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Unit 1: Development of
Petroleum Geochemistry
Overview
Petroleum Generation
Carbon and the Origin of Life
Petroleum and Its Products
Required Reading
Hunt, Petroleum Geochemistry
Chapters 1--3
Key Concepts
Petroleum geochemistry applies chemical principles to the study of the origin, migration, accumulation, and alteration of petroleum and the use of this knowledge in the exploration and recovery of oil and gas.
The bulk of the world's petroleum originated from the decomposition of the organic matter deposited in sedimentary basins.
Source rocks can be defined as immature, mature, or post-mature for oil and gas generation.
Successful exploration depends upon a) existence of a trap (structure, reservoir, seal); b) the accumulation of a petroleum charge (source, maturation, migration to the trap, timing), and 3) preservation of the trapped hydrocarbon (thermal history).
Organic facies are mappable subdivisions of stratigraphic units.
Petroleum generative depressions are areas where organic-rich source beds are buried at high enough temperatures to generate and expel substantial quantities of petroleum.
The three most important events in the early evolution of the biosphere were a) origin of prokaryote organisms; b) origin of green photosynthesis; c) origin of eurkaryotes capable of evolving into higher forms of life.
More than 75% of all the world's conventional and heavy oils were generated from Jurassic or Cretaceous source rocks.
Define
Petroleum average composition
Types and size of petroleum molecules
API gravity
Types of hydrocarbon molecules: paraffins, naphthenes, armotatics, lubricating oils, olefins with one or more double bonds.
Non-hydrocarbons in petroleum
Petroleum waxes
Petroleum asphalts
Why crude oil becomes heavier and API gravity decreases
"light" crude
"heavy" crude
Condensates and their API gravities
Stable isotopes used in petroleum research
Practice Multiple-Choice Test Questions
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