Petroleum System in North Sea

Source Rock & Migration

 Source Rock Potentials

Kimmeridge clay
 is called “Hot Shales”
 contains rich organic materials
 is estimated to generate over 2000 bil
lion BOE of hydrocarbons
 is estimated to contain up to 25.6 billi
on barrels undiscovered oil by US Ge
ological Survey

Figure 1 Distribution of the Kimmeridge Clay On and Offshore Europe (Kimmeridge Energy, 2014)
 Age of Kimmeridge clay

Figure 2a (left) Regional litho-stratigraphy of the northern North Sea (Vollset and Dore, 1984)
Figure 2b (right) Stratigraphic column showing the Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Richards et al., 1993)
 Type of Kerogen & TOC

Figure 3a (left) Analyses for Kimmeridge Clay Formation samples from wells (Fishman et al., 2012)
Figure 3b (right) Cross-plots of S2 and TOC for samples from the western and eastern flanks of the graben
(Keym et al., 2006)
 Thermal Maturation of Kimmeridge clay

oil window
gas window

Figure 5 Interpreted regional seismic section depicting the broad stratigraphy and structure through the North
Viking Graben and its flanks (Christiansson et al., 2000)
 Wireline-log Diagrams

Figure 4 Geochemical observations of various profiles with increasing depth (Keym et al., 2006)
 Thermal Maturation of Kimmeridge clay

Figure 6a (left) Approximate depth to base of Cretaceous rocks in North Sea (Gautier, 2005)
Figure 6b (right) Present day Kimmeridge Clay Maturity Map (Kimmeridge Energy, 2014)
 Migration

Figure 8a (left) Regional drainage areas and interpreted migration pathways in North Sea (Adda, 2012)
Figure 8b (right) 3D view of Top Brent carrier showing hydrocarbon migration pathways (Adda, 2012)
 Potentials?

• Thermal maturation of Kimmeridge clay provides oil cooking

• 50% of the oil and gas stay within the source rocks

• Use fracking approach