Geophysical prediction of organic matter abundance in source rocks based on geochemical analysis:A case study of southwestern Bozhong Sag,Bohai Sea,China

The Bozhong Sag is the largest petroliferous sag in the Bohai Bay Basin,and the source rocks of Paleogene Dongying and Shahejie Formations were buried deeply.Most of the drillings were located at the structural high,and there were few wells that met good quality source rocks,so it is difficult to evaluate the source rocks in the study area precisely by geochemical analysis only.Based on the Rock-Eval pyrolysis,total organic carbon(TOC)testing,the organic matter(OM)abundance of Paleogene source rocks in the southwestern Bozhong Sag were evaluated,including the lower of second member of Dongying Formation(E_(3)d2L),the third member of Dongying Formation(E_(3)d_(3)),the first and second members of Shahejie Formation(E_(2)s_(1+2)),the third member of Shahejie Formation(E_(2)s_(3)).The results indicate that the E_(2)s_(1+2)and E_(2)s_(3)have better hydrocarbon generative potentials with the highest OM abundance,the E_(3)d_(3)are of the second good quality,and the E_(3)d2L have poor to fair hydrocarbon generative potential.Furthermore,the well logs were applied to predict TOC and residual hydrocarbon generation potential(S_(2))based on the sedimentary facies classification,usingΔlogR,generalizedΔlogR,logging multiple linear regression and BP neural network methods.The various methods were compared,and the BP neural network method have relatively better prediction accuracy.Based on the pre-stack simultaneous inversion(P-wave impedance,P-wave velocity and density inversion results)and the post-stack seismic attributes,the three-dimensional(3D)seismic prediction of TOC and S_(2)was carried out.The results show that the seismic near well prediction results of TOC and S_(2)based on seismic multi-attributes analysis correspond well with the results of well logging methods,and the plane prediction results are identical with the sedimentary facies map in the study area.The TOC and S_(2)values of E_(2)s_(1+2)and E_(2)s_(3)are higher than those in E_(3)d_(3)and E_(3)d_(2)L,basically consistent with the geochemical analysis results.This method makes up the deficiency of geochemical methods,establishing the connection between geophysical information and geochemical data,and it is helpful to the 3D quantitative prediction and the evaluation of high-quality source rocks in the areas where the drillings are limited.

Differences in source kitchens for lacustrine in-source and out-of-source hydrocarbon accumulations

Because of the differences of hydrocarbon accumulation between in-source and out-of-source oil pools, the demand for source kitchen is different. Based on the establishment of source-to-reservoir correlation in the known conventional accumulations, and the characteristics of shale oil source kitchens as well, this paper discusses the differences of source kitchens for the formation of both conventional and shale oils. The formation of conventional oil pools is a process of hydrocarbons enriching from disperse state under the action of buoyancy, which enables most of the oil pools to be formed outside the source kitchens. The source rock does not necessarily have high abundance of organic matter, but has to have high efficiency and enough amount of hydrocarbon expulsion. The TOC threshold of source rocks for conventional oil accumulations is 0.5%, with the best TOC window ranging from 1% to 3%. The oil pools formed inside the source kitchens, mainly shale oil, are the retention of oil and gas in the source rock and there is no large-scale hydrocarbon migration and enrichment process happened, which requires better quality and bigger scale of source rocks. The threshold of TOC for medium to high maturity of shale oil is 2%, with the best range falling in 3%–5%. Medium to low mature shale oil resource has a TOC threshold of 6%, and the higher the better in particular. The most favorable kerogen for both high and low-mature shale oils is oil-prone type of I–II1. Carrying out source rock quality and classification evaluation and looking for large-scale and high-quality source rock enrichment areas are a scientific issue that must be paid attention to when exploration activity changes from out-of-source regions to in-source kitchen areas. The purpose is to provide theoretical guidance for the upcoming shale oil enrichment area selection, economic discovery and objective evaluation of resource potential.

Molecular evolution of nitrogen-containing compounds in highly mature organic matter: Implications for the hydrocarbon generation potential

Evaluating the hydrocarbon generation potential of highly mature organic matter is a key and critically challenging area of research in petroleum geochemistry. To explore this issue, we used negative ion electrospray ionization-Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry to investigate the molecular evolution of N-containing compounds in Carboniferous-lower Permian source rocks with a range of maturities in the northwestern Junggar Basin, China. The N1compounds formed from on-fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites(NCCs), which record the characteristics of the residual soluble organic matter. These components remain in the source rocks after hydrocarbon generation and expulsion, and enable evaluation of the hydrocarbon generation potential. The newly defined indexes of molecular evolution, which are the polymerization index P1([DBE 18+DBE 15]/[DBE 12+DBE 9]_N1) and alkylation index R1(RC_(6–35)/RC_(0–5)), combined with the vitrinite reflectance(VR_(o)) and paleo-salinity index(β-carotane/n Cmax), can identify the factors that control the evolution of highly mature organic matter. The main factor for source rocks deposited in a weakly saline environment is the maturity, but for a highly saline environment both the maturity and salinity are key factors. The high salinity inhibits the molecular polymerization of organic matter and extends the oil generation peak. Given the differences in the bio-precursors in saline source rocks, we propose a new model for hydrocarbon generation that can be used to determine the oil generation potential of highly mature organic matter.

Removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from aqueous solution by raw and modified plant residue materials as biosorbents

Removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons （PAHs）, e.g., naphthalene, acenaphthene, phenanthrene and pyrene, from aqueous solution by raw and modified plant residues was investigated to develop low cost biosorbents for organic pollutant abatement. Bamboo wood, pine wood, pine needles and pine bark were selected as plant residues, and acid hydrolysis was used as an easily modification method. The raw and modified biosorbents were characterized by elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The sorption isotherms of PAHs to raw biosorbents were apparently linear, and were dominated by a partitioning process. In comparison, the isotherms of the hydrolyzed biosorbents displayed nonlinearity, which was controlled by partitioning and the specific interaction mechanism. The sorpfion kinetic curves of PAHs to the raw and modified plant residues fit well with the pseudo second-order kinetics model. The sorption rates were faster for the raw biosorbents than the corresponding hydrolyzed biosorbents, which was attributed to the latter having more condensed domains （i.e., exposed aromatic core）. By the consumption of the amorphous cellulose component under acid hydrolysis, the sorption capability of the hydrolyzed biosorbents was notably enhanced, i.e., 6-18 fold for phenanthrene, 6-8 fold for naphthalene and pyrene and 5-8 fold for acenaphthene. The sorpfion coefficients （Kd） were negatively correlated with the polarity index [（O＋N）/C], and positively correlated with the aromaticity of the biosorbents. For a given biosorbent, a positive linear correlation between logKoc and logKow for different PAHs was observed. Interestingly, the linear plots of logKoc-logKow were parallel for different biosorbents. These observations suggest that the raw and modified plant residues have great potential as biosorbents to remove PAHs from wastewater.