Petroleum System Modeling as a Tool for Prediction of Hydrocarbon Zones in the Polish Basin

Karnkowski, P. H., Faculty of Geology, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland

The Polish Basin is a part of the great basin in Western and Central Europe. Its basin his­tory started in the latest Carboniferous but its origin was rooted as early as Cambrian time. The evolution of the Polish Basin had continued within the Permo-Mesozoic time until the Late Cretaceous when, due to inversion of the central part of the basin, the Mid-Polish Anticlinorium was uplifted.

The burial history of the Polish Basin reveals that the Late Permian and Early Triassic periods represent the main rifting phase and its later development resulted from thermal relaxation.

Using PetroMod software the computer-aided modeling of hydrocarbon generation in the Permo_Mesozoic deposits was made along several geological cross-sections through the Polish Basin. Calibrating parameters (contemporary temperature pattern field at the given depth and vitrinite reflectance values in the different geological formations) enabled to construct the heat flow distribution from the Permian to recent time in the investigated area.

Analysing thermal history of the Polish Basin-fill it was surely evidenced that at the beginning of the Rotliegend volcanic period the high geothermal anomalies occurred in the western part of the developing basin and were related to syn-rift stages of sedimentary basin development. Computer simulation with using of the above heat flow model made possible to follow the individual phases of hydrocarbon generation and predict hydrocarbon zones in the Polish Basin.