Shell Special Intensive Training Programme Petroleum Geology

2 TYPES OF HYDROCARBONS

AREAS COVERED

1. INTRODUCT ION

2. NATURAL GAS

3. TYPES OF NATURAL GASES

4. LIQUID HYDROCARBONS

5. TYPES OF CRUDE OIL,

6. SOLID HYDROCARBONS

7. OIL SHALES

8. TAR SANDS

9. OIL FIELD WATER (BRINES)

INTRODUCTION

♦ Hydrocarbon is a natural organic substance composed mainly of

Hydrogen (H) and Carbon (C).

♦ Numerous (thousands of) types of hydrocarbon compounds (called

isomers) exist in nature. Petroleum is a very complex mixture of
different hydrocarbons.

♦ In one crude, there can be hundreds of different hydrocarbons.

♦ Hydrocarbon is immiscible in water and is of lower density. Due to

buoyancy, it therefore always floats on water.

♦ It can exist in gaseous, semi-liquid. liquid, semi-solid and solid states.

♦ Proper solid-state occurrences arc rare.

♦ Common occurrence of hydrocarbon is as mutual solutions of

gaseous and liquid phases.

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♦ -A gas pool contains gas and water while an oil pool contains
gas, oil and water. Each component varies in proportion known
as its saturation.

♦ A notable impurity of hydrocarbon is sulphur

♦ The carbon chain configuration of a hydrocarbon determines the type

of hydrocarbon (phase of existence).

1. Gas: C1 –C4

2. Liquid Petroleum (Crude oil)'. C5 –C11

3. -Semi-solid /Petroleum > C14

GAS

♦ Natural gas is also culled petroleum gas. It is the lightest. simplest and
least complex form of hydrocarbon (HC)

♦ It is HC that cannot be condensed at 200C and 1 atmosphere

pressure.

♦ In HC reservoirs gas can range from a minute amount dissolved in oil

to 100% of the reservoir hydrocarbon

♦ HC gas contains gaseous impurities like Hydrogen Sulfide ( H2S)

Nitrogen (N2) Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Helium which may be
commercially important.

♦ Natural Gas is said to be:

o ASSOCIATED GAS if it occurs with oil, usually as a gas cap on

top of oil. The amount of dissolved gas in the oil (up to its
saturation point) is called free gas. This is the gas usually
produced in the process of refining crude oil in refineries The
amount of gas dissolved in oil depends on the physical
characteristics of the oil and gas, gas-oil-ratio and prevailing
pressure and temperature.

o NON-ASSOCIATED GAS if the gas occurs alone and there is

no oil in the reservoir. Water is usually the underlying fluid in

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such reservoirs. The amount of gas dissolved in the water is

called dissolved gas.

♦ If a reservoir does not contain any free gas, the oil pool is said to be
unsaturated with respect to gas. The reservoir oil is usually saturated
with gas if free gas exists with (on top of) it.

♦ Gas is called:

o WET GAS if it contains petroleum vapours and extractable liquid

HC's are high. Wet gas usually contains methane, ethane.
propane and butane. Minor amounts of heavy molecular weight
types like pentane, hexane, heptanes and octanes may also be
present.

o DRY GAS is one that contains mainly methane and no

extractable liquid hydrocarbons. It is less complex than wet gas.

o LEAN GAS contains methane and small amounts of ethane.

Very little extractable HC's -Natural Gas can also occur in the
liquid state. It is then called Natural Gas Liquid (NGL)

o CONDENSATE: This is gaseous hydrocarbon in its subsurface

reservoir but becomes liquid upon production i.e. it is gas which
is liquid at STP. It consists mainly of pentane and higher
molecules. The API gravity of condensate is greater than 55°

♦ Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG). These are propanes and butanes. They
are gases at STP but which are easily liquefied.

♦ Natural gas that has been artificially liquified is called Liquefied Natural
Gas (LNG) It is actually methane frozen and liquifled at-160°C.

o Liquifaction is for reasons of transportation economics

LIQUID HYDROCARBON

♦ Natural liquid petroleum is called crude oil. IL is an opaque to

translucent liquid, light coloured or dark yellowish to dark brown in
colour and with widely varying chemistry. It is immiscible in water but
soluble in ether acetone, benzol etc.

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♦ Chemical variation is so rapid that no two-petroleum occurring in

different reservoirs are exactly the same. Within related fields however,
variation is small.

♦ Carbon (C) content of crude oil is 82-85%, Hydrogen (H) is 12-15%

while other mixtures of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Sulphur (NOS) are
usually less than 5% except in heavy crude oils like those from
Venezuela, Mexico etc.

♦ Crude oil normally contains hydrocarbon gas in solution. As seen

earlier

o The crude is said to be saturate if it contain gas.

o In such reservoirs, there is always a gas cap on top of the crude

oil.

TYPES OF CRUDE OILS

§ There are two main types of crude oils

a. Light coloured, low gravity oil which is rich in paraffin e.g. Niger
Delta Crude

b. Dark brown to black, heavy, highly asphaltic oil, which is poor in

paraffin e.g. Venezuelan and Mexican crude.

c. Intermediate varieties are very common but every petroleum

province is usually associated with its own type.

REASONS FOR DIFFERENCES IN CRUDE OIL TYPES

§ Differences in the original organic material (OM) that was

deposited in the basin of oil formation.

§ Differences in environment of deposition.

§ Initial processes of transformation of the organic matter.

§ Physical and chemical conditions at the time of oil generation.

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§ Physical and chemical conditions that have persisted in the

environment of generation, what happened during migration and
in the residence reservoir rocks.

§ Generally, terrigenous vegetative matters give rise to waxy oils

while marine organic matter (both animal and vegetative)
produce non-waxy oils.

SOLID HYDROCARBONS

§ Natural semi-solid Hydrocarbon (HC) is called

o Asphalt, tar, pitch, bituminous petroleum, pyrobitumin etc.

§ The presence of semi-solid to solid hydrocarbon in an area is idence

that source rocks are nearby in a basin.

§ There are three types of solid Hydrocarbons

a. Native Bitumens: These are altered kerogens devised from original

bituminous organic matter. Very high molecular weight (>C25,)
hydrocarbons.

b. Reservoir Bitumens: These are formed by insitu alteration of

normal hydrocarbons in reservoirs. Alteration is due to thermal
cracking or de-asphalting by natural gas.

c. Asphaltic Bitumens: These are formed at or near the surface under

low temperatures. They result from degradation of pooled oil by
microbial attack or insipation. They occur as surface mats of plastic
tar like material- pitch/asphalt.

OIL SHALES

§ These are bituminous non-marine limestones or mat stones

containing kerogen. They yield gaseous or liquid hydrocarbons
upon distillation of the rock above 350 0 C.

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§ The shales are usually dark brown to black in colour, well

laminated, tough, resinous and very high organic matter content
(>40%)

§ Oil derived from oil shale is usually paraffinic, high in sulphur but
low in trace elements

§ Oil shales are also called pyrobitumen.

§ Good grade oil shales can yield 25-50 gallons of liquid crude oil per
ton of shale.

TAR SANDS

§ These are sands impregnated or soaked with oil that is now too heavy
or viscous to be exploited by normal methods.

§ In situ dried up oil pools where the lighter fractions have escaped.
Oxidising reactions have helped to solidify the heavier oils that now
remain behind.

§ They occur as tar sands as in Okitipupa, Nigeria.

OIL FIELD WATER (BRINES)

§ This is not a hydrocarbon but a reservoir fluid, which is always

associated with the hydrocarbons in the reservoir.

§ Its presence affects the chemistry, physical state (confining pressure).

oil recovery and producability of oil wells.

§ Except eolian sediments, all other sediments are deposited in fluviatile

or marine environments i.e. in water. Although much of it is lost during
compaction, part of the interstitial waters and those from other sources,
become the oil field waters that are produced with oil or gas

§ Within the reservoir oil field waters are of two types:

o Bottom water which lies directly beneath the oil or gas pool

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o Edge water, which lies to the sides of •-he oil pool.

§ Oil field waters can be:

o Meteoric to infiltrated rain water

o Connate i.e. original water mixed with the sediments in place at

time of deposition

o Mixed i.e. of both connate and meteoric origin

§ Oil field waters are mixtures of free and interstitial waters

o Free water is the interconnected water body column in an

aquifer e.g. in water saturated reservoir rocks)

o Interstitial (also called attached) water that has clung to the

sediment grains since the time of deposition and cannot be
displaced by oil or gas.

§ Percentage of interstitial water increases with decrease in permeability

and porosity due to decreasing stein size and increasing surface area.

§ Oil field waters are in chemical equilibrium with the sediments and any
contained oil or gas pool.

§ As production declines in oil or gas wells the amount of free produced

water increases as is happening in parts of SPDC oil fields now (e.g.
Nembe field).

§ Disposal of this huge amount of produced water can be a problem

environmentally.

§ A well that drills into a "water only" bearing reservoir is called a dry well
or barren well.

§ The chemical composition and nature of oil field waters vary from field
to field. Even within the same field, it may vary from well to well.

§ The type of oil field water found in a well or field is usually named after
the dominant cations and anions in it.

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§ Sea water generally contains 35.000 ppm of dissolved mineral species,

most of it being NaCl

§ Most oil field waters contain upwards of 300.000 pmm of minerals in

solution

§ Oil field waters containing over 100,000 ppm of salts are usually
referred to as Brines hence the name Oil field brines.

§ In the V Niger delta, sodium is the dominant cation and chloride is the
dominant anion while the Ca / Mg ratio may be up to 5: 1.

§ Chloride-Bicarbonate-Sodium type waters are the most common in

Niger Delta oil fields.

§ The handling, re-use and/or disposal of oil field brines are important
aspects of well engineering, reservoir management- production
strategies, and environmental considerations in the oil industry.

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