Source Rocks,

Generation,
Migration and
Accumulation
of Oil
 • A rock that forms gas or oil.
• As sediments are deposited, both
inorganic material grains such as sand and
mud and organic matter (dead plants and
animals) are mixed. The organic matters
are buried by other sediments before it
decayed or was deposited on the bottom
of a sea with stagnant (oxygen free
waters).
• The black colour of sedimentary rocks
comes primarily from its organic content,
Source Rocks such as coal, shale and some limestones.
Shale is the most common sedimentary rocks and many are black.
Black shale commonly has 1 to 3% organic matter by weight and can
have up to 20%.
Green or gray shale has only about 0.5% organic matter.
 • The most important factor in the
generation of crude oil from organic
matter in sedimentary rocks is
temperature. A minimum temperature of
about 150°F (65° C) is necessary for oil
generation under typical sedimentary
basin conditions. This temperature is
obtained by burying the organic-rich
source rocks. The deeper the depth, the
higher the temperature.

Generation
• At shallow depths, the temperature is not
sufficient to generate oil. There, bacterial
action on the organic matter forms large
volumes of biogenic or microbial gas. This gas
is commonly known as swamp or marsh gas.
Biogenic gas is rarely trapped and usually
leaks into the atmosphere in enormous
volumes.
• In a typical sedimentary basin, oil generation
starts at about 150°F (65° C) and ends at about
300°F (150°C). If the source rock is buried
deeper, where temperatures are about
300°F(150°C), thermogenic gas is generated
from organic matter left in the source rock.
Thermogenic gas is the gas that can be
trapped and is either dry or wet gas.
• The zone in the earth’s crust where the oil
is generated is called the oil window. It
occurs from about 7000 to 18,000 ft (2100
to 5500m) deep. Heavy oil, called
immature oil is generated at lower
temperatures in the oil window whereas
light oil, called mature oil is generated as
higher temperature.
• At lower temperatures where thermogenic
gas is generated, wet gas is formed. Under
higher temperatures at deeper depths, dry
gas is formed.
• Both biogenic and thermogenic gas form
very fast, but oil takes a long time to form.
Chemical reactions double in speed for
each 10°F (5.5°C) temperature increase,
the time at which the source rock is
exposed to each temperature as it is buried
deeper also influence oil formation.
• Oil can be generated at lower
temperatures if the source rock is exposed
to those temperature for a longer time.
Higher temperatures need shorter time to
generate oil.
• Above 300°F (150°C), crude oil is
irreversibly transformed into graphite
(carbon) and natural gas. This temperature
occurs at a depth of about 18,000ft
(5500m) in a sedimentary rock basin.
• This is a floor, below which only gas can
occur in the reservoir.
• Deep wells are drilled for natural gas.
 • Gas and oil are light in density compared
to water that also occur in the pores of the
subsurface rocks, petroleum rises.
• Oil and gas can flow upward along faults
and fractures. It can also flow laterally and
upwards along unconformities and
through carrier beds. Carrier beds are rock
layers that are very permeable and
transmit fluid.

Migration
• The vertical and lateral flow of the
petroleum from the source rock is called
migration. If there is no trap on the
migration route, the gas and oil will flow
out onto the surface as a gas or oil seep. If
there is a trap along the migration route,
the gas and oil will accumulate in the trap.
• On the average only 10% of the oil and gas
is trapped. The rest of the gas and oil
either did not get out of the source rock,
was lost during migration or seeped into
the earth’s surface.
 • The trap must be in position before the gas
and oil migrates. If the trap forms after the
migration, no gas and oil in the trap.
• Once the gas and oil migrate into the trap,
they separate according to density.
• The gas, being lightest, goes to the top of
the trap to form the free gas cap. The oil
goes to the middle of the trap, the oil
reservoir. Salt water, the heaviest goes to
the bottom.

Accumulation
• The most common trap is a saturated pool
that always has a free gas cap on top of the
oil reservoir. The oil in the reservoir has
dissolved all the natural gas it can hold and
is saturated.
• An unsaturated pool lacks a free gas cap.
The oil has some dissolved gas but it can
hold more and is unsaturated.
• Sometimes there is only a gas reservoir on
water.
• The boundary in the reservoir between the
free gas cap and the oil is the gas-oil contact.
The boundary between oil and water reservoir
is the oil-water contact.
• The top of the trap is called the crest. The first
exploratory well is usually drilled on the crest
of the structure where the probability is
highest to encounter petroleum.
• When a well is drilled to the side of the crest, it
is drilled off structure. If a well is drilled too far
off structure, it might not encounter
commercial amounts of oil or gas and is called
a dry hole, duster or wet well.
• In a trap, a reservoir rock must be cover by
a caprock or seal, an impermeable rock
layer that doesn’t allow fluids to flow
through it. Without a caprock or seal, the
gas and oil would leak onto the surface.
• Two common caprocks are shales and salt
layers.
 • A reservoir rock is a rock that can both
store and transmit fluids. A reservoir rock
must have both porosity and permeability.
• Porosity is the percent volume of the rock
that is not occupied by solids. These spaces
are called pores. In the subsurface, the
pores are filled with fluids such as water,
gas and oil. Porosity measures the fluid
storage capacity of a reservoir rock.
• Typical porosity values for an oil reservoir
are shown in Table 1.
Reservoir Rocks
Percentage Porosity values
0-5% Insignificant Natural gas compresses and needs less porosity
5-10% Poor than oil reservoir. Very deep gas reservoirs need
10-15% Fair
very little porosity because of the very high
15-20% Good
20-25% excellent
pressure.

Sandstones, typical porosity cutoff is 8 to

10%.
Limestones often have less porosity than
Sandstones but have fractures than drain
larger areas. Its typical cutoff of 3 to 5%.

Porosity
Permeability Values
1-10 md Poor
• Permeability is a measure of the ease with
10-100 md Good
which a fluid can flow through a rock. Unit
100-1000md excellent
used is darcies (D) or millidarcy. The
greater the permeability of a rock, the
easier it is for the fluids to flow through the
rock.
• Table 2 shows the typical permeability
values of an oil reservoir rock. Gas is more
fluid than oil and needs less permeability
than an oil reservoir.

Permeability
 • Porosity and permeability in a single
sedimentary rock layer are related.
• The higher the porosity, the greater the
permeability.
• Permeability however is also controlled by
grain size. The hardest place for oil and gas to
flow through the rock is the narrow
connections (pore throat) between the pores.
The smaller the pore throats, the harder it is
for the oil or gas to flow. Smaller grain sizes
have smaller pore throats. Because of this,
porous coarse-grained rocks such as
sandstones that have large pore throats are
usually very permeable. A porous, fine-
grained rock such as shale or chalk has small
Porosity vs Permeability pore throats and little or no permeability.