formed in which lacustrine
and fluvial siliciclastics sediments were deposited which form the Pendência Formation (lacustrine
shales), one of the two main source rocks in the basin. This unit is overlain by syntectonic sandstones
followed by a hiatus corresponding to regional uplift at the end of the rift phase. The transitional
stage corresponds to the change from a rift regime to a thermally subsiding basin (Bertani et al.,
1990). During this transgressive period, slow subsidence led to the deposition of sandstones, and
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organic rich limestones and lagoonal shales of the Alagamar Formation, which constitutes the
second main source rock (organic rich calcareous black shales). Subsequent drift-phase resulted in
sediments deposition in marine conditions during a long period of thermal subsidence.
Oil which has accumulated in a series of fields located along the Carnaubais trend (Fig. 1) is
interpreted to be mixed composed of contributions from source rocks both in the Pendência and
Alagamar Formations (Fig. 2). The petroleum occurs in structural traps at relatively shallow depths
(200 to 700m) in the Açu Sandstone Formation. Fields along the Carnaubais trend contain oil with
different levels of biodegradation. In spite of local variations of oil quality, a general trend of
increasing oil density (due to increasing severity of biodegradation) is observed from relatively
deeper reservoirs in the NE to shallower reservoirs in the SW (Behar et al., 2006, de Barros Penteado
et al., 2007). Thus the lightest and least biodegraded oils (around 24° API) are found in the Guamaré
(GMR) field, and increasingly more biodegraded oils are found at Fazenda Pocinho (FP, around 21°
PI), Alto do Rodrigues (ARG, around 18° API) and Estreito fields (ET, around 16° API) (locations in Fig.
1).
Some of the fields along the Carnaubais trend are compartmentalized, and isolated reservoirs at the
ARG1 field (Behar et al., 2006) contain non-biodegraded oils (around 34° API). This oil can be used to
assess the quality of the oil in the reservoirs before it was modified by biodegradation.

METHODS

Factors controlling biodegradation rate

(i) Thickness of the oil water contact zone

Biodegradation is the results of the activity of micro-organisms living in water. Consequently

biodegradation occurs at interfaces between water and hydrocarbons such as in the oil-water
contact zone of a petroleum reservoir. To investigate biodegradation in this zone, the methodology
generally adopted involves determining the surface area of the oil-water contact and then applying a
biodegradation rate per unit area (e.g. Larter et al., 2003; Blumenstein et al., 2008). However, the
oil-water contact is a transition zone from highly water saturated to highly oil saturated rocks whose
thickness and depth depend on capillary pressure, on oil density and reservoir filling. Therefore,
taking the surface area of the base of the oil accumulation as a controlling parameter does not allow
the biodegradation rate to be determined accurately.
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In general, the vertical mesh resolution used in basin modelling is coarser (~10m to ~100m) than the
oil-water transition zone thickness (~1m to ~10m). In order to determine it independently of the
mesh geometry, we used the capillary pressure and the oil density. The thickness of the transition
zone is then given by:

Pc
Thick OWC 
 * g (1)

where ThickOWC is the thickness of the oil-water contact zone, ΔPc is the difference in capillary
pressure between the top and the base of the zone; g is the acceleration due to gravity; and Δρ is
the difference of density between the water and the hydrocarbon phases. As it has been assumed
that biodegradation takes place in a restricted range of saturations, the thickness of the
biodegradation interval is smaller than that of the oil-water contact. Depending on the mesh
resolution, the biodegradation interval can be within a unique cell or cover several cells but with our
approach its thickness will not be affected as shown in Fig. 3.

(ii) Density of microbial population

Cragg et al., (1999) derived a law describing the density of microbial populations from ODP data (e.g.
Cragg et al, 1997; Parkes et al., 2000):

Log10 (bacterial number)  7.95 - 0.64Log10 (depth in m) (2)

In order to determine the evolution of the microbial population, it was assumed that micro-
organisms are confined to the oil-water interface. A simple model of the rock micro-structure was
used in which pores are represented by spheres, and where the number of pores per unit of solid
volume depends on the lithology and remains constant during burial. Thus porosity reduction during
burial is accounted for through pore volume reduction, and not through a decrease in pore numbers.
Oil globules in the pores are represented as surrounded by water (Fig. 4). The microbial population
can therefore be determined as a function of the total area, a, of the contact surface between oil
and water in the transition zone:

1 2
a  2.93 d (1   ) 3  3
(3)
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The following relationship can then be used to determine the microbial population per unit of rock
volume in the oil-water contact zone:

1 2
 1  3
  3
N ( )  N 0     (4)
 1  0   0 

where No corresponds to a reference microbial population at a reference porosity φo.

Assuming a porosity versus depth function    surfacee  kz , a comparison can be made between the
microbial population determined using the above method and that proposed by Cragg et al. (1999).

Imposing the same microbial population at a depth of 1000m (i.e. N(φ(1000)) = 10( 7.950.64log10 (1000)) )
in both approaches leads to the results illustrated in Fig. 5, where the results modelled by our
approach fall within the 95% confidence interval of the Cragg et al. model.

(iii) Temperature and other effects

Our approach incorporates the concept of palaeo-pasteurization (e.g. Wilhelms et al. 2001, Adams et
al. 2006). Thus temperatures above a threshold of about 90°C are assumed to result in
pasteurization, and the effects of palaeo-pasteurization are accounted for in the model. At the
pasteurization temperature, the biodegradation rate is set permanently to 0 for a given model cell
even if the temperature drops below the threshold afterwards. This assumes that there is no
movement of micro-organisms at the basin scale after sediment deposition has ended, even due to
the advection of subsurface waters.
The microbial capacity to degrade hydrocarbons is mainly dependent on the temperature, and the
biodegradation capacity at optimal temperatures can be approximated by the following equation:
1 2
 1   3
   3
M hb  M 0     (5)
 1   0   0 

where Mhb is the mass of hydrocarbon degraded by the microbial population in kg/Ma/m 3 of rock,
and Mo is the reference mass in kg/Ma/m3 of hydrocarbons degraded by the microbial population at
the reference porosity φo of rock.
The biodegradation rate may also be controlled by other parameters such as salinity (e.g. Bernard
and Connan, 1992; Waldron et al., 2007), water circulation (e.g. Head et al., 2003; Larter et al., 2003)
7

and the presence or absence of inorganic nutrients required for microbial growth (Head et al., 2003).
Bernard and Connan (1992) and Waldron et al. (2007) showed for instance that hydrocarbons could
be biodegraded in all but the most saline waters. Bernard et al. (1992) showed that salinity strongly
lower microbial activity until concentration up to 200mg/l and could stop biodegradation processes
above this limit. Water circulations are considered by Head et al. (2003) and Larter et al. (2003) to
enhance biodegradation activity by transporting nutrients to the oil-water contact where
biodegradation seats. However the influence of these latter parameters are not well constrained and
they probably exert second-order effects compared to temperature. Thus only the roles of
temperature (T) and of available space on hydrocarbon consumption rate are considered here, and
Mhb, the mass of hydrocarbon degraded, is therefore given by:

1 2
 1  3
  3
M hb (T )  R(T ) M 0     (6)
 1   0   0 

where R(T) is the coefficient of microbial activity whose value is between 0 and 1 and which
depends on temperature (Fig. 6).

Biodegradation index

The concentration of biodegradation-resistant compounds such as nickel and vanadium in

petroleum have been used as an indicator of hydrocarbon losses due to biodegradation (Magnier et
al., 2001; Kowalewski et al.; 2001). The biodegradation index used here simulates the processes
which control nickel and vanadium concentrations in the petroleum phase. Consequently a tracer
was numerically introduced into the hydrocarbon phase generated by the source rocks. An increase
of the tracer’s concentration due to secondary cracking and biodegradation effects allows the
hydrocarbon mass loss to be calculated. The value of the concentration index is defined as follows:
T generated
CI  1  (7)
T current
where CI is the concentration index, T generated is the tracer concentration in the pristine oil, and

T current is the tracer concentration in the current oil phase.

Petroleum systems modelling

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In this study, the TemisFlow™ software (version 2013) developed by Beicip-Franlab was used for 2D
petroleum systems modelling integrating the numerical simulation of biodegradation processes
described in the previous section. Several previous studies have investigated biodegradation
processes in the Potiguar Basin (Behar et al., 2006; Haeseler et al., 2010) and have modelled the
petroleum systems history (e.g. de Barros Penteado et al., 2007). The numerical model of the
Potiguar Basin used here is derived from that proposed by de Barros Penteado et al. (2007). It
consists in a 250 km long cross-section formed of 50 stratigraphic units (Table 1) constructed based
on well and seismic data. Although the model is a 2D section (see dotted line in Fig. 1), it is
considered to be sufficient to account for migration in the Carnaubais trend of the Potiguar basin
since it was shown, based on hydrodynamism and water chemistry studies, that hydrocarbons which
accumulated along the Carnaubais trend migrated following the direction of the studied cross
section from the offshore kitchen area in the NE to the Açu oilfields in the SW(de Barros Penteado et
al., 2007) (Fig. 1). Migration processes being clearly 3D processes, results such as migration timing or
reservoirs filling must be taken with cautions. Nevertheless, relative timings and migration processes
(e.g. reservoir filling and spilling) are considered to picture correctly what occurred in along the
Carnaubais fault since most of the flows were sub-parallel to the cross section. The Açu Formation,
the reservoir unit, was divided into sub-units of decreasing quality (i.e. higher shale content and
lower sand content) from bottom to top.
Haeseler et al. (2010) pointed out that biodegradation modelling requires a compositional
description of the hydrocarbon phase in order to represent the biodegradability of the different
hydrocarbon molecules. Thermogenic transformation of organic matter into hydrocarbon fluids is
also necessary to simulate the petroleum systems history, including migration from source rock to
reservoir. Consequently both biodegradability and thermal reactivity constraints were taken into
account to provide a compositional description of the hydrocarbon phase for the model. This
compositional description is based on previous studies by de Barros Penteado et al. (2007) and
Behar et al. (2008) concerning thermal cracking of kerogen, and by Behar et al. (2006) and Haeseler
et al. (2010) on biodegradation rates and microbial preferences. A description of the hydrocarbon
phase into 11 classes of compounds was chosen to account for both thermal and microbial effects
(Table 2). The principal difference to the description proposed by de Barros Penteado et al. (2007)
concerns the division of the saturated C14+ fraction into three classes of compounds (n-alkanes, iso-
alkanes and cyclo-alkanes), due to the differences in their biodegradability reported by Haeseler et
al. (2010).
The stoichiometry of kerogen cracking into the 11 classes of hydrocarbon compounds was calibrated
using the composition of oil from the ARG1 field, which is considered to be non-biodegraded
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(Haeseler et al., 2010). The kinetic scheme used to represent the thermal cracking of the kerogens
and the hydrocarbon compounds is similar to that published by Behar et al. (1997), Vandenbrouck et
al. (1999) and de Barros Penteado et al. (2007). The hydrocarbon degradation rate due to microbial
activity was then determined from equation 6 and divided between the 11 classes of hydrocarbon
compounds depending on their relative biodegradability based on qualitative biodegradation scales
and previous quantitative works (e.g. Wenger et al., 2005; Haeseler et al, 2010).
For the biodegradation processes, the selected microbial activity curve as a function of the
temperature (Fig. 6) was adapted from Wellsbury at al. (1997). The biodegradation rate over the
temperature range 40-50°C was slightly increased compared to the original curve. Biodegradability
coefficients of the 11 hydrocarbon compounds used to describe the petroleum composition were
adjusted from Haeseler et al. (2010) to better match oil compositions observed in the biodegraded
fields (Table 3). Differences between coefficients determined by the BioClass method (Haeseler et
al., 2010) and the values used here are due to the fact that the former is a static concept which is
not fully coupled to the migration process, whereas a dynamic approach was followed in this paper.

Other parameters affecting biodegradation processes chosen for the Potiguar Basin model were:
• Pasteurization temperature: 90°C
• Saturation interval associated with biodegradation: 20% to 80%;
• Reference porosity: 30%;
• Hydrocarbon degradation rate: 155kg/Ma/m3 of rock.

RESULTS

Since temperature plays a key role in the biodegradation rate, particular care was taken to calibrate
the temperature fields in the Potiguar Basin. The results of the thermal calibration obtained with the
2D model are illustrated in Fig. 7 and summarised in Table 4. The thermally calibrated model shows a
very good match (less than 3.0°C misfit) between temperatures reported by Behar et al. (2006) and
simulated present-day temperatures. Calibration is important to ensure a realistic description of
biodegradation rates in the basin, because temperature also controls organic matter maturation.

Table 5 shows the simulation of oil composition in the ARG1 field which is known to contain non-
biodegraded oil (Haeseler et al., 2010), obtained using the thermally calibrated 2D model illustrated
above. The results were obtained from a simulation that includes the maturation and migration
histories of hydrocarbons but not biodegradation processes, so that the simulated petroleum
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composition can be compared with the measured petroleum composition in the field. The results
show a very good match between observed and simulated compositions. Therefore the model can
be considered to be well calibrated in terms of both thermal and compositional aspects.
Another simulation was then performed, integrating the model of the biodegradation processes. The
first important result is that the activation of the biodegradation module which reduces the mass of
hydrocarbon in the reservoirs, does not prevent the fields from being filled with oil (Fig. 8). Results
of the model suggest that reservoirs along the Carnaubais trend started to fill from offshore to
onshore. Guamaré was the first field in which oil accumulated at around 29 Ma (Fig. 9). A significant
increase in the oil charge occurred around 21 Ma. Accumulation of oil in fields in the SW of the
Carnaubais trend only began after spilling of oil from the NE fields. Thus the Estreito field, one of the
fields furthest from the kitchen, only began to fill at around 14Ma. These modelling results suggest
that fields located along the Carnaubais trend began to fill earlier than was suggested by the results
obtained by de Barros Penteado et al. (2007).
Simulated compositions in biodegraded fields are illustrated in Fig. 10 and compared with measured
compositions. A very good match can be observed throughout the fields of the Carnaubais trend,
with highly altered oils occurring in the shallowest fields in the SW part of the basin and less
biodegraded oils to the NE.
Simulated variations of oil composition in terms of API gravity are shown in Fig. 11. Results for the
ARG2 field are not as good as those for some other fields. The results predict the presence of more
highly biodegraded oil than was actually measured. However, this field, which corresponds to one of
the exceptions in the global API trend in the southern Potiguar basin, is known to have
compartments (ARG1) containing non-biodegraded oil. This difference of hydrocarbon density could
be explained by a fresh (non-biodegraded) and late arrival of oil from deeper-lying source rock
intervals as suggested by the model (Figs. 8 and 11) or by conditions less favourable to
biodegradation (due to higher salinity or lower porosity for instance) but that cannot be correctly
accounted by a 2D model.
Thus the difference between the simulated and reported compositions of oil at the ARG2 field could
be explained in terms of the mixing of biodegraded and fresh petroleum. This model is consistent
with the observation that fresh (non-biodegraded) oil has migrated from deeper-lying source rock
intervals during the final stages of basin development (Figs. 8 and 11).
Oil expelled by the source rocks has API gravity around 35° and viscosity between 30 and 100cP. Fig.
12 illustrates the evolution of oil properties of four fields located along the Carnaubais trend. It
shows that even in the Guamaré field, which currently contains the least biodegraded oil, the oil
which initially filled the reservoir was already highly biodegraded (around 15° API, with a loss of
11

around 30% of the mass of originally generated hydrocarbon). The oil density then decreased,
because oil arrived more rapidly than it was altered by biodegradation. The same behaviour can be
observed in the Monte Alegre field, but with a delay in the decrease of the oil density and viscosity.
Estreito and Alto do Rodrigues fields contain very highly biodegraded oil throughout their filling
history.
The effect of biodegradation on oil viscosity can be observed in Fig. 13. There is a marked increase in
oil viscosity with decreasing API gravity. Using the methodology described above, a biodegradation
index was also determined during the simulation. The results (Fig. 14) show that the loss of
hydrocarbon is at least of 25% in terms of mass and may be as high as 65% in the most biodegraded
oils in the basin. The results are consistent with those of Behar et al. (2006) and de Barros Penteado
et al. (2007).

DISCUSSION

A new simulation model of biodegradation was developed in a petroleum system simulator whose
major strength is the handling of burial temperatures strongly related to micro-organism activity.
Other factors affecting biodegradation such as water circulation or salinity were not taken into
account in the approach since they are considered to exert second-order effects compared to
temperature. In the particular case of the Potiguar basin, where the studied biodegraded fields are
in the same well connected Formation, water circulation (transport of nutrients) and salinity should
have even less impacts on the results. However their effect could be investigated in future steps
thanks to improvements in the simulation and control of salinity distribution in petroleum system
models (Guichet et al., 2010). The application of these new model, to the Potiguar Basin produces
results which are consistent with measured compositions. Potiguar Basin oils show no evidence of
palaeo-pasteurization. Biodegradability coefficients (Table 3) used to determine oil composition in
the biodegraded fields are different from those published by Haeseler et al. (2010) for their BioClass
approach (Table 6). Our results give similar preferences for biodegradation (e.g. lighter hydrocarbon
compounds are more sensitive to biodegradation than heavier compounds), but strengthen both the
differences between light and heavy compounds and the differences between aromatics and
saturated compounds. This difference can be explained by the fact that the BioClass approach
assumes that, for all reservoirs, the initial oil composition is the same. Although migration appears to
be slower and slower with increasing biodegradation toward southwest (due to increasing oil density
and viscosity) the model suggests that hydrocarbons were biodegraded during their migration
(successive stays in upstream reservoirs) to their present day location resulting in a biodegradation
12

and composition trend along the migration path (Fig. 11 and Fig. 14). The results demonstrate the
importance of coupling migration and biodegradation processes to better account for oil properties
in the reservoirs.
The results also suggest that reservoirs could have started to fill earlier than previously proposed by
de Barros Penteado et al. (2007). In their study they concluded that, since the most biodegraded
reservoirs also corresponded to shorter residence times, biodegradation rates were significantly
different in the fields studied: from 1.5%/Ma of hydrocarbon loss in the Guamaré field, to 17.5%/Ma
in the Rio Panon field. However, since the variation of temperatures in the reservoirs located along
the Carnaubais trend is relatively low (from 38°C in the shallowest reservoirs in the southwest to
around 48°C in the northeast), the temperature difference cannot completely explain the difference
in the biodegradation rate (according to Fig. 6). The difference in level of biodegradation between
the fields is partly due to differences in residence time (Fig. 9), but is mostly explained by the fact
that oil undergoes biodegradation throughout its migration. Indeed, as oil began to fill the NE-most
reservoir, a first phase of biodegradation took place. Initially the rate of reservoir filling was lower
than the biodegradation rate, explaining the low API gravities observed in the early stages of
reservoir filling. Then filling rates became higher than the biodegradation rate, and oil became less
dense (although still more dense than the oil filling the reservoir) and began to spill from the
reservoir. Consequently oil arriving at a reservoir from the east was always lighter than the oil
spilling to the west.
Fig. 14 details the level of biodegradation in each of the reservoirs, and lateral and vertical
differences in biodegradation can be observed in the studied fields. For instance simulated oil
appears to be more biodegraded at the bottom of an accumulation. This can be explained by the fact
that biodegradation takes place at the oil-water interface. Also, simulated oil appears to be more
biodegraded in the south-western part of each field. This is due to the fact that oil is progressively
migrating from deep zones in the northeast towards shallower parts of the basin in the southwest,
i.e. from zone without biodegradation to zone with increasing biodegradation rates. Thus the front
of migrating oil is fresher in the northeast than in the southwest) since this latter already undergone
biodegradation.
The model shows that, even if the gas produced during the biodegradation processes (mainly carbon
dioxide and methane) are not taken into account, the gaseous fractions increase with increasing
biodegradation due to the loss of the liquid fraction. This effect may then be even more important
than simulated. However, as already mentioned, mass balance studies showed that most of this
generated gas is not found in biodegraded reservoirs possibly due to their fast migration towards the
surface in these shallow, porous and permeable rocks. Future work should investigate the
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generation, the migration and the effect of these gases on properties such as oil quality, viscosity
and density, taking into account dissolution in water and changes in the fluid phase.
Results obtained in this work are only based on a 2D model and should therefore be taken with
caution since migration is essentially a 3D process. However, Lima Neto et al. (1990) showed, based
on potentiometric measurements, that fluid flow in the underground water system are mostly
directed from the deep North-Eastern basin part to the South-Western shallow onshore part of the
basin, which corresponds to the same orientation than the chosen cross section. Thus, even if this
modelling simplification can considerably impacts conclusions such as for the filling of the ARG2 field
(drainage area, recharges in fresh water or fresh oil, migration timing…), it should not affect the
main results of this work on the role of biodegradation along the long distance lateral migration.

CONCLUSIONS

The aim of the present work was to develop a new numerical method to account for biodegradation
in petroleum systems and to illustrate it using a case study. The Potiguar Basin was selected for
investigation because it is well documented both in terms of geological and geochemical
information.
The main results of our work are:
1. A new numerical model which integrates migration and biodegradation processes was developed
into a conventional petroleum systems model. Biodegradation was modelled to take place in a
narrowly-defined oil-water contact zone.
2. The numerical model was successfully applied on to the Potiguar Basin and successfully
reproduced measured oil compositions for reservoirs along an updip lateral migration route from a
deep offshore kitchen area.
3. A new scale of relative biodegradability for different hydrocarbon compounds was proposed to fit
the reservoir compositions. Lighter compounds appear to be more sensitive to biodegradation than
previously thought.
4. Even if residence time and temperature are the most important parameters controlling
biodegradation rate, the biodegradation trend observed in the Potiguar Basin can mostly be
explained by differences in the composition of oils arriving into the reservoirs, and by differences
between biodegradation rates and filling rates.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
14

Alain Yves Huc is kindly thanked for his constructive comments during the developments of the
numerical program. We thank JPG editorial staff for assistance with the English language
presentation. We also express our gratitude to Henrik I. Petersen and to an anonymous reviewer for
their helpful comments.

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17

Table 1: Summary of the 50 stratigraphic intervals used for the 2D model of the Potiguar Basin (see
Fig 2).

Table 2: Stoichiometric coefficients of the thermal transformation of the two main kerogens of the
Potiguar Basin (PT beds and the Upanema Mbr). Coefficients are expressed in mg. of hydrocarbon
per g. of thermally transformed kerogen. Derived from Behar et al. (2006).

Table 3: Biodegradation rate of different hydrocarbon compounds used to describe the petroleum
phase. Other chemical compounds such as resins and asphaltenes or non-hydrocarbon gases are
considered to be non-biodegradable.

Table 4: Comparison of temperatures reported by Behar et al. (2006) and simulated present-day
temperatures in different oilfields of the Potiguar basin.

Table 5: Comparison of oil compositions reported by Behar et al. (2006) and simulated by the
petroleum system model for the non-biodegraded ARG1 field.

Table 6: Biodegradation rate of the hydrocarbon classes used by Haeseler at al. (2010).
18

Fig. 1: Location of the modelled cross-section (dashed line) in the Potiguar Basin, NE Brazil (modified
from Bertani et al., 1990). The section follows the SW-NE “Carnaubais trend” and crosses a number
of oilfields in which oils show increasing biodegradation from NE to SW.

Fig. 2: Stratigraphic chart of the Potiguar Basin, modified from Pessoa Neto et al. (2007) and
Gradstein et al. (2004).

Fig. 3. The oil-water thickness (ThickOWC) is computed based on the difference in capillary pressure
between the oil saturated and the water saturated zones, the acceleration due to gravity and the
difference of density between the water and the hydrocarbon phases. Within the oil-water contact
zone, hydrocarbon saturation evolves from the maximum hydrocarbon saturation (SMax) at the top to
the irreducible hydrocarbon saturation at the base. Biodegradation only seats in a given range of
saturations (biodegradation zone in the range of [SoMin; SoMax]). For a given saturation in the
reservoir (here 51%) the model will compute an identical oil-water thickness independently of
whether the model has a low (left) or high (right) resolution. Therefore estimation of the
biodegradation zone can correctly be done, for OWC generally of a few metres thick in good
reservoirs, using a traditional basin model meshing with cells several tens to hundreds of metres
thick (left case).

Fig. 4: Cartoon diagram of the porous medium (dark grey) used to compute the surface of contact
between drops of oil (light grey) and water (white) at the pore scale.

Fig. 5: Profile of density of micro-organisms versus depth. The model used here (circles) gives results
close to those of Cragg et al. (1999) between depths of 800 and 2500m; for all depths the results
falls within the latter model’s 95% confidence limits (dashed lines).

Fig. 6: Graph of relative microbial activity R(%) versus temperature. Modified from Wellsbury et al.
(1997).

Fig. 7: 2D model of the Potiguar Basin (profile in Fig. 1) showing simulated and measured present
day temperatures (°C). Temperatures and API° at the field locations are measured values. Colours
represent temperatures modelled by the basin simulator. Comparison of measured and simulated
temperatures shows a good fit. The temperatures at the fields are all in a narrow range between
38°C and 48°C, while API° measurements show a decreasing trend from the NE to the SW of the
basin.

Fig. 8: Oil saturation along the modelled 2D section of the Potiguar Basin (in %). Results obtained
from the migration simulation give a good representation of oilfield distribution and oil saturation in
the basin, where there is updip lateral migration from NE to SW in the Cretaceous Açu Formation.

Fig. 9: Charge histories of the Estreito, Alto do Rodrigues, Monte Alegre and Guamaré fields
(locations in Fig. 1). The four graphs show the evolution of the volume of oil (in m3) versus time (in
Ma) in the cells of the numerical model representing respectively the Estreito (ET), Alto de Rodrigues
(ARG), Monte Alegre (MAG) and Guamaré (GMR) oilfields.

Fig. 10: Comparison of simulated and measured oil compositions in biodegraded accumulations in
the Potiguar Basin. Fields are grouped from SW to NE, i.e. along a trend of increasing severity of
biodegradation.

Fig. 11: Simulated present-day oil quality (API°) in the onshore Potiguar Basin (zoomed portion of the
modelled 2D section in Fig. 8) where the biodegraded accumulations are located. Lateral variations
19

of oil quality are indicated by the simulation results; vertical variations can also be seen (see text for
discussion). There are also differences in oil quality for the two reservoirs units of the Açu
Formation.

Fig. 12: Evolution through time of the oil properties of the Estreito, Alto do Rodrigues, Monte Alegre
and Guamaré fields.

Fig. 13: Simulated evolution of oil viscosity as a function of API gravity for the oils of the Potiguar
Basin.

Fig. 14: Simulated hydrocarbon mass loss (in %) along the modelled 2D section in the Potiguar Basin.
20

Table 1

Ages (Ma) Era/System Stratigraphic units Petroleum System Element

25.0 0.0 Barreiras (18 sub-units) Erosion
29.0 25.0 Barreiras
39.0 29.0 Tertiary
Macau
40.0 39.0 Macau (4 sub-units)
79.0 40.0 Ubarana
92.0 79.0 Jandaira
96.0 92.0 Quebradas Seal
110.0 96.0 Açu (15 sub-units) Reservoirs
113.0 110.0 Cretaceous Source rock (TOC : 3.75%)
Alagamar
120.0 113.0 Upanema / Pescada Source rock (TOC: 1.60%)
125.0 120.0 hiatus
140.0 125.0 Pendência (5sub-units) Source rock

Granitic basement

Table 2

Compound class PT beds Upanema Mb.

CO2 92 90

C1-C5 36 20

C6-C13 sat 22 22

C6-C13 aro 6 6

C14+ n-alkanes 11 12

C14+ iso-alkanes 16 17

C14+ cyclo-alkanes 24 26

C14+ Aro 12 15

C14+ NSO 15 9

C14+ NSO-retained 138 83

Mature Kerogen 628 700

21

Table 3

Relative Density (kg/m3)

Compound
biodegradation rate (P=1Atm, T=15°C)

C6-C13 sat 0.630 802

C6-C13 aro 0.140 875

C14+ n-alkanes 0.121 809

C14+ iso-alkanes 0.078 809

C14+ cyclo-alkanes 0.031 892

C14+ Aro 0.000 939

C14+ NSO 0.000 1000

Table 4

Measured Simulated
Field
temperature (°C) temperature (°C)

GMR 47.5 47.2

FP 42.9 45.7

MAG1 39.8 40.8

ARG2 38.1 36.4

ET 38.6 37.2

Table 5

Compound class Measured composition in non- Simulated composition in non-

biodegraded oil of the ARG1 biodegraded oil of the ARG1
field (%) field (%)
C6-C14 32 32
C14+ n+iso alkanes 23 22
C14+ cyclo-alkanes 21 20
C14+ aro 9 10
15 14
22

C14+ NSO

Table 6
Relative
Compound
biodegradation rate

C6-C13 sat 0.346

C6-C13 aro 0.212

C14+ n-alkanes 0.173

C14+ iso-alkanes 0.104

C14+ cyclo-alkanes 0.139

C14+ Aro 0.026

23

Figure 1
24

Figure 2
25

Figure 3

Figure 4
26

Figure 5

Figure 6
27

Figure 7

Figure 8
28

Figure 9

Figure 10
29

Figure 11

Figure 12
30

Figure 13

Figure 14