UNIVERSITY OF MINES AND

TECHNOLOGY TARKWA

Faculty of Mineral Resources Technology

Department of Geological Engineering

Petroleum Geology
GL 471
Lecturer: Dr. Asare Asante-Annor
Second Semester 2020/2021
 Organisational Aspects

Room: Geological Email: aasante- Office hours: Assessment Others

Engineering annor@umat.edu.gh Thursday 12-
Department 16hrs Class attendance [ 10 marks ]
Continues Assessment: Quiz unannounced?
Assignments + Class tests [ 30 Announced…
marks ]
End of semester exams [ 60
marks ]
  Introduction
 Basics of Petroleum
 Physical and Chemical
Properties of Oil and Gas
Course  Generation and Maturation
Outline of Petroleum
 Paleothermometers
 Petroleum Migration
 Petroleum Reservoir
 Production Methods
 The Petroleum Trap
 Sedimentary Basins
 BASICS OF
PETROLEUM

Chapter 2
 Definition of Petroleum
• Petroleum is a naturally occurring flammable liquid
consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of
various molecular weights and other liquid organic
compounds, that are found in geologic formations
beneath the Earth's surface.
• The name Petroleum covers the both naturally occurring
unprocessed crude oils and petroleum products that are
made up of refined crude oil.
• A fossil fuel, it is formed when large quantities of dead
organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried
underneath sedimentary rock and undergo intense heat
and pressure.
 How is Petroleum Recovered?
• Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling.
• This comes after the studies of structural geology (at
the reservoir scale), sedimentary basin analysis,
reservoir characterization (mainly in terms of porosity
and permeable structures).
• It is refined and separated, most easily by boiling point,
into many consumer products, from petrol (or
gasoline) and kerosene to asphalt and chemical
reagents used to make plastics and pharmaceuticals.
• Petroleum is used in manufacturing a wide variety of
materials, and it is estimated that the world consumes
about 88 million barrels each day.
 Spectrum of Petroleum
• Petroleum (rock oil) is a naturally occurring complex
of hydrocarbons widely distributed in the
sedimentary rocks of the earth's crust.
• “Petroleum" should be used for the spectrum of
solid, liquid, and gaseous members of the common
series.
• The liquid members constitute crude oil until
artificial refinement modifies their original
compositions.
• The gaseous members constitute natural gas.
• The solid members are variously called asphalt,
bitumen, or tar .
 Terminologies of Petroleum
• Commercially exploitable petroleum occurs
underground in the subsurface.
• The rock containing it is a reservoir rock, or simply a
reservoir.
• The feature of the rock that restrains the fluid
petroleum from moving out of the reservoir is called a
trap.
• Petroleum becomes commercially exploitable when it
is naturally gathered into a pool, which is a single,
discrete accumulation of oil or gas in a single reservoir
with a single trap.
 Terminologies of Petroleum cont.
• Several pools may lie in a vertical succession within a
single area, or they may lie side by side or overlap
laterally to constitute an areally continuous accumulation
called a field.
• A three-dimensional geological entity containing several
oil- or gas fields is a sedimentary basin, or simply a basin.
• A geographical region containing petroleum fields having
some geologic characteristics in common is a province
• A geographic concentration of fields within a province or
a basin is a district.
• A small area within a basin, province, or district, which
may contain oil or gas but has not yet been proved to do
so is a prospect.
 Terminologies of Petroleum cont.
• A larger area within which the drilling of prospects
has established success and pointed the way for
further drilling provides a play.
• A hole which yields any fluid is a well. A well drilled
in search of a new accumulation of oil or gas is an
exploratory or wildcat well. If it is successful, it
constitutes a discovery.
• If a discovery well shows promise of being
commercial it is completed as a producing well. If a
well yields no recoverable oil or gas, it is a dry hole
• The process of recording the data derivable from the
drilling of a well is called logging.
 Terminologies of Petroleum cont.
• Petroleum which is not sufficiently either liquid or
gaseous to be extracted, transported, and used in
this conventional manner is said to be
unconventional petroleum (or fuel).
• The search for new sources of petroleum constitutes
exploration.
• The sources discovered by successful exploration
become reserves, which are portions of the total
resource that have been shown to be accessible and
recoverable under current economic and
technological conditions.
 Terminologies of Petroleum cont.
• Because no recovery technique can extract all the oil
and gas from a field, the reserves of the field are only a
fraction of the in-place oil, which the field actually
contains.
• The process of recovering the reserves, by drilling wells
within a field and operating them successfully is called
development.
• The technique for exploration are not a function of
geology alone but of geophysics.
• Petroleum geophysics is so dominated by its seismic
branch that the term seismic has almost become
synonymous with geophysics for the petroleum
industry.
 History of Petroleum Exploration
• Role of the petroleum geologist has become more
skilled and demanding.
• In the early days oil was found by wandering about
the countryside with a naked flame.
• The anticlinal theory of oil entrapment, which
explained this phenomenon, was expounded by
Hunt (1861).
• The anticlines has been one of the most successful
exploration concepts.
 Creekology

• Creekology is a petroleum prospecting method

which appeared in the 19th century in south gas-oil
states. In its simplest form, it was the search for
above-ground indications of oil, such as natural
seeps.
Oil Seeps
 Historical Development
Prior to 1900
• No“ petroleum geology”; all oil discovered through
seepages (Appalachian, California, Baku, Ploesti,
Peru, Egypt, Borneo...)
• “Anticlinal theory” known but not used in practice.
Many fields located in so called “geomorphic
traps” (where the reservoir rock is truncated by a
recent erosion surface)
• Drakewell in 1859 first to discover oil
(Pennsylvania)
 Historical Development cont.
1901-1924
• “Anticlinal theory” put in practice with Spindel
topwell in Texas
• Important discoveries in Lake Maracaibo
(Venezuela), Masjidy Suleiman (Iran), Trinidad,
Borneo, Mexico, Oklahoma, San Joaquin Valley,
California(all USA)
• Petroleum geology is“ American”; foundation of
AAPG
• Bolivar Coastal field: First in homoclinal trap, first
offshore, first large field with heavy oil, launches
 Historical Development cont.

1925-1945
• Important discoveries in La Paz (Venezuela), Kirkuk
(Iraq; carbonate reservoir), numerous fields in
Middle East (most also carbonates)
• Oil is organic, not inorganic; micropaleontology and
organic geochemistry developed as important tools
• Technological breakthroughs: Rotary drilling, torsion
balance, gravimeter, reflection seismology, electrical
well logs, perforations; wells to 3000 meters depth
 Historical Developments cont.

1945-1960
• Drilling boom, discovery of major oil fields in Middle
East, USA, Western Canada, Russian platform.
Drilling depths reach 6000m; gas became important.
Important insights into hydrocarbon migration and
accumulation
• (e.g. by King Hubbert; Levorsen) Sedimentology
becomes important to understand reservoirs“
Lognormal distribution” of oilfields
 Historical Developments cont.

1960-1980
• Off shore drilling technology developed
• Discovery of North Sea, Libya, Nigeria, Siberia,
eastern Mexico oil provinces
• “Subtle traps”(e.g. North Dome in Qatar)
• Vast improvement of seismic acquisition and
processing; becomes vital exploration tool.
• Further technological improvements in drilling,
construction, and logging
 Historical Developments cont.

Since 1980
• Passive margins plays discovered (Gulf of Mexico,
West Africa, Brazil).
• Deep to ultra deep drilling technology developed
Huge carbonate fields in intra cratonic setting
discovered (Peri Caspian oil province)
• 3D and 4D seismics provide volumetric and dynamic
picture of reservoirs; leads to seismic stratigraphy.
 Historical Developments in Ghana

• In 1896, the West Africa Oil and Fuel Company

(WAOFCO), the first oil company to pioneer oil
exploration in the Gold Coast between 1896 & 1903
• WAOFCO drilled a total of five (5) wells. Only one of
these, the (WAOFCO-2) well, first oil discovery
• Uncovered commercially viable hydrocarbon
reserves in the Tano fields
• Between 1909 and 1913, Societe Francaise de
Petrole (SFP), followed WAOFCO's pioneering lead
into the Gold Coast. SFP drilled a total of six wells.
 Historical Developments in Ghana
• ISFP-1 struck oil at a depth of 10-17 meters and
produced 7 barrels of oil per day. 4 of the 5
remaining wells also had promising oil indications.
• Between 1923 and 1925 the African and Eastern
Trade Corporation (AETC), a subsidiary of United
African Company (UAC) join in the early drilling rush
in the onshore Tano area and encountered oil
• Gulf Oil Company also acquired the Onshore Tano
license and drilled four (4) more deep wells in the
area between the periods 1956 to 1957.
Historical Developments in Ghana cont.
• Interpretation of the first 3-D seismic data over the
South Tano Field and other areas 1989 – 1991
- The North Tano (Gas) Field with estimated reserves
of over 73 billion cubic feet of gas;
- The Tano South (Oil and Gas) Field with estimated
reserves of over 14 million barrels of oil and about
120 billion cubic feet of gas;
- The West Tano (Oil) Field bearing heavy crude oil
estimated at over 4.0 million barrels.
• GNPC produced over 62,000 barrels of oil in the
South Tano fields in 1992. This production of oil was
refined at TOR.
Historical Developments in Ghana cont.

• On June 18, 2007 Kosmos Energy, a relatively small

Dallas-based exploratory company in a press release
announced that the exploration well offshore the
Republic of Ghana in the rich West Cape Three
Points Block has discovered significant oil
accumulation based on the results of drilling and
wire-line logs, and a sample of the reservoir fluid .
Historical Developments in Ghana cont.
• Commercial production of oil at the country’s 2nd
major oil field, Tweneboah Enyenra Ntomme (TEN)
– commenced on 18.08.2016 - 5 years after a similar
exercise on the country’s first, the Jubilee field.
• The Jubilee field, discovered in 2007, is believed to
hold some 1.8 billion barrels of reserves.
• The TEN fields, is expected to produce between
20,000-23,000 barrels of oil per day.
• The new find will add to the approximately 80,000
barrels of oil per day being produced by the Jubilee
fields.
Stratigraphic Section Tano Basin
 Origin of The Petroleum
• There are two basic schools of thought surrounding
the formation of petroleum deep within the earth’s
strata.
• There is the more widely accepted organic theory
and the not so popular inorganic theory.
• The inorganic theory : deep seated terrestrial and
extraterrestrial hypothesis .
• In 1877, Dmitri Mendele'ev, a Russian who
developed the periodic table, postulated an
inorganic origin of hydrocarbons when it became
apparent that there were widespread deposits of
petroleum throughout the world.
 Origin of The Petroleum
• Russian geochemists proposed that telluric
currents deep in the Earth’s crust combine
water, graphite, iron and sulfur as a giant
battery that were “cooked” into hydrocarbons.
• Porfirev (1974) even postulated that all known
oilfields were formed in this way during the
Neogene.
• Another hypothesis was formulated by T. Gold.
Abiogenic Deep Origin of Hydrocarbons
 Abiogenic Origin of Petroleum
• According to the abiogenic hypothesis, petroleum
was formed from deep carbon deposits, perhaps
dating to the formation of the Earth.
• Supporters of the abiogenic hypothesis suggest that
a great deal more petroleum exists on Earth than
commonly thought, and that petroleum may
originate from carbon-bearing fluids that migrate
upward from the mantle.
• The presence (oceans) of methane on Saturn's moon
Titan and in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune is cited as evidence of the
formation of hydrocarbons without biology.
 Abiogenic Origin of Petroleum cont.

• The hypothesis was first proposed by Georg Agricola

in the 16th century and various abiogenic
hypotheses were proposed in the 19th century, most
notably by Alexander von Humboldt, the Russian
chemist Dmitri Mendeleev and the French chemist
Marcellin Berthelot.
• The hypothesis was re-defined and made popular in
the West by Thomas Gold, 20th century astronomer
 Organic Origin of Petroleum
• Geochemical evidence points strongly towards an
organic origin of petroleum.
• Petroleum geologists agree that oil originates from to
vast quantities of dead marine plankton or plant
material that sank into the mud of shallow seas.
• Under the resulting anaerobic conditions, organic
compounds remained in a reduced state where
anaerobic bacteria converted the lipids (fats, oils and
waxes) into a waxy substance called kerogen.
• As the source rock was buried deeper, overburden
pressure raised temperatures into the oil window,
between 80 and 180 °C. Most of the organic compounds
degraded into the straight-chain hydrocarbons that
comprise most of petroleum.
 Organic Origin of Petroleum cont.

• Plankton is Main Source of Oil and Gas

• Diatoms are an important group of phytoplankton.
They contain a silica skeleton and may reach 1 mm in
diameter (right). Other phytoplankton organisms
have a carbonate skeleton.
• Zooplankton includes planktonic foraminifera,
radiolaria, and planktonic crustacea.
 Stratigraphic Methods

• Carll (1880), noted that oil could also occur off-

structure, the oil-bearing marine sands of
Pennsylvania occurred in trends that reflected not
structure but paleo-shorelines.
• Oil could be trapped stratigraphically as well as
structurally. Stratigraphic traps are caused by
variations in deposition, erosion, or diagenesis
within the reservoir.
 Geophysical Methods

• Seismic (refraction), gravity, and magnetic methods

were all applied to petroleum exploration.
• Magnetic surveys seldom proved to be effective oil
finders, whereas gravity and seismic methods proved
to be effective in finding salt dome traps in the Gulf
of Mexico coastal province of the United States.
• In the same period geophysical methods were also
applied to borehole logging.
 Aerial Photographic Methods

• Aerial surveying began in the 1920s, but

photogeology, which employs stereophotos, only
became widely used after the Second World War.
• At this time aerial surveys were cheap enough to
allow the rapid reconnaissance of large concessions,
and photogeology was notably effective in the
deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, where
vegetation does not cover surface geology.
 Conditions for Accumulation of Oil
Deposits
1. There must be an organic-rich source rock to generate
the oil and/ or gas.
2. The source rock must have been heated sufficiently to
yield its petroleum.
3. There must be a reservoir to contain the expelled
hydrocarbons.
This reservoir must have:
– Porosity: to contain the oil and/or gas.
– Permeability: to permit fluid flow.
 Conditions for Accumulation of
Oil Deposits cont.

4. The reservoir must be sealed by an impermeable

cap rock to prevent the upward escape of petroleum to
the earth's surface.

5. Source, reservoir, and seal must be arranged in such

a way as to trap the petroleum.
 Measurement Units Of Oil
and Gas
• Quantities of oil are expressed in barrels:
• One barrel contains 42 US gallons or 35 Imperial
gallons.
• 1 barrel = 159 liters
• 1 cubic meter = 6.37 barrels
• 1 metric ton = 6.8 to 7.6 barrels (dep. on gravity)
• Gas is expressed in millions of cubic feet:
• gas can be expressed in oil equivalents:1boe ≈
6000 to 6500 cf
 Measurement Units
Some Numbers
• Number of oil and gas wells drilled to date:~7million
• Percentage of wells in the USA: ~50%
• Producing wells worldwide:~1million
• Average production of oil wells in USA: 20 bbls/day
• Average production of oil wells in Middle East:7,000
bbls/day
• Total number of producing fields:~40,000
• Total number of petroleum geologists: ~100,000
• Total number of drill rigs worldwide :~5,000