Depositional Controls, Distribution, and Effectiveness of World's Petroleum Source Rocks

H. D. Klemme, G. F. Ulmishek

Six stratigraphic intervals representing one-third of Phanerozoic time contain source rocks that have provided more than 90% of the world's discovered oil and gas reserves (in barrels of oil equivalent). The six intervals include (1) Silurian (generated 9% of the world's reserves); (2) Upper Devonian-Tournaisian (8% of reserves); (3) Pennsylvanian-Lower Permian (8% of reserves); (4) Upper Jurassic (25% of reserves); (5) middle Cretaceous (29% of reserves); and (6) Oligocene-Miocene (12.5% of reserves). This uneven distribution of source rocks in time has no immediately obvious cyclicity, nor are the intervals exactly repeatable in the commonality of factors that controlled the formation of source rocks.

In this study, source rocks of the six intervals have been mapped worldwide together with oil and gas reserves generated by these rocks. Analysis of the maps shows that the main factors affecting deposition of these source rocks and their spatial distribution and effectiveness in generating hydrocarbon reserves are geologic age, global and regional tectonics, paleogeography, climate, and biologic evolution. The effect of each of the factors on geologic setting and quality of source rocks has been analyzed. Compilation of data on maturation time for these source rocks demonstrated that the majority of discovered oil and gas is very young; more than 80% of the world's oil and gas reserves have been generated since Aptian time, and nearly half of the world's hydrocarbons have been generated and trapped since the Oligocene.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91022©1989 AAPG Annual Convention, April 23-26, 1989, San Antonio, Texas.