Chapter 1

Introduction to Petroleum Geology

Knut Bjørlykke

Petroleum geology comprises those geological facies in the sedimentary basins, and from that the
disciplines which are of greatest significance for the likely presence of source rocks with a high content
finding and recovery of oil and gas. Since most of the of organic matter, reservoir rocks and cap rocks. The
obvious and “easy to find” petroleum already has been distribution and geometry of potential sandstone or
discovered it is necessary to use sophisticated methods carbonate reservoirs requires detailed sedimentologi-
in the exploration of sedimentary basins. These cal models, and sequence stratigraphy has been a use-
include advanced geophysical techniques and basin ful tool in such reconstructions.
modelling. There is also much more emphasis now The biostratigraphic correlation of strata encoun-
on enhanced recovery from the producing fields. tered in exploration wells is achieved by
Petroleum technology has made great progress and micropalaeontology (including palynology), a field
many new tools and modelling programs have been developed very largely by the oil industry. Due to the
developed, both in exploration and production. small size of the samples obtained during drilling
It is however important to understand the geologi- operations one cannot rely on macrofossils; even in
cal processes which determine the distribution of dif- core samples the chance of finding good macrofossils
ferent sedimentary rocks and their physical properties. is poor. By contrast a few grams of rock from the drill
This knowledge is fundamental to being able to suc- cuttings may contain several hundred microfossils or
cessfully apply the methods now available. palynomorphs which are small remains of plants such
It is difficult to know where to start when teaching as pollen, spores etc. These also usually provide better
petroleum geology because nearly all the different stratigraphic resolution than macrofossils.
disciplines build on each other. Reservoir rocks are mostly sandstones and
This introductory chapter will provide a short and carbonates which are sufficiently porous to hold sig-
rather simple overview of some aspects of petroleum nificant amounts of petroleum. The composition and
geology to introduce the subject and the problems. properties of other rock types such as shales and salt
Most of the other chapters will then expand on what are also important.
is presented here to provide a better background in The sedimentary environments (sedimentary facies)
relevant subjects. determine the distribution of reservoir rocks and their
Since practically all petroleum occurs in sedimen- primary composition. Sediments do, however, alter
tary rocks, sedimentary geology forms one of the main their properties with increasing overburden due to dia-
foundations of petroleum geology. Sedimentological genesis during burial.
models are used to predict the location of different Diagenetic processes determine the changes in
porosity (compaction), permeability and other physi-
cal properties such as velocity, in both sandstone and
limestone reservoirs. Chemical processes controlling
K. Bjørlykke (*)
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway mineral reactions are important.
e-mail: [email protected]

K. Bjørlykke (ed.), Petroleum Geoscience: From Sedimentary Environments to Rock Physics, 1

DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-34132-8_1, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
2 K. Bjørlykke

Organic geochemistry, which includes the study of petroleum geologist should have a broad geological
organic matter in sediments and its transformation into training, preferably also from field work.
hydrocarbons, has become another vital part of petro- Geophysical well-logging methods have developed
leum geology. equally rapidly, from simple electric and radioactive
Tectonics and structural geology provide an under- logs to highly advanced logging tools which provide
standing of the subsidence, folding and uplift respon- detailed information about the sequence penetrated by
sible for the creation and dynamic history of a basin. the well. Logs provide a continuity of information
The timing of the folding and faulting that forms about the rock properties which one can seldom obtain
structural traps is very important in relation to the from exposures or core samples. This information
migration of hydrocarbons. makes it possible to interpret not only the lithological
Seismic methods have become the main tool for composition of the rocks and the variation of porosity
mapping sedimentary facies, stratigraphy, sequence and permeability, but also the depositional environ-
stratigraphy and tectonic development. Marine ment. Image logs make it possible also to detect bed-
seismics recorded from ships have become very effi- ding and fractures inside the wells.
cient and seismic lines are shot at only a few 100 m Practical petroleum geology is not only based on
spacing or less. Because of the rapid improvement in many different geological and geophysical disciplines.
the quality of seismic data processing techniques, geo- A good background in basic chemistry, physics, math-
logical interpretation of seismic data has become an ematics and computing is also required, particularly
important and expanding field. Seismic and other geo- for different types of basin modelling.
physical data are often the only information we have, A very large percentage of the geologists and
particularly for offshore exploration where drilling is geophysicists in the world are directly or indirectly
very costly. Shooting seismic lines with a close involved with the petroleum industry which recruits a
spacing allows high resolution 3D seismic imagery large percentage of the university students in relevant
to be produced for critical parts of sedimentary basins. fields.
By repeating a 3D reservoir seismic survey during The petroleum industry also funds much research
production, one can observe how the gas/oil and oil/ which is not narrow applied research, but more general
water contacts move as the reservoir is depleted. This contributions to the understanding of the Earth’s crust
is called 4D seismic because time provides the fourth and particularly sedimentary basins. Applied research
dimension. directed towards exploration and production of oil and
Geophysical measurements may include gravime- gas has often resulted in insight into more fundamental
try and magnetometry; electromagnetic methods that geological processes.
were used mostly in ore exploration have also in the Environmental geology has become a very impor-
last 10–20 years been applied to oil exploration. Elec- tant field to deal with problems not only related to the
tromagnetic methods have been used to detect petroleum industry but generally about the distribution
sediments with low resistivity due to the presence of of pollutants in rocks and sediments.
oil instead of saline water. This method requires a few A good background in chemistry is then required.
100 m of water depth and relatively shallow accumu-
lation (<2–3 km).
Seismic surveys are more expensive on land than by 1.1 A Brief Petroleum History
ship at sea because geophones have to be placed in a
grid, often on uneven and difficult land surfaces. Dril- There are many places where oil seeps out of the
ling on land, however, costs much less than from ground. Bitumen produced from such naturally occur-
offshore rigs and a much denser well spacing can be ring crude oil has been collected and used since
used during both exploration and production. ancient times, both for lighting and medicine, and by
Indirect methods of mapping rock types employing the Greeks even for warfare. In some places, for
geophysical aids are becoming increasingly important example Germany in the 1800s, small mines were
in petroleum geology, but it is still necessary to take dug to get at the oil. Before 1859 oil was also recov-
samples and examine the rocks themselves. A ered from coal for use in kerosene lamps. It was not
until Edwin Drake’s exploits in 1859 at Oil Creek near
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 3

Titusville in West Pennsylvania that oil was recovered The USA maintained its position as the major
in any quantity from boreholes. He drilled a well about world producer of oil and gas well into the twentieth
25 m (70 ft) deep which produced 8–10 bbl/day, a century. Americans thus became leaders in the devel-
huge production rate compared with anything earlier. opment of oil technology, which today is strongly
A few years later there were 74 wells round Oil Creek, reflected in the industry’s terminology. The US used
and the USA’s annual production had risen to half a to be a major importer of oil despite domestic produc-
million barrels. Outside the USA the calculated total tion, though this has recently increased due to shale oil
production at that time was maximum 5,000 bbl. In and gas. The need for import has therefore been
1870 production had increased tenfold, with 5 million reduced. For energy statistics: www.eia.gov.
bbl from the USA, and 538,000 bbl from other The US consumption (18-20 million barrels/day) is
countries. In southern California oil production started a very large fraction of the total world consumption
early in 1864 (in Santa Paula), but for many years oil (94 million bbl/day).
was mined by driving shafts into the oil-bearing strata It was first in the 1930–1940 period that the indus-
because it was so heavy and biodegraded that it would try became aware of the vast oil resources of the
not flow in a well. Middle East, which now account for about 60% of
In its infancy, oil exploration consisted largely of world reserves. Since then this region has dominated
looking for oil seepage at the surface and drilling in oil production.
the vicinity, which did not require much geological In the 1950s and 1960s prospecting for oil and gas
knowledge. It was then realised that oil and gas occur was extended onto the continental shelves, opening up
where layers of sedimentary rocks form domes or new reserves. Until the development of modern seis-
anticlinal structures since petroleum is less dense mic it was not possible to effectively explore deep
than water and a low permeability (seal) layer is below the seafloor in sedimentary basins offshore. As
needed to prevent the oil and gas from rising and long as there was an abundance of oil to be found in
escaping. This led to extensive geological mapping onshore basins there was little incentive to develop
of anticlines and domes visible at the surface, particu- costly drilling rigs for offshore exploration and
larly in the USA. It was also found that oil fields had a platforms for production.
tendency to lie along structural trends defined by Since the 1970s an increasingly large share of
anticlines or faults and this “rule” was used in international prospecting has taken place offshore,
prospecting. This is also often the case with salt helped by improved seismic methods. Advanced well
domes, which became important prospecting targets. log technology in particular made it possible to gain
Oil production developed rapidly up to the end of optimal information from each well. Before the devel-
the nineteenth century, and more systematic geologi- opment of powerful computers, seismic recordings
cal principles for prospecting were gradually devel- were based on analogue methods which produced
oped. The geological information which one obtains at results very far removed from the standard of modern
the surface is often not representative of the structures seismic data. Recording of seismic data from ships is
deeper down. Structures which are not visible at the much less expensive than onshore where geophones
surface could be mapped by correlation between wells have to be laid out manually. Onshore, extensive dril-
using logs and cuttings from the drilling. One method ling may be cheaper than expensive seismic mapping.
was to measure the depth of particularly characteristic Rising oil prices and new technology have made
strata through analysis of cuttings in different wells. exploration financially attractive in areas which previ-
Improved electrical measurements (logs) from wells, ously were of little interest, including in very deep
developed during the 1920s and 1930s, made the waters. High oil prices can also pay for more enhanced
whole effort much simpler because they provided hydrocarbon recovery from reservoirs. There are now
continuous vertical sections through the rocks. The relatively few sedimentary basins in the world that
first logs were simple recordings of how well rocks have not been explored and it is getting increasingly
conduct electrical currents (resistivity), and later also difficult to find new giant fields (>500 million bbl).
gamma logs recorded the gamma-radiation emitted by There is now increasing interest in heavy oil, tar
the different sedimentary rocks. sand and oil shale.
4 K. Bjørlykke

Oil shale is a source rock exposed near the surface. The organic matter from which petroleum is
If the source rock (shale) is mature it will have a derived originated through photosynthesis, i.e. storage
characteristic smell of hydrocarbons, but it may not of solar energy (Fig. 1.1).
be mature so that hydrocarbons have not been Sunlight is continuously transformed into such
generated. If the oil shale is mature much of the oil energy on Earth but only a very small proportion of
has escaped by primary migration. Since the the solar energy is preserved as organic matter and
hydrocarbons are thoroughly disseminated in the petroleum. The oil and gas which forms in sedimen-
fine-grained sediment, oil cannot be produced in the tary basins each year is thus minute in comparison
same way as from sandstone or carbonate reservoirs. with the rate of exploitation (production) and con-
The hydrocarbons can only be obtained by breaking sumption. In practice petroleum must therefore be
and crushing the shale and heating to distill off the regarded as a non-renewable resource even though
interspersed hydrocarbons. Shales can however con- some petroleum is being formed all the time.
tain gas which can be produced when there is a net- Most of the organic materials which occur in source
work of small fractures. Gas shale is expected to be an rocks for petroleum are algae, formed by photosynthe-
important source of petroleum in the years to come, sis. The zooplankton and higher organisms that are
particularly in the US. Very large amounts of fossil also represented grazed the algae and were thus indi-
fuels are stored in organic-rich mudstones or shales rectly dependent on photosynthesis too. The energy
that have not been buried deeply enough for the which we release when burning petroleum is therefore
organic matter to be converted to petroleum. In this stored solar energy. Since petroleum is derived from
case very little hydrocarbon has excaped but these organic matter, it is important to understand how and
deposits must be mined and heated to 400–500
C in where sediments with a high content of organic matter
ovens to generate petroleum (pyrolysis). are deposited.
The Tertiary Green River Shale in Colorado, Utah The total production of organic material in the
and Wyoming represents one of the largest petroleum world’s oceans is now 51010 tonnes/year. Nutrients
reservoirs in the world. This is a lake deposit, and the for this organic production are supplied by erosion of
organic matter consisted mainly of algae. rocks on land and transported into the ocean. The
Although very large quantities of petroleum can be supply of nutrients is therefore greatest in coastal
produced from oil shale, production costs are at pres- areas, particularly where sediment-laden rivers dis-
ent too high compared to conventional oil. There are charge into the sea. Plant debris is also supplied
also serious environmental problems involved in pro- directly from the land in coastal areas.
duction from oil shale, and the process requires very Biological production is greatest in the uppermost
large quantities of water, a resource which is not 20–30 m of the ocean and most of the phytoplankton
always plentiful. growth takes place in this zone. In clear water, sunlight
The oil reserves in such deposits exceed conven- penetrates much deeper than in turbid water, but in
tional oil reserves, but the expense and environmental clear water there is usually little nutrient supply. At
issues involved with production from these types of about 100–150 m depth, sunlight is too weak for
reservoirs clearly limit their exploitation. This is par- photosynthesis even in very clear water.
ticularly true of production from oil shale. Phytoplankton provides nutrition for all other
marine life in the oceans. Zooplankton feed on phyto-
plankton and therefore proliferate only where there is
1.2 Accumulations of Organic Matter vigorous phytoplankton production. Organisms sink
after they have died, and may decay so that nutrients
It is well documented that oil accumulations are of are released and recycled at greater depths.
organic origin and formed from organic matter in Basins with restricted water circulation will pre-
sediments. Methane can be formed inorganically and serve more organic matter and produce good source
is found in the atmosphere of several other planets, but rocks which may mature to generate oil and gas
inorganic methane from the interior of the Earth is (Fig. 1.2a, b).
likely to be well dispersed and thus not form major In polar regions, cold dense water sinks to great
gas accumulations in the Earth’s crust. depths and flows along the bottom of the deep oceans
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 5

Solar energy
173 000

Reflected Transformed
shortwave radiation to heat directly Longwave radiation

52 000 81 000

40 000
Wind, waves
370

Evaporation
40 000
Photosynthesis Tidal energy
Oxidation,
40 3

0.01–0.001%
of organic
production Crystal Hot springs
preserved heat
in sedimentary rocks flux
as kerogen, coal, 32 0.3
oil and gas.
12
Numbers in (10 w)

Fig. 1.1 Transformation of solar energy to fossil fuels by is oxidised. As a result very little organic matter is buried and
photosynthesis. Only a small fraction of the solar energy is stored in sedimentary rocks and very little of this is concentrated
used for photosynthesis and most of the produced organic matter enough to become a potential source rock

towards lower latitudes. This is the thermal conveyor The production of organic matter is not limited by
belt transporting heat to higher latitudes and it keeps carbon dioxide or water, but by nutrient availability.
the deep ocean water oxidising. In areas near the Phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) are the most impor-
equator where the prevailing winds are from the tant nutrients, though the supply of iron can also be
east, the surface water is driven away from the west- limiting for alga production. It is this process of pho-
ern coasts of the continents. This generates a strong tosynthesis, which started 4 billion years ago, that has
upwelling of nutrient-rich water from the bottom of built up an atmosphere rich in oxygen while
the sea which sustains especially high levels of accumulating reduced carbon in sedimentary rocks as
primary organic production (Fig. 1.3). The best oil, gas and coal. Most of the carbon is nevertheless
examples of this are the coast of Chile and off West finely divided within sedimentary rocks, for example
Africa. shales and limestones, in concentrations too low to
Through photosynthesis, low energy carbon diox- generate significant oil and gas.
ide and water are transformed into high energy Energy stored by photosynthesis can be used directly
carbohydrates (e.g. glucose): by organisms for respiration. This is the opposite pro-
cess, breaking carbohydrates down into carbon dioxide
CO2 þ H2 O ! CH2 O ðorganic matterÞ þ O2 and water again, so that the organisms gain energy.
6 K. Bjørlykke

Deposition of source rocks

a

Photosynthesis
Sea level (algae)
CO2 + H2O CH2O + O2
Limestone Ox P, N nutrients
Well sorted
Red sand, potential
Organic Poorly
mat. sorted sand reservoir
rock
Grey mud
Black mud

b Sea level

Sea floor

Sediment

3–4 km Cap rock

Reservoir
rock
Cap rock
Oil
migration
120–150°C Fault

Fig. 1.2 (a) Depositional environments for potential source maturation. The carbonate trap (e.g. a reef) is a stratigraphic
and reservoir rocks. Depressions on the sea floor with little trap, while the sandstone forms a structural trap bounded by a
water circulation provide the best setting for organic matter to fault. The source rock was deposited as black mud and was
be accumulated before it is oxidised. (b) Migration of petroleum heated to become an organic-rich shale, indicated by black
from source rocks into reservoir rocks after burial and colour. Well sorted sand became sandstone reservoirs

This occurs in organisms at night when there is no biochemical source for the synthesis of lipids and
light to drive photosynthesis. Also when we burn proteins. Proteins are large, complex molecules built
hydrocarbons, e.g. while driving a car, energy is up of condensed amino acids (e.g. glycine
obtained by oxidation, again essentially reversing the ðH2 NCH2  COOHÞ).
photosynthesis equation quoted above. Oxidation Dried phytoplankton contains 45–55% carbon,
of 100 g glucose releases 375 kcal of energy. 4.5–9% nitrogen, 0.6–3.3% phosphorus and up to
Carbohydrates that are produced but not consumed 25% of both silica and carbonate.
by respiration can be stored as glucose, cellulose or Planktonic algae are the main contributors to the
starch in the cell walls. Photosynthesis is also the organic matter which gives rise to petroleum. Among
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 7

Land

Win
d
Sea level
4 Photosynthesis
Organic 3
100m Production
Organisms sink down through
400m 1 water and break down.
2 Phosphorus and other
5 nutrients are released.
Upwelling
Deposition of phosphate –rich sediment
Crystallisation of phosphate minerals
(Apatite).

Fig. 1.3 Upwelling of water rich in nutrients on a continental margin with deposition of organic-rich mud

the most important are diatoms, which have amor- Trophic level Trophic level Trophic level Trophic level
phous silica (opal A) shells. 1 2 3 4
Diatoms are most abundant in the higher latitudes 1,000 kg 100 kg 10 kg 1 kg
and are also found in brackish and fresh water. Phytoplankton Zooplankton Crustaceans Fish
Blue–green algae (cyanobacteria) which live on the
bottom in shallow areas, also contribute to the organic All animal plankton (zooplankton) live on plant
material in sediments. plankton, and in turn are eaten by higher organisms
In coastal swamps, and particularly on deltas, we in the food chain. At each step in the food chain, which
have extensive production of organic matter in the we call a trophic level, the amount of organic matter
form of plants and trees which may avoid being (the biomass) is reduced to 10%.
oxidised by sinking into mud or bog. The residues of Ninety percent of the production of organic matter
these higher land plants may form peat, which with is therefore from algae. This is why algae and to some
deeper burial may be converted into lignite and bitu- extent zooplankton account for the bulk of the organic
minous coal. But such deposits are also a potential material which can be transformed into oil. Larger
source of gas and oil. Plant matter, including wood, animals such as dinosaurs are totally irrelevant as
also floats down rivers and is deposited when it sinks sources of oil.
to the bottom, usually in a nearshore deltaic environ- The most important of the zooplankton which pro-
ment. When the trees rot they release CO2 and con- vide organic matter for petroleum are:
sume as much oxygen as the plant produced during the 1. Radiolaria – silica shells, wide distribution, partic-
whole period when it was growing. There is thus no ularly in tropical waters.
net contribution of oxygen to the atmosphere. This 2. Foraminifera – shells of calcium carbonate.
also applies to the bulk of the tropical rainforests. 3. Pteropods – pelagic gastropods (snails) with a foot
Where trees and plants sink into black mud, which has been converted into wing-shaped lobes;
preventing them from being oxidised, there is a net carbonate shells.
contribution of oxygen to the atmosphere and a This is the second lowest level within the marine
corresponding reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere. food chain. These zooplanktonic organisms are eaten
by crustaceans which themselves are eaten by fish.
8 K. Bjørlykke

The total amount of organic matter that can be 1.3 Breakdown of Organic Matter
produced in the ocean is dependent on the nutrient
supply from rivers, but river water does not only Almost all (>99%) of the organic matter which is
carry inorganic nutrients. It also contains significant produced on land and in the oceans is broken down
amounts of organic matter, in particular humic acid through direct oxidation or by means of
compounds, lignin and similar substances formed by microbiological processes. If oxygen is present,
the breakdown of plant material which are weakly organic matter will be broken down in the following
soluble in cold water. When the river water enters manner:
the sea, there is precipitation due to the increased pH
and lower surface temperature in the ocean. CH2 O þ O2 ! CO2 þ H2 O
Other plant materials, like waxes and resins, are
more chemically resistant to breakdown and are insol- Where oxygen is available, organic matter is
uble in water. Such organic particles tend to attach oxidised relatively rapidly both on land and in the
themselves to mineral grains and accompany sediment sea. As organisms die, organic material suspended in
out into the ocean. seawater sinks through the water column consuming
Most of the oil reservoirs which have been formed oxygen. If water circulation is restricted due to density
since the Palaeozoic have been uplifted and eroded, stratification of the water column, the oxygen supply
and over time vast quantities of oil have flowed will be exhausted. Instead, the bound oxygen in
(seeped) out onto the land or into the sea. In this sulphates or nitrates is used by sulphate-reducing and
sense, oil pollution is a natural process. Only a small denitrifying bacteria which decompose organic mate-
proportion of the petroleum that has been formed in rial in an anoxic environment. The first few
source rocks has actually become trapped in a reser- centimetres below the seabed are usually oxidised,
voir. One might expect this seepage to have provided a while reducing conditions prevail 5–30 cm below the
source of recycled petroleum in younger sediments, sea floor. Below this redox boundary where there is no
but petroleum breaks down extremely rapidly when free oxygen, sulphate-reducing bacteria react with
subjected to weathering, oxidising to CO2, and the organic matter as indicated below:
nutrients (P, N) that were required to form the organic
matter are released and may act like a fertilizer. 2CH2 O þ 2Hþ þ SO
4 ! H2 S þ 2CO2 þ 2H2 O
On land, evaporation will remove the lighter
NH3 þ Hþ þ SO2 ! NO3 þ H2 S þ H2 O
components while bacteria will degrade the heavier
components. Fossil asphalt lakes consist of heavy
H2S is liberated, giving stagnant water and mud a
substances which neither evaporate nor can be easily
strong smell. Through denitrification we get
broken down by bacteria. In the ocean, the lighter
components will dissolve quite rapidly, while the
5CH2 O þ 4Hþ þ 4NO
3 ! 2N2 þ 5CO2 þ 7H2 O
heavier asphalt fraction will sink to the bottom and
be degraded and recycled.
When the rate of accumulation of organic matter
In uplifted sedimentary basins like the Ventura
exceeds the rate of oxygen supply the redox boundary
Basin and the Los Angeles Basin in Southern
will be in the water column, separating the oxidising
California there are abundant natural oils seeps both
surface water from the reducing bottom water.
onshore and offshore.
This is typical of basins separated from the deep
On the beaches from Santa Barbara towards Los
ocean by a shallow sill, like the Black Sea and some of
Angeles there are many natural oil seeps.
the deep Norwegian fjords. Fresh or brackish surface
water floating on more saline water also helps to
maintain a stable water stratification with little vertical
mixing. Lakes may have good water stratification
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 9

because warm surface water is less dense than the layer spending longer in the bioturbation and
colder bottom water. Black mud deposited at the bot- microbiological breakdown zones, and consequently
tom of lakes may produce good source rocks. In cold less organic matter will be preserved in the sediment.
climates, however, the water in the lakes overturns in Rapid sedimentation leads to more of the deposited
the winter because the maximum water density is at organic matter being preserved but from the outset it
4
C, preventing the stable stratification required to will be highly diluted with mineral grains. Conse-
form source rocks. quently an intermediate sedimentation rate in relation
to organic production (10–100 mm/1,000 years)
results in the best source rocks.
1.4 Formation of Source Rocks As we have seen, the net accumulation of organic
matter in sediments is not so much a function of the
All marine organic material is formed near the surface total productivity, but rather of the relationship
of the ocean, in the photic zone, through photosynthe- between productivity and biogenic breakdown and
sis. For the most part this is algae. Some phytoplank- oxidation. In areas with powerful traction currents,
ton are broken down chemically and oxidised and most organic matter will be oxidised. An important
some are eaten by zooplankton. Both types of plankton source of oxygen-rich water in the deep ocean is the
are eaten by higher organisms which concentrate the cold surface water which sinks to the bottom of the
indigestible part of the organic matter into fecal pellets ocean in polar regions and flows along the ocean floor
which may be incorporated into sediments. Plankton is towards equatorial regions. This flow balances the
made up of very small organisms which sink so slowly surface flow to higher latitudes like the Gulf Stream
that they are in most cases almost entirely degraded in the Atlantic.
(oxidised) before they reach the bottom. Pellets, on the These bottom flows are of considerable magnitude
other hand, are the size of sand grains and sink more during glacial periods, when large amounts of cold
rapidly, and this organic matter is more likely to be water are sinking near ice sheet peripheries. In warm
preserved in the sediments. periods, for example during the Cretaceous, the poles
On the bottom, organic matter will be subjected to were probably ice-free and there was much less cold
breakdown by micro-organisms (bacteria). It will also surface water available to sink down and drive the
be eaten by burrowing organisms which live in the top ocean conveyor system. The deeper parts of the Atlan-
portion of the sediments. The activity of these tic experienced stagnant bottom conditions during
organisms contributes to reducing the organic content such periods.
of the sediments because most of the organic matter is Limited water circulation in semi-enclosed marine
digested when the sediment is eaten. Bioturbation also basins due to restricted outflow over a shallow thresh-
stirs up the sediments, exposing them more to the old is a common cause of stagnant water bodies
oxygen-bearing bottom water. However, if the bottom (Fig. 1.2a). The Black Sea is a good example. In
water is stagnant, the lack of oxygen and the toxicity response to an abundant freshwater supply from rivers
of H2S will exclude most life forms. The resultant lack and a relatively low evaporation rate, a low salinity
of bioturbation will thus preserve more organic matter surface layer leads to density stratification in the water
in the sediment together with perfect, undisturbed, column and a consequent reduction in circulation. In
lamination. Stagnant, or anoxic, conditions are defined basins with little precipitation and where there is net
by an oxygen content of <0.5 ml/l water. Sulphate- evaporation, the surface water will have higher salinity
reducing bacteria, however, can use a good deal of and density than the water below it, and will sink
organic matter and precipitate sulphides (e.g. FeS2). If down. This circulation brings with it oxygen from
the sediments contain insufficient soluble iron or other the surface and can give oxidising bottom conditions
metals which could precipitate sulphides, more sul- with little chance for organic matter to survive to form
phur will be incorporated in the organic matter and source rocks.
will eventually be enriched in the oil derived from Lakes or semi-enclosed marine basins often have a
such source beds. temperature- or salinity-induced density stratification
Except where the water is completely stagnant, so that oxygenated surface water does not mix with
slow sedimentation rates will result in each sediment water in the deeper part of the basin. This leads to
10 K. Bjørlykke

anoxic conditions and a high degree of preservation of represent a hazard in the form of blowouts and fire
the organic matter produced in the surface waters. This during drilling. Gas occurring at shallow depth may
aspect is therefore of considerable interest in explora- also have a deeper source generated from a gas-prone
tion for petroleum in freshwater basins, particularly in source rock (coaly sediments) or by cracking of oil,
Africa and China. The open oceans have normally had but such gas has a very different isotopic signature
oxygenated water, but during the Cretaceous most of than biogenic gas.
the Atlantic Ocean is believed to have been stagnant
during so-called “anoxic events”, and substantial
amounts of black shale were deposited in the deeper 1.6 Kerogen
parts of the ocean during these periods.
As organic material becomes buried by the accumula-
tion of overlying sediments, water is gradually
1.5 Early Diagenesis of Organic Matter expelled during compaction.
Complex organic compounds like proteins are bro-
Microbiological breakdown of organic matter in ken down into amino acids, and carbohydrates into
sediments is due to the activity of bacteria, fungi, simpler sugar compounds. These are able to recom-
protozoa, etc. and under oxidising conditions these bine to make larger compounds, for example by amino
are extremely effective. However, the porewater acids reacting with carbohydrates (melanoid reaction).
quickly becomes reducing if the oxygen is not As this type of polymerisation proceeds, the propor-
replenished. In relatively coarse-grained sediments tion of simpler soluble organic compounds diminishes
(sand), oxygen may diffuse to depths of 5–20 cm at depths of a few tens of metres down in the sediment.
below the seabed, while in clay and fine-grained car- It is these newly-formed complex organic structures
bonate mud the boundary between oxidising and which are called kerogen.
reducing water (redox boundary) may be just a few Kerogen is a collective name for organic material
millimetres below the seafloor. The pores in the that is insoluble in organic solvents, water or oxidising
sediments here are so small that water circulation acids. The portion of the organic material soluble in
and diffusion are insufficient to replace the original organic solvents is called bitumen, which is essentially
oxygen in the porewater as it gets used up by oxidation oil in a solid state.
of organic matter. Clay-rich sediments soon become a Kerogen consists of very large molecules and is a
relatively closed system, and the downward diffusion kind of polymer. When it has been exposed to suffi-
of oxygen from the seabed is very slow in fine-grained cient time and temperature these large molecules will
sediments. crack into smaller molecules, mostly petroleum. When
Aerobic breakdown is therefore much more effec- the temperature is about 100
C a long period of geo-
tive in coarse-grained sediments than in fine-grained logical time is required. In rapidly subsiding basins the
ones. In anaerobic transformation bacteria use organic exposure time is shorter and oil generation may only
matter, e.g. short carbohydrate chains. Cellulose is start at about 140–150
C. In the North Sea basin the
broken down by fungi, and finally by bacteria. The “oil window” may typically be between 130 and
end products are methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide 140
C.
(CO2). Methane, however, is the only hydrocarbon
produced in any quantity at low temperatures by bac-
teria close to the surface of the sediment. Gas occur- 1.7 Migration of Petroleum
ring at shallow depths (shallow gas) therefore consists
largely of methane (dry gas) unless there has been Petroleum migrates from low permeability source
addition from much deeper strata. Biogenic gas may rocks into high permeability reservoir rocks from
form commercial accumulations, as in Western which the petroleum can be produced (Fig. 1.2b).
Siberia and also in the shallow part of the North Sea The main driving force for petroleum migration is
basin. The presence of abundant shallow gas may buoyancy because it is less dense than water. The
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 11

forces acting against migration are the capillary forces We distinguish between primary migration, which
and the resistance to flow though rocks with low is the flow of petroleum out of the source rock and
permeabilities. If the resistance to flow (permeability) secondary migration, which is the continued flow
is very low the fluid pressure both in the water phase and from the source rock to the reservoir rock or up to
the petroleum phase will increase and cause tight shales the surface (Fig. 1.4).
to fracture, thus opening up for petroleum migration. Oil and gas may also migrate (leak) from the reser-
Migration of oil and gas will therefore nearly voir to a higher trap or to the surface. Hydrocarbons
always have an upwards component. Petroleum may have a low solubility in water and will therefore
however locally be expelled downwards from a source migrate as a separate phase. Solubility varies from as
rock into a sandstone. little as 24 ppm for methane to 1,800 ppm for benzene.

Pleistocene

Cenozoic sediments

Cretaceous mudstones and shales

m.
tF .
ren Fm
B rd
tfjo
Sta

Triassic and Permian

sediments

Reservoir sandstone with gas Migration of gas and oil from Upper Jurassic
source rocks (Kimmeridge shale) into Middle
and Lower Jurassic reservoir sandstones
Reservoir sandstone with oil (Brent and Statfjord formations).

Upper Jurassic source rock

Fig. 1.4 Schematic illustration of primary migration (expul- Sea where rifting in Upper Jurassic time produced good
sion) of petroleum from a source rock and secondary migration conditions for the formation of a source rock and also traps on
into a reservoir (trap). This example is from the northern North the uplifted fault blocks
12 K. Bjørlykke

Other compounds, such as pentane, are even less solu- H 2O

ble (2–3 ppm). However, solubility increases mark- Sand grain
edly with pressure. Many hydrocarbons have
solubilities of less than 1 ppm in water.
Oil flows
It is not possible that oil should be dissolved in Oil through reservoir
water and transported in an aqueous solution, both rocks
because of the solubility and the low flow rates. It
would also be difficult to explain how the oil would
come out of solution in the reservoirs (traps). It is
therefore generally accepted that oil migrates as a
separate phase.
Gas, in particular methane, has a fairly high solu-
bility in water, especially under high pressure. If
Water flows
methane-saturated water rises to lower pressures, through reservoir
large quantities of methane can bubble out of solution. rocks
Oil is lighter than water, and oil droplets would be
able to move through the pores in reservoir rocks but
the caplliary restance is high for separate oil drops in a
Oil
water-wet rock (Fig. 1.5). In order to pass through the
narrow passage between pores (pore throat), the oil Fig. 1.5 Most sandstones are water-wet and have a thin layer of
droplets must overcome the capillary forces. When the water around the grains. A continuous oil phase will flow easily
pores are sufficiently small in a fine-grained sediment, if the permeability is relatively high and the pore throats
between the pores are relatively wide. Isolated droplets of oil
these forces will act as a barrier to further migration of will, however, be prevented from moving by capillary forces
oil. The small gas molecules, however, can diffuse
very slowly through extremely small pores and thus
escape from shales which form tight seals for oil. This
is however a very slow process when the cap rock is generated directly from gas-prone kerogen in the
tight and gas (methane) is often trapped as a separate source rock. There is also usually a large amount of
phase in reservoirs. gas dissolved in the porewater which can be released
Oil can therefore not migrate as small discrete when the pressure is reduced.
droplets, but moves as a continuous string of oil The degree of alteration of organic matter can be
where most of the pores are filled with oil rather than measured in different ways. Plant material is altered
water (highly oil-saturated). The pressure in the oil from a dull material to a material which becomes
phase at the top is then a function of the height of the more shiny with increasing temperature. This can be
oil-saturated column (string) and the density differ- quantified by measuring the amount of light reflected
ence between oil and water. from a piece of plant material (vitrinite) under the
The rate of migration is a function of the rate of microscope. This is the vitrinite reflectivity which
petroleum generation in the source rocks. The matura- increases with higher temperatures and maturity. A
tion of the source rock controlling the supply of petro- vitrinite reflectivity of 1.2 indicates that the source
leum which can migrate is a function of the rock has generated much of the oil that can be
temperature integrated over time (Fig. 1.6). generated. We will say that the source rock is in the
The temperature history is a function of the burial middle of the “oil window” (Fig. 1.7). Values
depth and the geothermal gradients. below 0.7–0.8. are found in source rocks which
Deep burial over long time will cause all oil to be have not been heated enough (immature source
decomposed (cracked) into gas. In addition gas will be rocks).
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 13

Photosynthesis
CO2+H2O Oxidation
CO2+H2O +(N,P)
CH2O+O2+(N,P)
CH2O +O2
Time
20°C
Burning of oil
and gas

Oil
3–4 km – 100°C Gas

6–8 km – 200°C Burial curve

Rate of petroleum generation from
organic matter (kerogen) follows an
Depth (temperature) arrhenius function: K = Aexp(-E/RT)
E - activation energy. R - gas const.
T - temperature

Fig. 1.6 Burial curve for source rocks determining the transformation of kerogen to oil and gas depending on time and temperature
(burial depth)

Burial
depth Vitrinite
km Temperature (°C) reflectivity

1 30° Diagenesis
Sub-bituminous coal,
Kerogen Lignite
0.5
2 60°

3 90° Bituminous
Katagenesis coal
Oil
4 120° 1.2

5 Gas 150° 2.0

Metagenesis Anthracite

Fig. 1.7 Alteration (maturation) of organic matter and genera- higher reflectivity with increasing temperature. The depth (tem-
tion of oil and gas as a function of temperature. The maturation perature) range where oil is generated is called the “oil win-
is also a function of time and this can be determined by measur- dow”. At higher temperatures source rocks will produce mostly
ing the vitrinite reflectivity. Coals become more shiny and have gas as oil will be altered into gas by cracking

Vitrinite reflectivities close to 2.0 and above indi- The Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge shale (Fig. 1.8) is
cate that the source rock has generated all the oil and the main source rock for the North Sea basin but it is
can generate only gas. not mature at its outcrop at Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset,
14 K. Bjørlykke

Oil/gas

Shale

Sandstone

Fig. 1.8 Kimmeridge Clay (Upper Jurassic) unconformably

overlain by the lower Chalk (Upper Cretaceous). This is a very Oil/gas
good source rock and equivalent shales are the main source
rocks for oil and also much of the gas in the North Sea basin
and also further north in mid Norway (Haltenbanken) and the
Barents Sea. A c.50 m.y. hiatus separates the Albian age Red
Chalk carbonate facies from the underling black shale facies.
From South Ferriby, Yorkshire, England

south England and in many parts of the North Sea

Basin. Fig. 1.9 Examples of structural traps. Simple anticlinal trap
and a fault-controlled trap

1.8 Hydrocarbon Traps (1) Structural traps that are formed by structural
deformation (folding, doming or faulting) of rocks.
Traps consist of porous reservoir rocks overlain by (2) Stratigraphic traps which are related to primary
tight (low permeability) rocks which do not allow oil features in the sedimentary sequences and do not
or gas to pass. These must form structures closed at the require structural deformation like faulting or
top such that they collect oil and gas, which is lighter folding. This may be sandstones pinching out in
than water. We can think of an oil trap as a barrel or shales due to primary changes in facies (Fig. 1.11).
bucket upside down (Fig. 1.9) which can then be filled
with petroleum which rises through the water until it is Carbonate reefs tend to form primary structures
full. The point where the petroleum can leak from this which function as stratigraphic traps.
structure is called the spill point. The closure is the There are also combinations between stratigraphic
maximum oil column that the structure can hold and structural traps (Fig. 1.12).
before leaking through the spill point (Fig. 1.10). It is important to establish when structural traps
Hydrocarbons may also leak through the cap rock. were formed in relation to the migration of the petro-
The cap rock may not be 100% effective in leum. Structures formed after the main phase of source
preventing the upward flow of hydrocarbons, but rock maturation and associated migration will not be
these will still accumulate if the rate of leakage is effective traps. In some cases traps formed late can
less than the rate of supply up to the trap. Cap rocks collect gas which normally is generated and migrates
are not totally impermeable with respect to water, but later than oil.
may be impermeable to oil and gas due to capillary Stratigraphic traps, by contrast, have been there all
resistance in the small pores. the time, and the timing of the migration is not so
Traps can be classified according to the type of important. They may however depend on slight tilting
structure that produces them. We distinguish between: of the strata involved.
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 15

Shale Oil Onlap quantitatively most important salt minerals are halite
(NaCl – density 2.16 g/cm3), gypsum (CaSO4. 2H2O –
density 2.32 g/cm3). Anhydrite (CaSO4 – density
2.96 g/cm3) is too dense to contribute to the formation
Fractured basement of diapirs.
In order for the salt to move upwards and form a
Structural trap
salt dome, a certain thickness of overburden is
required and the salt beds themselves must be at least
Gas
Oil/gas 100–200 m thick. The upward movement of salt
contact Closure
through the overlying sequence, and the resultant
deformation of the latter, is called halokinetics or salt
ir Water tectonics.
vo
s er ck The rate of salt movement is extremely slow and a
e o Oil
R
r

Oil /water Spill point dome may take several million years to form.
contact Movements of the Earth’s surface may, however,
also be recorded in recent history as is the case onshore
Shale Denmark. Salt may break right through the overlying
rocks and rise to the surface, or form intrusions in
Salt diapir younger sediments. If gypsum has been deposited,
this will be altered into anhydrite at about 1 km burial
depth, with a consequent 40% compaction and the
Oil/gas increase in density will remove the buoyancy relative
“Turtle back”
to the surrounding sediments. A comparable expan-
sion occurs when rising anhydrite comes into contact
with groundwater and reverts to gypsum.
Traps may be created (1) in the layers above the salt
Fig. 1.10 Structural traps related to salt domes and anticlinal dome, (2) in the top of the salt dome (cap rock), (3) in
folds. A basement high can also be a trap when it is covered by a the beds which are faulted and turned up against the
black shale (source rock). The basement may have some poros-
ity due to fractures or a thin sediment cover
salt structure and (4) through stratigraphic pinching
out of beds round the salt dome. Reservoirs may form
by solution and brecciation at the top of salt domes.
1.8.1 Structural Traps
Salt tectonics is of great importance in many oil-
bearing regions where there are thick salt deposits in
(a) Anticlinal Domes
the passive margin sequences of the South Atlantic
Domes formed by diapirism or other processes may
and the Gulf of Mexico. In the eastern USA we find
form closures in all directions (four-way closure). A
extensive tracts with Silurian salt, and in Texas and
simple anticline is not sufficient to trap oil. Anticlines
New Mexico we have Permian salt.
with an axial culmination are needed to provide four-
Salt layers are the ideal cap rock because of salt’s
way closure. This means that the fold axis must be
low permeability and ductile properties, which prevent
dipping in both directions (Fig. 1.9).
fracturing and leakage.
Anticlinal traps can form in association with
Salt deposits are particularly common in the
faulting. This is especially true in connection with
Permo-Triassic around the Atlantic. This is because
growth faults (roll-overs) (see below), but also with
prior to the opening of the Atlantic there were vast
thrust zones.
areas with fault-controlled basins (rifts) in the middle
of a supercontinent (America + Europe, Asia and
(b) Salt Domes Africa) with little precipitation. We find similar
Salt domes are formed because salt (specific gravity conditions today around the Red Sea and the Dead
c.1.8–2.0) is lighter than the overlying rock, and the Sea. The Permian Zechstein salt in Germany and
salt therefore “floats” up due to buoyancy. The Denmark continues below the North Sea, and
16 K. Bjørlykke

I Barrier
Clay sand island Lagoon Sand
Sea level
Ox
Red
Organic
matter

II Sea level
rise Clay

Sand

III Deposition of 2–3 km of sediments

Reservoir
rock (trap)

Migration of
hydrocarbons
>100°C
Source rocks
Water
Oil
Sand grains

Fig. 1.11 Examples of stratigraphic traps. A barrier island forms a separate accumulation of sand where the associated mudstones
(shales) may represent both source rocks and cap rocks

halotectonic movements have formed dome structures (d) Fault Traps

in the Chalk, for example in the Ekofisk area. In fault traps, the fault plane forms part of the structure
trapping the oil and hindering its further upward
(c) Growth Anticlines migration. The fault plane must therefore be sealing
These are dome-like structures formed when part of a for vertical flow of petroleum in order to function as a
basin subsides more slowly than its surroundings, barrier and a cap rock for the reservoir rocks. If the
resulting in least sedimentation on the highest part. reservoir rock is juxtaposed against a sandstone or
The sediment thickness decreases towards the dome other permeable rocks the fault must also be imperme-
centre, which also compacts less than the adjacent able for flow across the fault plane. Most frequently,
thicker sediments and thus contributes to the forma- however, the reservoir rock is faulted against a tight
tion of an anticlinal structure. Growth anticlines form shale or mudrock and the fault is then in most cases
contemporaneously with sediment accumulation, not sealing (Fig. 1.9). When there is sandstone on both
through later folding. sides of the fault plane, the permeability across it will
Growth anticlines can be formed above salt domes, amongst other things depend on how much clay has
reefs or buried basement highs, through differential been smeared along the junction fault plane from
compaction. adjacent clays during faulting. At greater depths
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 17

The name growth fault goes back to the early days of

Unconformity oil exploration without seismic data. It was noticed
that the layers had “grown” in thickness in the wells on
the downthrown side of the fault. The displacement of
Oil/gas
the beds decreases upwards along the fault plane.
Smaller, antithetic faults often develop in the opposite
direction in the beds which are turned inwards towards
Oil/gas
the main fault plane. Growth faults tend to have low
permeability and may contribute greatly to reduced
porewater circulation in sedimentary basins, and we
often find undercompacted clay, which can turn into
clay diapirs in association with growth faults.
Oil/gas

1.8.2 Stratigraphic Traps

These are traps which are partially or wholly due to

facies variation or unconformities, and not primarily
Oil/gas
the result of tectonic deformation. Porous and perme-
able sands which pinch out up-dip in less permeable
rocks, e.g. shale (Figs. 1.11 and 1.12) are good
examples. Barrier islands often form stratigraphic
traps because they may be separated from the coast
by fine-grained lagoonal facies. The main types are:
Channel sand (a) Fluvial channel sandstones may be isolated and
surrounded by impermeable clay-rich sediments,
Fig. 1.12 Combination of stratigraphic and structural traps. A
or they may be folded so that we obtain a combi-
reef forms a trap due to the primary relief and also due to later
compaction of the mud around the reef nation of stratigraphic and structural traps
(Figs. 1.9 and 1.10).
(b) Submarine channels and sandstone turbidites in
(>3–4 km) there may be diagenetic changes such as strata rich in shale. Here we will often find
quartz cementation, which can make the fault plane pinch-out of permeable layers up-dip from the
less permeable. foot of the continental slope. This will result in
The displacement along faults can be both vertical stratigraphic traps without any further folding
(normal faults) and horizontal (strike slip faults). being necessary.
Reverse faults are faults where the hangingwall is (c) Reefs often form stratigraphic traps. A reef struc-
moved upwards relative to the footwall below the ture projects up from the sea bed and often has
fault plane. These are typical of areas with high hori- shale sediments surrounding it, so that oil could
zontal stresses i.e. due to converging plate movements. migrate from the shale into the reef structure.
Growth faults are driven by gravity-sliding along (d) Traps related to unconformities. Sandstones or
curved (listric) fault planes and are typical of sedimen- other porous rocks may be overlain with an angu-
tary sequences such as deltas deposited with relatively lar unconformity by shales or other tight
rapid sedimentation. The fault plane is often (though sediments, forming a trap underneath the uncon-
not always) sealing and can stop oil and gas from formity (Fig. 1.12). Topographic highs in the base-
migrating further upward. However, oil traps are ment overlain with shales can also provide good
equally often formed in anticlines on the upper side traps in fractured basement rocks. Remember that
of the fault plane. These are rollover anticlines. oil can migrate upwards into stratigraphically
Because the faulting is active during sedimentation, lower rocks. In China there are numerous
the layers on the downthrown side will be thickest. examples of this type of trap.
18 K. Bjørlykke

Reservoir Geology is not a well-defined discipline.

It includes many aspects of geology that are of special
relevance to the production of petroleum. It is also
linked to engineering aspects of petroleum production.
Reservoir geophysics has in recent years become very
important and is now well integrated with reservoir
geology.

1.10 Porosity and Permeability

Any rock with sufficiently high porosity and perme-

ability may serve as a reservoir rock provided that
there is a source of petroleum, a structure, and a tight
Fig. 1.13 Natural oil seep at Carpenteria State Beach, cap rock.
California. Oil is flowing on land, on the beach and also offshore Sediments consist of solid grains and of fluids
on the sea floor
which for the most part are water but may be oil and
gas.
Much of the oil generated in sedimentary basins has Porosity (φ) is an expression of the percentage (or
not been trapped in reservoirs but reached the surface fraction) of fluids by volume (Vf) compared to the total
on the seafloor or on land. There it is then broken down rock volume with fluids (Vt), so that φ ¼ Vf / Vt.
by bacteria and becomes heavy oil, which is not very Porosity is often expressed as a percentage, but in
toxic. In California there are many examples of natural many calculations it is easier to express it as a fraction,
oil seeps which can be observed along roads, on the for example 0.3 instead of 30% porosity.
beach (Fig. 1.13) and also offshore. The void ratio (VR) is the ratio between pore vol-
ume (φ) and the volume of the grains (1–φ).

1.9 Other Types of Trap VR ¼ φ=ð1  φÞ

More unusual kinds of trap can be encountered. If the Void ratio is often used in engineering and it has
porewater in a sedimentary basin has sufficiently certain advantages in some mathematical expressions.
strong flow of meteoric water into the basin, the oil/ If we assume that we know the density of the
water contact may diverge markedly from a horizontal mineral grains, the porosity can be found by measur-
plane due to the hydrodynamic stresses. This has ing the density of a known volume of the sediment.
implications for calculations of oil volumes within a The density of the sediments (ρs) is the sum of the
structure, and in some instances oil can accumulate density of the grains in the solid phase, which are
without being sealed in, within a so-called hydrody- mostly minerals ρm, and the density of the fluids (ρf).
namic trap. The circulation of fresh (meteoric) water
down into oil-bearing rocks will, however, lead to ρs ¼ φρf þ ρm ð1  φÞ
biodegradation and the formation of asphalt. Asphalt
can then become a tight cap rock for the oil. Well sorted, rounded sand grains are almost spher-
At greater depths, beyond the reach of meteoric ical in shape. If we have grains of the same size, which
water, water movement is limited and any deflection are all quite well rounded and with a high degree of
of the oil/water contact is more likely to reflect pres- sphericity, we will be able to pack the grains so as to
sure differences within the reservoir. Water will also get minimum porosity. Rhombic is the densest pack-
flow then because of the pressure gradient, but unless ing, resulting in 26% porosity, but this can not be
there are low permeability barriers the pressure will obtained naturally. Cubic packing, where the grains
soon equalise. Tectonic tilting will also tilt the oil/ are packed directly one above another, results in about
water contact. 48% porosity and this does not occur in nature either.
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 19

Most well sorted sandstones have a porosity which lies flux F ¼ Q=A. F can be measured in cm3/cm2/s or in
between these two values, typically around 40–42%. m3/m2/s. This is equal to the Darcy velocity which is
Poorly sorted sand may have lower primary porosity cm/s.
and will also compact more at moderate burial depths. Well-sorted sandstones may have permeabilities
Clay-rich sediments have a much greater porosity exceeding 1 Darcy and values between 100 and
immediately after deposition, typically 60–80%. This 1,000 mD are considered to be extremely good.
means that immediately following deposition a sand Permeabilities of 10–100 mD are also considered to
bed is denser than a bed of clay or silt. However, clay be good values for reservoir rocks. Permeabilities of
and silt lose their porosity more rapidly with burial. 1–10 mD are typical of relatively dense sandstones
Porosity may be classified into different types and limestones, so-called tight reservoirs. There are
depending on its origin. also examples of rocks with even lower permeabilities
Pore space between the primary sediment grains is being exploited commercially for oil production, for
often referred to as primary porosity. Intergranular example in the Ekofisk Field where the generally low
porosity simply means porosity between the grains permeability of a chalk matrix is enhanced by
whereas intragranular porosity means porosity inside fractures which increase the overall permeability.
the sediment grains. The latter may be cavities in In the great majority of rocks, the permeability
fossils, e.g. foraminifera, gastropods, molluscs, but differs according to flow direction. In sedimentary
also partly dissolved feldspar and rock fragments. rocks the permeability is much higher parallel to the
Pore space formed by dissolution or fracturing of bedding compared with normal to the bedding. Chan-
grains is called secondary porosity. nel sandstones can also have a marked directional
Cavities formed by selective solution of sediment impact on the permeability.
grains or fossils are classified as mouldic porosity. A In well-cemented sandstones and limestones, and
typical example is when dissolution of aragonite also in certain shales, the matrix permeability is
fossils like gastropods leaves open pore spaces extremely low and the effective permeability may be
(moulds). mostly controlled by fractures if they are present.
Particularly in carbonates we may also have poros- Claystones and shales have very low permeability
ity on a large scale i.e. as caverns (karst) and in reefs. and can be almost completely tight. In the laboratory
Pore space produced by fracturing is called fracture shale permeabilities as low as 0.01 nanodarcy have
porosity. been measured. Samples from cores or outcrops can
Permeability is an expression of the ease with contain minute fissures formed in response to
which fluids flow through a rock. It will depend on unloading during retrieval to the surface and these
the size of the pore spaces in the rocks, and in particu- must be closed to replicate the in situ permeability
lar the connections between the pore spaces. Even thin prior to unloading.
cracks will contribute greatly to increasing the Most rocks are far from homogeneous. We may
permeability. measure the porosity and permeability of a hand spec-
Permeability can be measured by letting a liquid or imen or core plug, but it is not certain that these are
gas flow through a cylindrical rock sample under pres- representative of a larger volume. Fractures occur at
sure. The pressure difference P1  P2 between the two varying intervals, and range in size from large, open
ends of a horizontal cylinder is ΔP, the cylinder length joints down to microscopic cracks which can barely be
L, and the flow rate of water (or another fluid) through seen in a microscope.
the cylinder, is Q (cm3/s). A is the cross-section and μ Rocks with low porosity and permeability may
the viscosity of the fluid fracture and sufficiently increase their porosity, and
particularly permeability, to form large oil reservoirs.
k  A  ΔP This means that reservoirs may be good producers
Q¼
Lμ despite relatively low porosity.
Occasionally we find petroleum in fractured meta-
where k is the permeability. morphic and igneous rocks but reservoirs normally
The volume of water which flows through each consist of sedimentary rocks. Sandstones make up
surface unit in the cross-section A is thus equal to the about 50–60% of the reservoirs in the world while
20 K. Bjørlykke

carbonate reservoirs may account for almost 40%. more likely that water will break through along the
Many of the reservoirs in the Middle East are carbon- basal part and the oil will be by-passed in the finer-
ate rocks but in the rest of the world the percentage of grained upper part during production.
carbonate reservoirs is lower. Braided stream facies will tend to have higher sand/
The most important aspects of reservoir rocks shale ratios and will normally have better lateral and
include: vertical permeabilitites on a larger scale.
(1) The external geometry such as the thickness and The ratio between the intervals with high enough
extent of the reservoir rock in all directions. porosity and permeability to be produced (net or pay),
(2) The average porosity, pore size and pore and the total sequence (gross), will be mostly deter-
geometry. mined by the primary facies relationships. The net/
(3) The distribution of permeability in the reservoirs, gross ratio is often taken to be approximately equal
particularly high permeability conduits and low to the sand/shale ratio but even at moderate burial
permeability barriers to fluid flow. depths many sandstones are not reservoir rocks, due
(4) Mineralogy and wettability of the pore network. to poor sorting or carbonate cement.
The properties of sandstone and carbonate Aeolian dunes also have specific external
reservoirs are primarily linked to the depositional geometries and there are many different types. Here
environment, the textural and mineralogical composi- the net/gross will be very high. Aeolian sand is often
tion and the burial history. A good background in reworked by transgressions, accumulating as marine
general sedimentology, facies analysis and sequence sediments in drowned topographic depressions
stratigraphy is therefore important. (valleys).
Nevertheless, many of the important properties of Marine sandstones deposited as delta mouth bars,
reservoir rocks linked to changes in facies and smaller shoreface accretion and barrier islands have
faults are below the vertical resolution of exploration thicknesses controlled by the wave energy (wave
seismic (15–30 m) and it is important to establish base depth). In protected environments, particularly
relationships between facies models, diagenetic pro- inter-distributary bays, the shoreface sandstones may
cesses and reservoir properties. The properties of be very thin. Each shallow marine unit has a limited
faults are also very important factors determining oil thickness controlled by fairweather wave base. Local
flow during production. subsidence or transgressions can increase the thick-
ness of these sand deposits.
The tidal range is very important in determining the
1.11 External Geometry of Reservoir thickness and the length of tidal channel sandstones.
Rocks Tidal channels and also fluvial channels in deltas tend
to be oriented perpendicular to coastlines.
The external geometry of reservoir rocks is largely Drilling into shallow marine sandstones, it would
determined by the depositional environments, but be very important to determine whether it was a barrier
faulting and diagenesis may define the lateral or verti- island which would represent an elongated reservoir
cal extent of a reservoir. parallel to the coastline, or a tidal sandstone which
Fluvial sandstones typically represent point bar tends to be oriented perpendicular to the coastline. In
sequences in a meandering river system. The lateral some cases dipmeter logs could help to determine the
accretion of the point bar will deposit a sandstone orientation of cross-beddding and progradation direc-
layer extending to the width of the meander belt in tion of sand bars.
the valley. The thicknesses of channel sandstones are Turbidites may be laterally very extensive, but may
limited by the depth of the river. The primary thick- also be confined to narrow submarine channels. In
ness at the time of deposition is, however, reduced by either case they may form very thick sequences
10–30% or more by compaction. because there is ample accommodation space. We
The overbank muds will become tight shales which may have very thick sequences of stacked sandstone
will reduce the vertical permeability. Fluvial channels reservoir rocks in slope and deepwater facies and this
are characterised by fining-upwards sequences with may compensate for the lower porosity and permeabil-
the highest permeability near the base. This makes it ity compared to beach deposits.
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 21

Turbidites and fluvial sandstones form fining- sedimentology (depositional environments) of reser-
upwards units while marine shoreface and mouth bar voir rocks, sediment composition (provenance), dia-
sandstones are coarsening-upwards. This becomes genesis and the structural geology.
very significant during production because oil and Prior to drilling exploration wells, nearly all our
gas will be concentrated in the upper part. knowledge about a reservoir is based on geophysical
Coarsening-upwards sandstones therefore have the data. Even after data has been acquired from explora-
best properties for flow of oil and gas during tion wells, and also from production wells, prediction
production. of the reservoir properties continues to be mostly
based on geophysical methods and extrapolation
between wells.
1.12 Changes in Rock Properties During Geophysical methods including 3D and 4D seismic
Burial and Uplift (Diagenesis) now provide a much more detailed picture of the
reservoir than only 10–20 years ago. The methods
The changes in properties are due to increased burial for detecting fluid contacts, not only gas/water
and also to uplift. Both sandstone and carbonate contacts but also oil/water contacts, from seismic
reservoirs undergo diagenesis, which will cause a data have improved greatly.
reduction in porosity and permeability as a function
of increasing burial.
The reduction in porosity (compaction) may be 1.13 Carbonate Reservoirs
mechanical in response to increased effective stress
from the overburden, or chemical as a result of the Reefs stand up as positive structures and may be
dissolution and precipitation of minerals. The porosity draped by mud and form a stratigraphic trap deter-
of reservoir sandstones or carbonates may increase mined by the size of the reef structure.
with depth in certain intervals, but this is because of Carbonate reefs, and other carbonate deposits
the changes in the primary sediment composition. which can be reservoirs, form in a wide range of
Each lithology has a different porosity depth curve. environments but all require clear water without
In a uniform primary lithology the porosity and the much clay sedimentation. Reefs are deposited in high
density will be reduced as a function of burial depth energy environments along coastlines exposed to high
(temperature and stress). Overpressure causes reduced wave energy. The Bahamas carbonate platform has
effective stress resulting in less mechanical compac- well-developed reefs on the exposed eastern side but
tion. Near the surface, meteoric flow may cause disso- not on the more protected western side. Coral reefs
lution and a net increase in the porosity in carbonates also require warm water (>20
C) and do not form
(karst) and even, to a certain extent, in sandstones. where cold water is upwelling, e.g. along the coast of
In continuously subsiding basins, open faults and West Africa.
fractures will be rare because of the progressive com- Reefs build up on the seafloor and may be buried
paction processes. Shales may however fracture at beneath mud during transgressions. The reef then
high overpressures (fracture pressure) near the top of becomes a perfect stratigraphic trap, often with good
structural highs, but that may be separate from the permeability both vertically and horizontally.
fault planes. Reefs can form long continuous barriers as in
During uplift and erosion (exhumation, unloading) Australia (Great Barrier Reef). In the US much oil
the rocks will be subjected to extension, and exten- was found by following Jurassic and Cretaceous reef
sional fractures will be produced. The porosity will not trends around the Gulf of Mexico.
increase significantly but the extensional fractures will High energy beach deposits on carbonate banks
increase the permeability and thus improve the reser- may consist of well-sorted carbonate sand
voir properties. Unfortunately the cap rock may also (grainstones). Ooid sands (ooliths) are formed as
fracture during unloading, causing leakage from the beach and shoreface deposits and may have limited
reservoir. vertical thickness, reflecting the wave base. They may
To understand the properties of reservoir rock we however stack up and form thicker sequences of such
need to integrate what we know about the rocks. Ooids may also be transported from the shelf
22 K. Bjørlykke

into deeper water as turbidites and other slope oil here, but merely look briefly at some of the most
deposits, but the sorting and reservoir quality is then important principles.
reduced. When drilling commences at the surface, the diam-
Ooids are rather stable mechanically during burial, eter of the well may be 20"–30" (50–75 cm), but
but at 2–3 km porosity may be strongly reduced by decreases downwards to 3"–6" (7–15 cm) at great
cementation in the intergranular pore space. The cal- depths. Normally a roller bit is used, which crushes
cite cement may be derived by dissolution along the rock into small pieces (about 2–5 mm) called
stylolites. Stylolites have a thin layer of clay and cuttings. Core samples are only taken when drilling
other minerals that are not soluble and may present a through especially important rock strata (usually res-
barrier during oil migration and production. ervoir rocks) where large intact samples are needed for
Carbonate muds are very fine grained and do not detailed examination. A circular diamond core drill bit
have high enough primary porosity and permeability must then be used. This takes time and costs a lot more
to form reservoir rocks, but may gain porosity and per running metre, as the entire drill string has to be
permeability by fracturing and become fractured recovered to get each core section to the surface. Only
reservoirs. They can also have mouldic porosity from the most critical sections are therefore cored.
dissolved aragonite fossils. Drilling mud is pumped down through the drill
string into the well during drilling. This mud has
several functions. When one drills several hundred or
1.14 Drilling for Oil and Gas a 1,000 m down into rock, one encounters water, gas
or oil which may be under high pressure. The drilling
Drilling for oil is a costly process, especially offshore. mud acts as a counterweight to prevent the uncon-
The object of a well is to prove the presence of, or trolled gush of water or petroleum into the well and
produce, oil or gas. Sometimes wells are also drilled to up to the surface in a blow-out. The pressure exerted
inject water, chemicals or steam into the reservoir by the drilling mud must exceed the pressure of oil and
during production. Even a well which fails to find water in the surrounding formation. Heavy minerals
hydrocarbons (a dry well) is still of great value, such as barytes are frequently added to increase den-
because of the information it provides about the sity; the main components of drilling mud are mont-
rocks in the area. This information forms part of the morillonite (smectite) containing clays, with a large
basis for the geological maps and profiles which are number of different additives. The drilling mud also
used in further exploration for oil and can be sold or serves to cool the drill bit, and cuttings are brought
exchanged for data from other companies. This is the back to the surface suspended in the circulating mud.
reason why oil companies wish to keep the geological The cuttings are then washed out from the drilling mud
results of oil drilling confidential for some years after a onto a sieve (shale shaker) and the mud can be used
well has been completed. again.
The first well in a new area is called a wildcat well, The cuttings are continuously analysed on the dril-
while appraisal wells are drilled to estimate the exten- ling platform by a geologist who logs the composition
sion of an oil field. They may also become production of the cuttings, making a preliminary description of
wells. Stratigraphic wells are drilled mainly to obtain the rocks which are being drilled, and their mineral-
stratigraphical information from the basin. ogy. Samples of cuttings are usually taken every
Oil drilling used to be carried out largely on land, 10–30 ft drilled. More detailed analyses are carried
but now offshore drilling takes place not only on our out in the laboratory. The cuttings are often poorly
continental shelves, but also in deep water (1–3 km). washed and need extra cleaning to get rid of the
This type of drilling is many times more costly than drilling mud; in weakly indurated mudstones it may
drilling in shallow water or on land. This has led to be difficult to separate the drilling mud from the soft
increased efforts to gain maximum information from cuttings. Organic additions to drilling mud may cause
wells. The cost of analysing samples and logs is small problems when analysing cuttings, and sometimes oil-
in relation to the cost of drilling the well. We shall not based rather than water-based drilling mud is used,
go very deeply into the technical aspects of drilling for which confuses analyses for oil. The fossil content of
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 23

the rock fragments, largely microfossils, is used to too expensive. Horizontal drilling has revolutionised
determine the age of the strata (see Biostratigraphy). oil production.
Not all the cuttings which come up with the drilling It is now possible to follow thin oil columns
mud have necessarily come from precisely the strata laterally and to make complex wells to drain different
being drilled through at that time. There may also be compartments in the reservoir. Large oil fields with
contamination due to the caving in of overlying strata thin oil columns like the Troll field in the North Sea
into the rising drilling mud. This means we can find would have been difficult to produce without horizon-
material from younger rocks with a different composi- tal drilling. Horizontal and deviated wells may extend
tion mixed in with the formation being drilled, 8–9 km from the drilling platform, enabling produc-
together with younger fossils. This demands consider- tion from relatively small reservoir compartments
able care when making stratigraphic interpretations away from the platform.
based on microfossils identified in cuttings. The safest Earlier, geophysics was used mainly to define
way is to register the first occurrences of a species structures but the quality of the seismic data was not
when proceeding downwards from the top in the well. good enough to provide much detail. 3D seismic based
The last occurrence of a fossil may be the result of on 50 m line spacing allows the construction of a
cave-ins from younger strata. three-dimensional cube of geophysicial data, which
Since the pressure of the drilling mud is being provides much more detailed information.
monitored and adjusted to prevent oil and gas from By repeating seismic surveys during production at
penetrating into the well, significant oil and gas 2–5 year intervals, the effect of changes in the fluid
occurrences may be drilled through without being composition on the seismic data can be seen, thus
registered. This should be detected on the logs but it adding the time dimension to 3D seismics. 4D
may be advisable to carry out special tests in the most seismics has made it possible to follow the depletion
promising strata to find out if there is petroleum pres- of an oil or gas field by monitoring the GWC and often
ent, and in what quantities. also the OWC during production. By this means, parts
As drilling proceeds, the well is lined with steel of a reservoir that have not been drained by the pro-
casing to prevent rock and loose sediment falling into duction wells can be detected. If the isolated reservoir
it, but prior to casing, each section of the well has to be compartments are large it may be economic to drill
logged with different logging tools which require additional wells to drain them.
physical contact with the wall of the well. Radioactive
logs, however, can also be run after the casing has
been installed. It is useful to note when the different 1.15 Oil Reserves – How Long Will
casings are installed, because that limits the strata Conventional Oil Last?
which could have “caved in” and contaminated the
cuttings. If the well is going to produce oil, a produc- In the last 40–50 years we have had a discussion about
tion pipe is used and installed running through the how long the oil reserves will last and the famous
petroleum-bearing strata. It is then perforated by geologist M. King Hubbert predicted in 1956 that oil
shooting holes in the steel casing (in the oil column) production would peak in the United States between
so that petroleum can flow into the well. 1965 and 1970, and later Colin Campbell predicted
For an oil field to be capable of full production, that world production would peak in 2007 (see the
several wells are normally required. Peak Oil movement). There is, however, a great deal
Up to 1990–1995 most of the exploration wells and of uncertainty in the estimation of reserves since this
production wells were nearly vertical. Horizontal will depend on advances in exploration technology as
barriers due to changes in facies or faults could then well as production efficiency.
be critical barriers during production. It was difficult The price of oil and taxation policies will also
to produce oil from thin sandstones or carbonate beds determine which type of oil accumulations can be
because of vertical flow of water from below or gas exploited economically and thus reckoned as reserves.
from above. Onshore this could be compensated for by At present the world reserves are estimated to be
having a dense well spacing but offshore that would be

1:2  1012 bbl 2  1011 m3 and nearly 60% of this is
24 K. Bjørlykke

located in the Middle East. Europe has only got 1% A broader background in geological and engineering
and the whole of Asia about 3%. disciplines will also be required to reduce the environ-
Canada had up to recently very small reserves but mental problems with the exploitation of fossil fuels.
after the heavy oil and tar sand in Alberta was included Storage of carbon dioxide requires expertise from
it has now nearly 15% and is second only to Saudi petroleum geologists.
Arabia. The exploitation and burning of fossil fuels releases
If oil shales were to be included, however, the USA large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere which is an
would be the country with the largest reserves. addition to what is part of the natural carbon cycle
The world consumes about 90 million bbl/day; the (Fig. 1.14). The CO2 in the atmosphere is dissolved in


US consumption ð20:7106 bbl=day makes up nearly seawater to H2CO3 and then precipitated as carbonate.
25% of that. Another part is taken up by plants, including algae,
The most important producers are Saudi Arabia and may be stored as reduced carbon.
(10.2  106 bbl/day) and Russia (9.9  106 bbl/day). The total amounts of calcite precipitated is equal to
The US is also a major producer and has increased the amounts of Ca++ released by weathering of silicate
from 7.5 million bbl/day in 2008 to 11 million barrels/ rocks (e.g. plagioclase) and transported into the ocean
day in 2014, mainly from oil shale production, and by rivers.
now provides for >50% of the country’s consumption.
China has become a major importer of oil with a
consumption of 9.0  106 bbl/day, while their produc- 1.16 The Future of Petroleum
tion is 4  106 bbl/day. Geoscience
It is clear that consumption of oil in Asia will rise
and it will be very difficult to meet this demand. Petroleum geoscience is geology and geophysics
Norway’s oil production is about 1.9  106 bbl but applied to petroleum exploration and production. In
the domestic consumption is comparatively small this book we will try to show the wide range of
(0.22  106 bbl/day), so Norway is a major exporter. disciplines that are relevant and useful for this
Gas production has increased, supplying more than purpose.
20% of Europe‘s natural gas consumption. Many of the disciplines in the geosciences are
It will probably be difficult to meet the demand for highly specialised and there is often too little commu-
conventional oil in the next decades. There are, however, nication between the different fields. Most researchers
very large reserves of fossil fuels in terms of gas, heavy naturally focus on a very small area because of the
oil, tar sand and also coal. All these types of fossil fuel can requirements with respect to methods and analytical
be used for heating and transport. Particularly in North techniques, and the demands of following the litera-
America there is much oil shale and also gas shale. Gas in ture. Applied petroleum geoscience requires a broad
fine-grained siltstones and shales is expected to be a overview of substantial parts of geology and geophys-
major source or energy in the years to come. ics and provides good training in the integration of
In recent years coal methane and shale gas have different types of data and models. These skills are
become important sources of such energy. Gas in solid also applicable in many types of environmental
form (gas hydrates) may also represent a future source research and when solving practical environment
of hydrocarbons. There are, however, many environ- problems.
mental problems connected to the production and The petroleum industry employs a large percentage
utilisation of these resources and this represents a of the world’s geologists and geophysicists and funds
great challenge, including for geoscientists. much of the research in this field.
It will probably take a long time before fossil fuels Most of the obvious petroleum-bearing structures
can be replaced by other sources of energy. As the have already been found in the explored sedimentary
demand increases, oil exploration and production will basins and there are now rather few areas that have yet
become more and more sophisticated technologically to be explored seismically and by drilling. The large,
and also geologically. easy-to-find structures did not usually require very
advanced methods and geological skills.
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 25

Geochemistry of carbonate minerals

CO2 Dissolution of
carbonate rocks

CO
Photosynthesis

CO2 Oxidation of
organic matter

Transport of Delta

CO2 exchange
organic matter Addition of organic matter
by rivers + nutrients to the ocean
Organic Photosynthesis
plant matter Breakdown
in delta CO2
of biogenic
sediment carbonate
Oxidation of
CO2 organic matter
Deposition
of carbonate
CO2 Ocean floor
Oxidation and
biological processing Deposition of
of organic material organic material
C
Kerogen in sediments

CO2

Carbon in
sedimentary rocks

Fig. 1.14 Illustration of the carbon cycle. Carbon from organic is limited by the supply of Ca++ and Mg++ from weathering of
matter and carbonate rocks are the major sinks for carbon (CO2). silicate rocks brought in by rivers
The rate of precipitation of carbonate in the ocean by organisms

More and more sophisticated methods are therefore

used in modern exploration. We are on a global basis 1.17 Conventional and Unconventional
not finding enough new oil fields oil to replace the Oil and Gas
produced oil. Global reserves have however not
changed very much because of higher estimates of Reservoir rocks have traditionally been defined as
recovery from existing fields and because unconven- rocks with sufficient permeability and porosity for
tional oil like tar sand is now included in the reserves. petroleum to be produced economically by drilling
There is a major challenge for geoscientists to wells. They have most commonly been sandstones
develop ever better exploration methods and to opti- and limestones but fractured basement rocks may
mise production. also serve as reservoirs. Sandstone reservoirs normally
Even if the global production of conventional oil have porosities >10–12% and permeability >0.01
may be reduced there will be significant production for Darcy. Gas may be produced from tighter rocks. Petro-
many decades. This will mostly come from the tail leum generated in organic-rich source rocks must have
production of giant fields and from small reservoirs, migrated to a reservoir rock to be produced as conven-
but it is rather labour intensive. This is also the case tional oil and gas.
with unconventional oil (tar sand and oil shale) and Exploration is then limited to structural traps or
also tight gas reserves and shale gas. pinch-outs trapping the hydrocarbons.
Until enough alternative sources of energy are In many mature sedimentary basins such traps have
developed it is necessary to extract fossils fuels from already been explored and produced.
these resources. This should be done with as little In the last 5–10 years it has however been possible
environmental damage as possible and this requires a to produce oil and gas directly from shales which are
new generation of highly skilled geoscientists. source rocks even if their porosity and permeability
26 K. Bjørlykke

WELL FOR Cap rock

Conventional Tar
UNCONVENTIONAL OIL
reservoir (Shale) sand
Well AND GAS
(trap)

Heavy
oil

Shale gas/
Shale oil

Fig. 1.15 Simplified illustration of the difference between produced by vertical wells. After uplift and erosion to about
conventional and unconventional oil and gas. Conventional oil 1.5–3 km depth, near-horizontal wells can follow shales and
and gas is limited to structural closure or other traps and can be produce from large parts of the basin

are rather low. This has increased gas and oil produc- heated to 400–500
C to generate oil. This requires
tion dramatically, particularly in the US, and is often large amounts of water and produces very great
referred to as unconventional oil and gas. Unconven- volumes of waste which is difficult to store.
tional oil and gas however can be produced from Heavy oil and tar sand is found at rather shallow
shales covering much of the basins, independent of a depth where oil has been biodegraded and become
structural trap (Fig. 1.15). This has been possible using highly viscous (Fig. 1.16). Bacteria capable of break-
long horizontal wells and methods to fracture shales ing down oil exist at the surface and in sediments
by injecting water at high pressure. Many of the shales which are buried to depths with temperatures less
producing oil and gas in the US have a significant than about 80
C. When oil migrates into sandstones
content of silt and also carbonate cement, which and limestones at these depths bacteria can start eating
influences their fracture properties. the oil; the light components will be consumed first,
Shales representing source rock buried to 3-4 km leaving the heavy component.
(>120–140
C) will contain some oil which has not In reservoir rocks which have been buried more
been expelled. After uplift to 1–2.5 km depth they deeply (T >80
C) bacteria have not survived and
have been unloaded and fracture more easily because these rocks are pasteurised. Oil can then be preserved
of differential stresses. Sand or other granular material for a long time at relatively shallow depth (a few
is used to prevent the fractures from closing. hundred metres) without being biodegraded (Fig.
Organic-rich shales that have been buried to 1.18).
120–150
C have generated oil which has migrated Such oil may be produced by injection of steam to
upwards to a reservoir rock or to the surface. Some heat the oil to make is less viscous so that is can flow to
of the oil generated is however not expelled and can be the wells. Tar sand may also be excavated and the oil
produced as unconventional oil. Shales that have been is then separated from the sand by using hot water.
buried to greater depth (>150–180
C) contain mostly Steam and hot water require energy which in most
shale gas. (Fig. 1.16). Some of the injected water will cases is produced by burning oil or gas which results
be produced with the oil and gas and this water may be in increased CO2 emissions.
highly saline and contain toxic components, causing Organic matter rich in plant material (humic kero-
environmental concerns that it may pollute the gen Type III) undergoes thermal alteration to brown
groundwater. coal (lignite) and coal (Fig. 1.17). This type of kerogen
Shales that have not been buried deeply enough for (vitrinite) changes from dull to more shiny material
the organic matter (kerogen) to mature into oil or gas with increasing temperature. Under the microscope
are called oil shales. These must be excavated and the percentage of reflected light is a measure of the
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 27

Organic matter - mostly algae

Surface (0)/25°C Geological time
Tar sand
Shallow gas
Heavy oil
Shale gas
Shale oil
Oil-
3 km/100°C
shale

Oil Oil window

4-5 km/150°C
Condensate
Gas

6-8 km/200°C

Depth /Temperature

Fig. 1.16 Alteration of organic material, mostly algae, with increasing depth and temperature. Shallow gas is formed at shallow
depth (low temperature) by bacteria. In oil shale the temperature has been insufficient to generate petroleum from the kerogen

Plants
Surface (0)/25°C Geological time
Turf, bog

Coal bed methane

Brown
coal
Lignite
3 km/100°C

Coal

4-5 km/150°C
Anthracite

6-8 km/200°C
Depth/Temperature

Fig. 1.17 Alteration of plants and woody material with increasing burial, temperature and time

thermal alteration in a sedimentary basin (vitrinite migration. This involves modelling based on the kinet-
reflectivity). ics and temperature history.
Before drilling, the position of a trap and a reservoir
rock has to be determined.
1.18 Summary The porosity and permeability of the reservoir rock
is critical. If the porosity is 30% it may at the best
In the exploration for oil and gas we need to predict the contain about 250 l of oil and 50 l of water for each m3
occurrence and distribution of source rocks which is a of rock, and assuming 50% recovery, 125 l of oil can
function of the sedimentary environment and climate be produced. If the porosity is only 15% it may contain
at the time of deposition. The burial history has to be about 100 l of oil and the recovery may then be lower
reconstructed to predict the timing of maturation and so that less than 50 l will be produced.
28 K. Bjørlykke

Effect of heang (pasteurisaon) of reservoir

rock prior to oil migraon and filling
Seafloor
or land
surface

Sand reservoir Biodegraded oil/tar sand

with some B Reservoir
quartz cement
loose sand
A 80° C

Normal oil - little

biodegradation.
Reservoir rock Reservoir A may aer
Migration
of oil from pasteurised at upli and erosion contain
deeper temperatures >80° C oil which is not very much
source biodegraded even at
rocks relavely shallow depth .
Reservoir B may be an
exposed tar sand.

Fig. 1.18 Pasteurisation effects as a function of maximum burial temperature on migrating oil. Oil migrating into reservoirs that
have not been buried deeply enough to be pasteurised will contain bacteria and is likely to be biodegraded relatively fast

The quality of reservoir rocks depends on the depo- refined over many years. This book will include an
sitional environments and the primary mineralogical introduction to geophysical methods and also 4D
and textural composition, and on the diagentic pro- seismic methods. Interpretation of geophysical data
cesses that change the reservoir properties during requires that the physical properties of sedimentary
burial. rocks are known or can be predicted. We have there-
For sandstone reservoirs the distribution and geom- fore put some emphasis on rock mechanics and rock
etry of sand is critical because much of this is below physics.
the resolution of seismic methods, and even after dril- Unconventional oil such as heavy oil, tar sand,
ling the information from each well has to be shale oil and shale gas represents new challenges and
extrapolated in 3 dimensions. requires also different training and background from
For this reason I have included a chapter on sedi- that of the conventional petroleum geologist. The
mentary structures and sedimentary facies and also on organic chemistry of petroleum and the detailed min-
carbonates. There are, however, many textbooks eralogy of the rocks become increasingly important.
which will give a more detailed presentation of clastic Estimates of global petroleum reserves vary greatly
sedimentology. To be able to predict the reservoir with time and are dependent on the price of oil and gas
properties we must understand the principles of sand- and other energy sources and also on exploration and
stone diagenesis and this is discussed in Chapter 4. production technology. There are also very large
This also involves chemical reactions driven by ther- reserves of oil shale e.g. the Eocene Green River
modynamics and kinetics. Reservoir quality can to a shale (in the southern US) which must be heated
certain extent be modelled as a part of basin before oil and gas can be extracted.
modelling, if the primary mineralogical and textural It is however clear that it is becoming more difficult
composition is known. to find new reserves to compensate for production and
Exploration and production of conventional oil has that there are relatively few remaining unexplored
become well established and technologies have been sedimentary basins. Production of oil and gas from
1 Introduction to Petroleum Geology 29

unconventional sources represents a serious environ- Further Reading

mental challenge to limit local pollution and also the
release of CO2.
Much updated information can be found on the Allen, P.A. and Allen, J.R. 2005. Basin Analysis. Principles and
Applications. Blackwell, Oxford, 549 pp.
Internet: Beaumont, E.A. and Foster, N.H. 1999. Exploring for Oil and
International Energy Agency(IEA) www.iea.org Gas Traps. Treatise of Petroleum Geology. AAPG Special
US geological survey (http://www.usgs.gov/) Publication 40, 347 pp.
Peak oil (http://peakoil.com/) Biju-Duval, B. 1999. Sedimentary Geology. Sedimentary
Basins, Depositional Environments, Petroleum Formation.
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (http://www.npd. Institut Francais du Pétrole Publication, Rueil-Malmaison
no/) Editions Technip, 642 pp.
Geological Society of London (http://www.geolsoc. Glennie, K.W. 1998. Geology of the North Sea: Basic Concepts
org.uk) and Recent Advances. Blackwell, Oxford, 636 pp.
Groshong, R.H. 1999. 3D Structural Geology. A Practical Guide
IFP (http://www.ifp.fr/) to Surface and Subsurface Interpretation. Springer, New
Units for petroleum reserves: York, 324 pp.
1 Sm3 (One standard cubic metre) ¼ 6.293 bbl Hunt, J.M. 1996. Petroleum Geochemistry and Geology. Free-
1 Sm3¼ 35.3 standard cubic feet. man and Co., New York, 741 pp.
Miall, A.D. 1996. The Geology of Fluvial Processes, Basin
1,000 Sm3 of gas ¼ 1 Sm3 o.e Analyses, and Petroleum Geology. Springer, New York,
1 Sm3 of oil ¼ 1 Sm3 o.e 582 pp.
1 tonne of NGL ¼ 1.3 Sm3 o.e Salvador, A. 2005. Energy: A Historical Perspective and 21st
o.e – oil equivalents are used to sum up the energy of Century Forecast. AAPG Studies in Geology 54, 207 pp.
oil, gas and NGL (Natural Gas Liquids).