Modeling the maturation history of the stacked petroleum systems of the Williston Basin, USA

Assessment of Oil and Gas Potential in Vychegda Trough in Connection with the Identification of Potential Petroleum Systems

“…The global experience of geological exploration shows that nowadays it is difficult to imagine the assessment and forecasting of the oil and gas potential of poorly explored areas without modern methods. One of the widely used technologies is basin modeling or HC systems modeling [75][76][77]. Today, basin modeling is an integral part of the geological exploration process and is performed not only at the regional stage, but also at the prospecting and appraisal, and exploration and production stages [78].…”

Insights on Using Solid Bitumen Reflectance as a Thermal Maturity Proxy in the Bakken Formation, Williston Basin, USA

“…BR o values are 0.31 ± 0.05 to 0.53 ± 0.06% ( n = 14) for wells F190, F194, and 26661; 0.61 ± 0.08 to 0.78 ± 0.11% ( n = 4) for well 20844; and 1.05 ± 0.15 to 1.29 ± 0.14% ( n = 16) for wells 22388, 29426, 24123, and 19918 (Table ). Proximity to current hydrocarbon production and the locations of the sampled wells with respect to prior thermal maturity modeling place the samples into 3 thermal maturity groupings: immature to early mature in wells F190, F194, and 26661; early peak oil in well 20844; and post peak oil to early condensate in 22388, 29426, 24123, and 19918. Therefore, BR o values of 0.31 ± 0.05 to 0.53 ± 0.06% suggest immature to early mature conditions, whereas BR o of 0.61 ± 0.08 to 0.78 ± 0.11% suggests early peak oil, and BR o values of 1.05 ± 0.15 to 1.29 ± 0.14% suggest post peak oil to early condensate conditions (Figure ).…”

“…Well locations for this study overlain on modeled hydrogen index (HI) values from Gelman . Adapted with permission from Gelman, S. E. Modeling the maturation history of the stacked petroleum systems of the Williston Basin, USA.…”

“…BR o values are 0.31 ± 0.05 to 0.53 ± 0.06% (n = 14) for wells F190, F194, and 26661; 0.61 ± 0.08 to 0.78 ± 0.11% (n = 4) for well 20844; and 1.05 ± 0.15 to 1.29 ± 0.14% (n = 16) for wells 22388, 29426, 24123, and 19918 (Table 3). Proximity to current hydrocarbon production 69 and the locations of the sampled wells with respect to prior thermal maturity modeling 54 place the samples into 3 thermal maturity groupings: immature to early mature in wells F190, F194, and 26661; early peak oil in well 20844; and post peak oil to Tasmanites. Heterogeneity of the bituminite to solid bitumen continuum at low maturity is considered to arise from differences in mineral inclusions and the relative degradation of the original organic matter, from which the visually most homogeneous and most abundant organic matter type was selected for the BR o measurement.…”

“…Accurate information on thermal maturity in the Bakken Formation is critical for North American petroleum exploration and development due to the importance of the Bakken petroleum system for current oil production − and its potential use as an analog or case study to inform exploration and development of other shale formations. In this study, we investigated BR o properties in the Bakken Formation, comparing this thermal proxy to other thermal maturity criteria from programmed temperature pyrolysis, gas chromatography (GC), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, to illustrate the interrelationships among thermal proxies and to outline best practices for thermal maturity determination in solid bitumen-rich source rocks where vitrinite is scarce or absent.…”