Distribution of Petroleum-Rich Basins

Together the 25 sedimentary basins in the world, which are the richest in terms of
known petroleum reserves, contain nearly 90% of the world's oil and gas. These are
listed below, and shown in Figure 1 ( Richest petroleum basins).

Figure 1

A breakdown of these petroleum-rich basins by basin type shows that eight of them
belong to the downwarp basin class, and an additional seven are large foreland
basins ( Figure 1 ). Of the remaining ten, three of the basins are rifts and two are
deltas. Finally, there are five convergent margin basins, including three non-arc, one
back-arc, and one collision basin type. Only three basin types are not found among
the world's richest petroleum basins: the interior, the pull-apart, and the fore-arc
basins. A histogram which shows the distribution of the world's known petroleum
reserves, according to the basin types, further confirms this trend ( Figure 2 ,
Percent of the total world proved and produced conventional reserves, divided
according to basin type ).
 Figure 2

Again, it can be shown that downwarp basins and foreland basins dominate the world
reserves. But considerable reserves may also be found in rifts, deltas, and the
convergent margin basins.

One of the critical factors to oil generation, which will affect its eventual production,
is the amount of sediment that is found within the depth range of the oil and gas
windows, normally about 1.2 to 5.5 kilometers. A histogram that divides the total
world sediment volume within this depth range, by basin type ( Figure 3 ,
 Figure 3

Percent of the world's total basin sediment volume buried at depths between 1.2 and
5.5 kilometers, divided according to basin type), bears a striking similarity to the
graph of Figure 2 . For the most part, the proportions are the same within a few
percentage points. However, there are two notable exceptions, the downwarp basins,
which are exceedingly rich for their sediment volume, and the pull-apart basins,
which appear petroleum poor.

On the average, downwarp basins have yielded much more petroleum per unit
sediment volume than any other basin type. High petroleum-yielding basins, in any
class, can usually be related to special features that enhance their source, reservoir,
caprock and trap potential. These special features are most often optimal in
downwarp basins. The most striking example of this is the Arabian-Iranian basin,
which alone contains about 49% of the world's known reserves.

In contrast, the reserves from pull-apart basins seem low when compared to their
sediment volume lying within the oil and gas windows. However, 90% of these
basins lie in offshore areas, more than half in deep water, and, until recently, they
have received relatively little exploration effort. No basin of this class has yet been
fully developed. Pull-apart continental margins may truly be one of the last major
frontiers for petroleum exploration.
A basin's geothermal regime will influence the depth of petroleum formation and
migration and is a major factor in determining the depth of production. The graph in
Figure 4 , (Distribution of petroleum reserves with depth for each of the basin types)
plots, for each basin type, the percentages of worldwide reserves that have been
found at each of three depth levels.

Figure 4

Shallow production, at depths of less than 2 kilometers, predominates in the two

cratonic basin types. Even though these basins are geothermally cool, old Paleozoic
rocks dominate and time, therefore, has played a major role in maturation.
Furthermore, uplift and erosional stripping has raised these old source rocks and
reservoirs to even shallower depths. Shallow production is also dominant in the "hot"
convergent margin basins, where a high to very high thermal gradient can produce
maturation in even young shallow source rocks. Mesozoic and Cenozoic basins with
higher-than-average gradients, like the rift and downwarp basins, mostly produce at
intermediate depths of approximately 2 to 3 kilometers. Cool, young pull-apart
basins and deltas usually produce from greater depths, between 3 and 5 kilometers,
where deep burial is needed to cause maturation.

Distribution of Field Sizes

Often a basin's petroleum richness depends on the presence or absence of giant
fields. Giant fields are those that contain over 500 million barrels of recoverable oil
or greater than 3 1/2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Although such giant fields
make up only about 1% of the world's petroleum fields, they contain about 75% of
all the oil and gas that has ever been found. The histogram of Figure 1 (Percent of all
petroleum producing basins within each basin type that contains giant fields) is
based on the historical record of finding giant fields.

Figure 1

There is a high chance of finding giant petroleum fields in opening and closing
downwarp basins, non-arc basins, rifts and foreland basins. Deltas generally contain
very few giant fields, and they are almost unknown from interior and fore-arc basin
types.

The petroleum field-size distribution within a basin is also characteristic of different

basin types. In some basins, the largest field can contain 50% or more of the total
reserves. This pattern is found in many cratonic basins that have extensive regional
arches. For example, the Hassi Messaoud field contains nearly two-thirds of the total
reserves of the foreland Triassic basin of eastern Algeria. This pattern is also found in
some collision basins, such as the Maracaibo basin of Venezuela, where the largest
field contains three-quarters of that basin's petroleum. In a more typical field-size
spread, the largest field contains about 30% of a basin's reserves. This pattern is
found in a wide range of basin types, including most rifts, downwarp basins into
opening oceans, back-arc, non-arc, and the remainder of the collision basin types. If
there is no extensive regional arch to concentrate the petroleum into one area,
cratonic basins will usually contain many relatively small fields, the largest containing
only about one-tenth of the basin's oil. The foreland Appalachian basin of the eastern
United States and the interior Williston basin, which was discussed earlier, are
examples of this type. Downwarp basins into small closing oceans also tend to have
this pattern. Finally, deltas typically contain a profusion of relatively small fields, with
the largest containing only 3 to 4% of the basin's reserves.

Distribution of Petroleum Characteristics

The types of crude oil found within a basin and the oil-to-gas ratios are more closely
related to the kerogen type, sediment fill and the effectiveness of the caprock, rather
than to the basin's architecture. However, a few generalizations can be made. Land-
derived clastics deposited near continental drainage areas yield low sulfur paraffinic
to paraffinicnaphthenic crudes. These would be found mainly in basins formed over
intermediate crust, such as the pull-apart basins, deltas and the convergent margin
types. Marine carbonates, or clastics deposited in restricted silled basins, contain
marine-sourced kerogens and tend to yield high sulfur, aromatic-intermediate to
asphaltic crude. This would typically occur in basins formed over continental crust
such as rifts and some cratonic basins.

Mixed sedimentary facies and kerogen types, such as those found in downwarp
basins, result in mixed crudes. In almost any basin, however, crude oil tends to
become lighter both with depth and with age. For example, the old Paleozoic source
rocks that are common to cratonic interior and foreland basins tend to yield high
gravity, low sulfur crude.

Natural gas is particularly associated with two basinal settings. First, it is abundant in
downwarps and in large, old foreland basins where there is deep, thermally-altered
methane. And second, it occurs in young high-volume basins that have an
abundance of land-derived Type III kerogen, for example, deltas and pull-apart
basins. A good caprock is, of course, essential to the development of large gas fields,
since natural gas can so easily be lost. Giant gas fields require either extensive
evaporite caprocks, such as those commonly developed in foreland and downwarp
basins, or regional hydrate barriers, developed in cold permafrost and deep marine
areas. The shale caprocks found in the smaller and hotter basins, i.e. rifts, back-arc
and non-arc basins, appear to have been prone to gas leakage. These basins yield
mostly oil. Interior cratonic basins also have low natural gas enrichments, both
because they are shallow and cool and because their reservoirs have been subjected
to frequent erosion.

It is important to remember, however, that these are petroleum characteristic

generalizations, and every sedimentary basin is different. In any class, there will be
some basins that are prolific, some that are productive, and some that are
essentially dry. What matters most is that special combination of sediment fill, age,
depth, temperature, structure and timing, that makes each basin unique, can make
their petroleum endowment vary tremendously. Even among productive basins, the
amount of petroleum in place per unit volume of sediment differs by up to three
orders of magnitude (Klemme, 1976).