HYDROCARBON GENERATION

IN SEDIMENTARY BASINS
Introduction
 The most important problem facing
humanity all over the world in the next 50
years, is energy.
 Global energy use has evolved over the
last 50 years, from a coal base through oil
and to natural gas.
 During the last two decades, reasonably
clear picture has been evolved on the
chemical processes involved in oil and
gas formation in sedimentary rocks.
 The organic matter burried in sediments
undergoes diagenetic reactions.
 It consists of many types of molecules
whose sizes ranges from very small to
immensely large.
 The large molecules are called kerogen;
they play a key role in petroleum
formation.
 Three factors namely, kerogen quantity,
quality, and thermal maturity determine the
oil source capability of a sedimentary rock.
Organic matter and its preservation in
sediments
 When organism die, decay begins immediately
leading to breaking of complex molecules into
smaller and simpler ones.
 Most organisms consists of polymers of various
kinds e.g., cellulose, protein, chitin, sporopollenin
etc.
 The process may therefore be described as a
transformation of biopolymers into geomonomers.
 Degradation of biopolymers can occur by both
microbiological and nonbiological processes.
 Bacteria that exist almost everywhere near the
earth’s surface plays an important role in this
process.
 Biopolymers and geomonomers spontaneously
undergo interactions in the geosphere giving rise
to geopolymers.
 The random structures of geopolymers which
are relatively stable and resistant to anaerobic
bacterial degradation, serve to preserve organic
material even in the presence of bacteria.
 Among several different kinds of geopolymers
e.g. Fluvic acids, humic acids, kerogen etc.,
Kerogen is most important for petroleum.
Genesis of petroleum
 Petroleum generally originates from
biological matter in the sequence;

i. Accumulation and preservation of

organic-rich, matter in fine grained
sediments (source-rocks) under anoxic
conditions
ii. Maturation (thermal alteration) of this
organic matter to yield petroleum
iii. Expulsion of oil (and / or gas) by primary
(10’s of metres) and secondary migration
(over 10’s of kms), and
iv. Accumulation in permeable porous
reservoirs.
 In practice not all biologically derived sediment
organic carbon appears as petroleum.
 Under the most favourable conditions, the
conversion efficiency to liquid hydrocarbons is
only about 15%.
 Of them, only 15% are petroleum-like products
of which only 15% migrates to form the source
bed.
 The ultimate availability of recoverable
petroleum hydrocarbons is thus only 0.34 per
cent of organic matter buried in the sedimentary
column.
 A general scheme of petroleum genesis is
shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1: General scheme of hydrocarbon formation; depth scale is based on examples
of Mesozoic source rocks; Inset shows evolution of the composition of
the three structural types.
Diagenesis of Sediment Organic
Matter
 Diagenesis is the low temperature process
where the organic matter in the sediment
undergoes chemical and microbial
transformation.
 Under the ambient conditions of pressure
(corresponding to depths of burial of 1 to
1,000 metres), and temperature (25-50O C),
several reactions occur most of which are
irreversible.
 Biopolymers such as proteins,
carbohydrates etc. degrade to monomers
which will recombine to give geopolymers.
 Diagenesis begins in recently deposited
sediments where microbial uptake is one of
the main agents of transformation, leading
to chemical rearrangements at shallow
depths.
 Diagenetic changes of biological organic
matter results in the formation of kerogen
leaving behind stable organic compounds
like n-paraffins, cycloalkanes, steroids,
terpenes etc.
 The gross elemental composition of
kerogen is shown in Table 1.
Table 1 - Chemical Composition of Kerogen

S. No. Element Per cent (w / w)

1. Carbon 69 - 80
2. Hydrogen 7 - 11
3. Nitrogen 1.25 - 2.5
4. Sulfur 1-8
5. Oxygen 9 - 17
Distinction between Coal / Anthracite,
and Bitumen / Oil
 Coal is formed from the burrial of woody
organic matter derived from terrestrial plants
and leaves.
 It gets deposited as peat / lignite in coal fields
and subsequent graphitisation leads to
anthracite.
 Favourable conditions for deposition of coal
include low oxygen, low temperature, low
bacterial activity and minimum admixture with
mineral matter.
 Coal is a special kind of kerogen (Fig. 2).
 KEROGEN

METAMOR- MATURA-
PHISM TION

BITUMINOUS
COAL / BITUMEN /
ANTHRACITE OIL

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the redistribution of

hydrogen from bituminous coal and bitumen.
 Both coal and bitumen are formed by
maturation of kerogen under different
conditions.
 While coal is formed by losing hydrogen
under low energy conditions, bitumen is
formed by gaining hydrogen under
moderately high energy (Catagentic)
conditions.
 Bitumen contains the same groups of
compounds as petroleum (oil), but in
different proportions.