ABSTRACT: The Petroleum Evaluation Workstation--A New Tool for Volumetric Estimates of Generated and Migrated HCs in Sedimentary Basins

Jean Espitalie, Francois Marquis, Serge Drouet

We can achieve a better evaluation of hydrocarbon prospects by means of organic geochemical analyses when volumetric estimates are done. Such geochemical information can be provided by a petroleum evaluation workstation composed of a modified Rock-Eval apparatus connected to a personal computer incorporating related software modules.

Using the standard data given by the Rock-Eval (S₁, S₂, T_max, IH, etc.) associated with the processing of the S₂ peak signals, the petroleum evaluation workstation provides better location of source rocks, more precise determination of source rock OM types, and the computation of their efficiency transformation ratio (ETR).

Likewise, these parameters combined with geological data (net thickness of source rocks, geothermal data, etc.) give access to a rapid volumetric estimation of the initial generative capacity (IGC) of the source rocks, the generated hydrocarbons (GHC), and the migrated hydrocarbons (MHC).

The energy activation distribution of the representative source OM can also be determined, as well as the quantities of oil and gas they can generate in a sedimentary basin.

The workstation has been successfully used in the Aquitaine basin where the computed data were displayed on different specific maps. It appears from these results that the geochemical workstation makes a better assessment of petroleum prospects.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91003©1990 AAPG Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, June 3-6, 1990