CHAPTER 5: PETROLEUM GEOLOGY
Planktonic Bloom: The sudden increase in planktons in the
Petroleum Geology: The study and application of geology to the
production products. exploration of and petroleum
Petroleum
A thick flammable accumulation of hydrocarbons (HCs) that
appears yellow to black and occurs naturally beneath the Earth's
surface.
Sulfur: An undesired by-product in petroleum that generates
sulfur oxides when burned.
Forms of Petroleum
1. Crude Oil: The liquid form of petroleum.
Sweet Crude Oil: Contains little amount of sulfur.
Sour Crude Oil: Contains high amount of sulfur.
2. Tar and Bitumen: The semi- solid to solid form of petroleum.
3. Natural Gas: The gaseous form of petroleum.
Flaring: Burning of excess natural gas.
Carbon Cycle: A cycle that describes the interaction and
movement of carbon atoms and molecules through the Earth's
spheres of physical environments.
Organic Theory: A theory regarding the origin of petroleum that
declares hydrocarbons to be derived from organic matter (OM)
material and geochemically converted being to petroleum in time
by being subjected to temperatures and pressures.
Stages in Organic Theory
STAGE 1: Deposition of planktonic remains.
STAGE 2: Diagenesis through burial. pressure and temperature
changes.
STAGE 3: Migration from source rock
STAGE 4: Entrapment into plays.
Carbon: An element contained in most biomolecule substances
that is vital for the development of life.
Plankton: The main source of petroleum.
Phytoplankton: Plant planktons.
a. Diatom: Phytoplankton with silica test.
b. Coccolithophore: Phytoplankton with calcite test.
Zooplankton: Animal planktons.
a. Radiolaria: Zooplankton with silica test.
b. Foraminifera: Zooplankton with calcite test.
oceans.
Red Tide: A planktonic bloom of phytoplankton that is harmful to
the local ecosystem.
Black Shale: A sedimentary rock that contains >5% organic
matter.
Biomolecules In Living Organisms
Lipid: Biomolecule combination of fatty acids of CnH2nO2 with
glycerol C3H5(OH)3, are mostly fats, oil, and waxes, and have the
greatest potential to be HC sources.
Protein: Giant biomolecules that make up the solid constituents
of animal tissues and plant cells, and are rich in carbon, but
contain substantial amounts of N. S and O.
Carbohydrate: Common biomolecules in plant tissues that are
based on sugars (Cn(H2O)) and their polymers, cellulose, starch,
and chitin.
− Monosaccharide
− Disaccharide
− Polysaccharide
Lignin: Polymer biomolecule consisting of numerous aromatic
rings and is a major component in land plants that can be
converted to coal through deoxygenation.
Requirements for Petroleum Generation and Preservation
1. High Productivity: Thermal stratification may cause high
organic productivity within the photic zone in the continental
shelf, but lack of circulation and organic decay may lead to
anoxic environment at the bottom.
2. Anoxic Environment: Absence of oxygen better preserves
biomolecules as there is no agent that could oxidize them,
which are better exemplified in stratified basins as they
prevent vertical circulation and the transport of O to greater
depths.
Petroleum System
The system encompassing the generation, migration, and
production of petroleum through its elements. A group of plays
within a given geographical area having a common source rock.
Play: A geographically and stratigraphically delimited area where
common geological factors exist in order that petroleum
accumulation can occur.
Parts of Petroleum System
Sedimentary Basin
Source Rock
Migration
Reservoir Rock
Traps and Seals
A. Sedimentary Basin
Depression with thick accumulation of sediments and sedimentary
rocks.
Basin: The depression and the sediment accumulation.
Basement: An igneous or metamorphic complex acting as the
"platform" for the basin.
Platform/shelf: Receives a normal amount of sediment.
Arch: Receives the least amount of sediment.
Types of Sedimentary Basins
1. Forearc Basin: Limited low and petroleum potential,
geothermal gradient scarcity of good clastic behavior.
2. Backarc Basin: Moderate to high geothermal gradient and
with typical reservoirs.
3. Rift Basin: Insufficient trap size with high geothermal
gradient, sediments having making the accumulating
inadequate development as source rocks.
 Maturation: The process of a source rock becoming capable of
generating petroleum by being exposed to temperatures and
pressures in time.

Stages of Maturation
Diagenesis: The maturation phase that occurs in low
temperatures and pressures, near shallow subsurface, and
reduces the oxygen in the organic matter, leaving the HC ratio
unchanged.
Catagenesis: Occurs in deeper subsurface levels as burial
continues and temperatures and pressures increase with the HC
ratio declining as the petroleum is released from the kerogen -
first, the oil, and then the gas.
Metagenesis: The stage closest to metamorphism, having higher
temperatures and pressures. completely expelling the remaining
hydrocarbons, methane, with carbon being left as the H:C ratio
declines.

B. Source Rock
A fine-grained rock containing organic material that generated
high amounts of hydrocarbons.
Gas Window: >150 °C, >4 km depths.
Oil Window: 65-150 °C, 2-4 km depths.

Total Organic Content (Toc): The measure of the potential of a

source rock to generate hydrocarbons, and represents the amount
of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen within the source rock.

TOC Types:
Bitumen: The fraction of TOC with high molecular weight and
soluble in organic solvents.
Kerogen: The insoluble, non- extractable residue fraction of the
TOC that forms in the transformation from OM into a complex
mixture with a general composition of large HC molecules.
(C12H12ON016) that breakdown with continuous exposure to
high temperature.
Functions of Maturation
Temperature: Affects the thermal maturation for petroleum
generation, with the basement and radioactivity being the primary
source of heat.
Time: Another function that affects the thermal maturation for
petroleum generation.

Formation of Kerogen
− Conversion from OM to kerogen must occur environment in
an anoxic
− Anaerobic bacteria may extract sulfur and reduce impurities.
− Kerogen is first formed upon burial, then into smaller HC with
CO2 and H2O, then into methane with C13 to C30 at higher
temperatures.
− Carbon content of kerogen Increases with increasing
temperature, along with the formation of fluid products high in
H and elimination of O.

Physical Properties of Petroleum
Specific Gravity: Oil's specific gravity generally ranges from 0.73
to slightly above 1.0.
Color: A property of petroleum determined by the Saybolt
Colorimeter.
Refractive Index: Proportional to the density of petroleum, with
the lower indices being the lighter oils. The RI for petroleum
ranges from 1.42 to 1.48.
Fluorescence: Observed in all oils, having more or less
fluorescence with crude oils ranging from yellow through green to
blue. ultraviolet radiation.
Odor: The observable smell petroleum emits that range from
gasoline-like odor, pleasant odors for aromatics, and unpleasant
ones for oils containing sulfur and certain nitrogen compounds.
Viscosity: A property of petroleum conventionally measured in
centipoises and best indicated by the crude oil's pour point.
Volume: May depend on the gas-oil ratio, the reservoir pressure
and surface pressure.
C. Migration
The process of the movement of petroleum from its source rock to
its reservoir, until its expulsion unto the Earth's surface, and is not
exactly defined how the process occurs.
Stages of Migration
Primary Migration: Expulsion of petroleum from the source rocks
into the permeable carrier beds.
Secondary Migration: Migration from carrier beds into the
reservoir and traps.
Tertiary Migration: Migration through leakage and extraction of
petroleum unto the Earth's surface.
D. Reservoir
A rock mass with enough porosity and permeability that has
accumulated an economically viable amount of petroleum.
Porosity: A void space in the rock that's measured by percent
volume.
Permeability: The rate of flow of fluids which controls the
directional movement of the reservoir fluids.
Classification of Pores
Primary Porosity: Porosity formed during sediment deposition.
Secondary Porosity: Pores that developed after deposition.
Classification of Permeability
Absolute Permeability: 100% saturated rocks with a single fluid
phase.
Effective Permeability: The permeability to a particular fluid
when the rock's pore spaces contain more than one fluid.
Relative Permeability: Ratio of the effective permeability to a
fluid at a given saturation to the effective permeability to that fluid
saturation.
Gross Pay: The total vertical interval from the top of the reservoir
down to the petroleum- water boundary.
Net Pay: The portion of the reservoir that can produce
economically viable amounts of petroleum with production
method. a specific
Non-pay: The portion of the reservoir that cannot produce
economic amounts of petroleum.
Net-to-gross: The percentage of the potential production of a
reservoir.
E. Traps and Seals
Trap: A geometric arrangement of strata that permits the
accumulation of petroleum but prevents any further migration.
Seal Or cap rock: Is a fine- grained or crystalline, impermeable
rock that is relatively ductile. laterally continuous and acts as a
barrier. preventing further migration of petroleum to the surface
Types of Traps
Structural Trap: Traps formed from tectonic processes.
a. Fold Trap: Structural traps formed from folds.
b. Fault Trap: Structural traps formed from faults.
Diapiric Traps: Traps from diapirs products of flows due to
density contrasts between strata.
a. Salt Diapir: Diapiric traps around salt diapirs.
b. Mud Diapir: Diapiric traps around mud diapirs.
Stratigraphic Trap: Traps caused by depositional morphologies
or diagenesis.
a. Unconformity: Stratigraphic traps formed from
unconformities
b. Reef: Stratigraphic traps within reef zones
c. Barrier Bar: Traps within stratigraphic barrier bars.
d. Pinch Out: Stratigraphic traps within rocks formed from voids
that "pinch out."
e. Channel: Stratigraphic traps within paleochannels that are
infilled by sediments.
Hydrodynamic Traps: Traps that accumulate petroleum due to
water flow.
Combination Traps: A combination of two or more traps.
Types of Seals Philippine Company National Oil (PNOC): A government-
1. Laterally continuous. impermeable rock enveloping a owned company created on November 9, 1973, through the PD
reservoir. No. 334, which provides and maintains adequate and stable
2. Impermeable rock against a fault supply of oil.
3. Stratigraphic sandstone pinch-out reservoir within a shale
4. Post-unconformity sequence of impervious rocks Stages of Petroleum Exploration
5. Salt or shale diapir. Pre-Concession Work: Basin analysis and regional assessment
6. Dense facies in a carbonate reservoir. within a desired area is done.
7. Gouged fault. Concession Round: The period where exploration companies
submit bids for Service Contracts to the Department of Energy
(DOE), regulated by the P.D. 87, and will be given to the winning
bidders.
Exploration: Active period of field exploration for petroleum.

Petroleum Exploration Phases

Reconnaissance Survey: Regional assessment and data
acquisition are done through satellite images for remote sensing
and geophysical surveys such as gravimetric, and airborne
magnetic surveys,
Geologic Mapping: Geologic and geophysical studies are done
for mapping.
Seismic Surveys: Seismic surveys are conducted for Petroleum
Play Evaluation and Prospect Evaluation for identification of
drillable prospects and leads.

Prospect: A trap with reservoir rock where petroleum is predicted

to accumulate.
Lead: Potentially containing an economic amount of petroleum
but lacks sufficient data to prove it.
Play Fairway: Area within the basin where the specific geological
attributes necessary for the existence of petroleum accumulation
exist.

D. Exploratory Appraisal and Drilling Development

Rotary Drilling: A form of drilling used for onshore or offshore
Organization Petroleum Countries Exporting (OPEC): A drilling that utilizes a rotating bit at the end of a hollow steel tube
permanent intergovernmental organization founded in September with teeth that gouge or chip the rock at the bottom of the borehole.
1960 that aims to coordinate and unify petroleum policies Coring: The acquisition of drill cores lithologies, to and cylindrical
countries. among member. determine structures in the subsurface.
Fluid Sampling: Chemical analysis of petroleum that determines
Member Countries the source, and maturity of the fluids present.
1. Iran
2. Iraq E. Production and Maintenance
3. Kuwait Reserve: The quantity of petroleum which can be economically
4. Saudi Arabia extracted at a specific amount specific period expressed as:
5. Venezuela
6. Qatar
7. Indonesia'
8. Libya
9. United Arab Emirates
10. Algeria Contingent Resource: Estimated quantities of petroleum
11. Nigeria currently extractable are that not economically but may potentially
12. Ecuador be recoverable in the future.
13. Gabon Prospective Resource: Potentially recoverable amounts of
14. Angola petroleum from undiscovered accumulations.
15. Equatorial Guinea Stock Tank Oil Originally in Place (STOOIP): The total amount
16. Congo of oil present before production, expressed as:

Department of Energy
The official government agency of the Philippines established on
December 28, 1992, through the RA No. 7638, known as the
"Department of Energy Act of 1992, mandated to govern and Types of Drill Rigs
supervise plans, projects, programs, and activities of the Submersible Inland Barges: Barges for drilling located offshore
Philippines related to energy exploration. development, utilization. bounded inland.
distribution. conservation. Land Rigs: Inland drilling rigs.
Jack-Up Rigs: Drilling rigs for offshore operations with water
*According to Worldometer, the Philippines ranks 64th in Global depths of about 100 m or 500 ft.
Oil Reserves as of 2016, with 138,500,000 barrels of oil reserves. Submersible: Drilling rig platforms for shallow waters that can be
sunk onto the seabed.
Drillship: A floating rig where a derrick drilling rig is mounted on
a ship that's being kept on location by anchors or propellers.
Semi-submersible: A floating rig with three or more floodable
caisson legs that are stabilized by anchors.
Coal Resources in The Philippines
− The Philippines has about 2,370 MMT of estimated coal
resource potential, and 200 MMT of estimated coal reserves.
− Semirara Island contains more than 40% of the Philippines'
total coal reserves

F. Abandonment
Decommissioning of drilling rigs by plugging and abandonment of
wells, removal or sinking of facilities, or through retrofitting of drill
rigs.

Coal: A sedimentary rock, dominantly composed of altered

remains of vegetation, that can be burned and used as a fuel
source.
Ash: Non-organic, combustible portion of coal.