Applications of Petroleum Geochemistry in Oil and Gas Exploration

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:
• Understand the fundamentals of source rock, oil, and gas geochemical analysis, including their interpretive pitfalls.
• Understand various geochemical techniques, e.g., sampling, preparation, TOC determination, Rock-Eval pyrolysis and microscopy, including interpretive pitfalls.
• Learn how to interpret source rock data, including source rock richness, potential, and type and how to distinguish between different types of source rocks, their kinetics and quality (e.g., oil- versus gas- prone source rocks).
• Learn what type and quality of hydrocarbons can be predicted from each type of source rock.
• Learn the different maturity tools used in geochemistry and how to interpret and use maturity data to evaluate thermal history of source rocks and calibrate thermal history of sedimentary basins.
• Learn about the different geochemical techniques used for the fluids (oil and gas samples), including interpretive pitfalls.
• Learn how to perform oil-oil and oil-source rock correlations.
• Learn how to assess post-migration fluid alterations (e.g., evaporative fractionation, biodegradation, geo-chromatography, and other reservoir alteration processes).
• Learn how to evaluate gas samples.
• Demonstrate how geochemistry can be used to assist explorationists de-risking block and basin petroleum evaluation.

Day 1
Introduction to Petroleum Geochemistry and Geochemical Evaluation of Source Rocks
• Introduction
• Basic concepts, source rock/kerogen formation, depositional settings
• Samples, preparation, and analysis
• Source rock interpretation and pitfalls
• Source rock kinetics – Conversion of kerogen to hydrocarbons (kerogen type versus nature, quality, and volumes of generated hydrocarbons)
• Data interpretation
• Exercises

Day 2
Maturity evaluation
• Basic definitions and concepts
• Methods of maturity measurements
• Advantages and problems of each method and their interpretive pitfalls
• Data interpretation
• Exercises

Day 3
Geochemical Evaluation of Hydrocarbons (fluids and organic matter)
• Samples
• Sample preparation – Solvent extraction and fractionation
• Gas Chromatography – n-alkanes and isoprenoids for organic matter, oil and condensate
• Interpretive pitfalls
• Exercises

Day 4
Geochemical Evaluation of Hydrocarbons (fluids and organic matter)
• Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) – biomarkers
• Isotopes
• Interpretive pitfalls
• Exercises
Geochemical Evaluation of Hydrocarbon and Non-Hydrocarbon Gases
• Samples/sampling
• Gas Chromatography
• Gas Chromatography-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (GC-IR-MS): isotopes analysis and interpretation
• Gas evaluation – Hydrocarbon gas: compositional analysis and interpretation

Day 5
Geochemical Evaluation of Hydrocarbon and Non-Hydrocarbon Gases
• Gas evaluation – non-Hydrocarbon gases: compositional analysis and interpretation
• Analytical and interpretational pitfalls
• Data interpretation
• Exercises
Physical & Chemical properties of crude oils
• Physical properties (API gravity, viscosity, Pour Point)
• Chemical properties (Sulphur content, asphaltenes content, metals content, wax content, Total acid number)
• Data interpretation