Hydrocarbon Generation and Migration from Jurassic Source Rocks in the East Shetland Basin and Viking Graben of the Northern North Sea

Author(s):  
J.C. Goff
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 9-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik I. Petersen

Although it was for many years believed that coals could not act as source rocks for commercial oil accumulations, it is today generally accepted that coals can indeed generate and expel commercial quantities of oil. While hydrocarbon generation from coals is less well understood than for marine and lacustrine source rocks, liquid hydrocarbon generation from coals and coaly source rocks is now known from many parts of the world, especially in the Australasian region (MacGregor 1994; Todd et al. 1997). Most of the known large oil accumulations derived from coaly source rocks have been generated from Cenozoic coals, such as in the Gippsland Basin (Australia), the Taranaki Basin (New Zealand), and the Kutei Basin (Indonesia). Permian and Jurassic coal-sourced oils are known from, respectively, the Cooper Basin (Australia) and the Danish North Sea, but in general only minor quantities of oil appear to be related to coals of Permian and Jurassic age. In contrast, Carboniferous coals are only associated with gas, as demonstrated for example by the large gas deposits in the southern North Sea and The Netherlands. Overall, the oil generation capacity of coals seems to increase from the Carboniferous to the Cenozoic. This suggests a relationship to the evolution of more complex higher land plants through time, such that the highly diversified Cenozoic plant communities in particular have the potential to produce oil-prone coals. In addition to this overall vegetational factor, the depositional conditions of the precursor mires influenced the generation potential. The various aspects of oil generation from coals have been the focus of research at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) for several years, and recently a worldwide database consisting of more than 500 coals has been the subject of a detailed study that aims to describe the oil window and the generation potential of coals as a function of coal composition and age.


1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 477 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Ryan-Grigor ◽  
C. M. Griffiths

The Early to Middle Cretaceous is characterised worldwide by widespread distribution of dark shales with high gamma ray readings and high organic contents defined as dark coloured mudrocks having the sedimentary, palaeoecological and geochemical characteristics associated with deposition under oxygen-deficient or oxygen-free bottom waters. Factors that contributed to the formation of the Early to Middle Cretaceous 'hot shales' are: rising sea-level, a warm equable climate which promoted water stratification, and large scale palaeogeographic features that restrict free water mixing. In the northern North Sea, the main source rock is the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Kimmeridge Clay/Draupne Formation 'hot shale' which occurs within the Viking Graben, a large fault-bounded graben, in a marine environment with restricted bottom circulation and often anaerobic conditions. Opening of the basin during a major trans-gressive event resulted in flushing, and deposition of normal open marine shales above the 'hot shales'. The Late Callovian to Berriasian sediments in the Dampier Sub-basin are considered to have been deposited in restricted marine conditions below a stratified water column, in a deep narrow bay. Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous marine sequences that have been cored on the North West Shelf are generally of moderate quality, compared to the high quality source rocks of the northern North Sea, but it should be noted that the cores are from wells on structural highs. The 'hot shales' are not very organic-rich in the northern Dampier Sub-basin and are not yet within the oil window, however seismic data show a possible reduction in velocity to the southwest in the Kendrew Terrace, suggesting that further south in the basin the shales may be within the oil window and may also be richer in organic content. In this case, they may be productive source rocks, analogous to the main source rock of the North Sea.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Cu Minh Hoang ◽  
Kieu Nguyen Binh ◽  
Delia Anne Marie Androne ◽  
Min Baehyun ◽  
Ta Quoc Dung ◽  
...  

We present a model that explains the patterns of sandstone burial diagenesis in certain oil reservoirs, in which petroleum migration and burial cementation were synchronous. The coincidence of these two processes controls the chemistry and distribution of major burial cement phases across the field, which in turn controls the distribution of reservoir quality, causing a rapid decline of porosity and permeability with depth. Such a rapid poroperm deterioration is observed in many North Sea sandstone oilfields; we highlight the Magnus Sandstone Member of the Magnus Oilfield, northern North Sea as a type example of such a reservoir. The two most significant elements of the synchronous cementation and migration model are that burial cementation in the reservoir occurs over a restricted time interval, probably less than 10 Ma and that rapid and widespread fluid circulation is not invoked to explain the concentrations of cements observed. We speculate that cementation takes place at, and in a series of zones below, the oil-water contact which descends as oil fills the reservoir, with little change to the bulk chemistry of the reservoir formation waters through time.


Clay Minerals ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. I. Macaulay ◽  
A. E. Fallick ◽  
R. S. Haszeldine ◽  
G. E. McAulay

AbstractCarbonate cements in Tertiary reservoir sandstones from the northern North Sea have distinctive carbon isotopic compositions (δ13C). Oil migration up faults from deeper structures and biodegradation of oil pools are factors of particular importance in influencing the δ13C of carbonate cements in these sandstones. As a result, δ13C can be used as an exploration guide to locating the positions of vertical leakoff points from the Jurassic source rocks. The histogram distribution of δ13C in these carbonate cements is trimodal, with peaks at around −26, −3 and +12‰ (ranges −22 to −30, +2 to −10 and +8 to +18‰, respectively). Bacterial processes played major roles in determining this distribution, with oxidative biodegradation of oil resulting in carbonate cements with very negative compositions and bacterial fermentation resulting in the positive δ13C cements. δ13C distribution patterns may be used to differentiate Tertiary reservoir sandstones from Jurassic in the northern North Sea, and these regional carbonate cement δ13C datasets allow geologically useful inferences to be drawn from δ13C data from new sample locations.


1982 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Holger Lindgreen ◽  
Erik Thomsen ◽  
Per Wrang

Little has been published on source rocks of Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages in the North Sea. Gas in many fields of the southern North Sea is known to originate from Late Carboniferous Coal Measures, (Eames 1975). In the East Midlands area of England, the oil in Carboniferous reservoirs is believed to originate from Carboniferous rocks (Bernard & Cooper 1981). Several papers published on the oil fields in the southern and northern North Sea suggest a Late Jurassic source rock (see review by Weismann 1979 and Bernard & Cooper 1981). Also Early and Middle Jurassic shales are suggested as possible source rocks in parts of the North Sea (Fuller 1975, Oudin 1976). Published data on source rock conditions in the Danish sector is limited to Weismann (1979).


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