--> ABSTRACT: New Kinetic Method for Modeling Oil Generation, by Longjiang Wang and Colin Barker; #91022 (1989)

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New Kinetic Method for Modeling Oil Generation

Longjiang Wang, Colin Barker

An extended kinetic method for modeling oil generation has been developed. The method can be used to calculate the amount of oil generated by a source rock, the amount migrated out of that source rock, and the expulsion efficiency. It can also be used to establish the time of oil generation and migration and to evaluate the evolving thermal maturity of the organic matter in the source rock.

The method incorporates a mass balance of all of the organic materials in a source rock. It treats the kerogen in the source rock as two parts, one convertible and the other nonconvertible. On heating, the convertible part of kerogen transforms only to hydrocarbons, and the nonconvertible part either remains unchanged (forming a carbon residue) or forms nonhydrocarbons (water, carbon dioxide, etc). Unlike other proposed models, the new method does not require a knowledge of the initial amount of organic matter in a source rock in order to model oil generation. The input data are derived solely from a study of the rock as it is today. Two assumptions are made in developing the method: (1) oil generation can be described by a group of first-order parallel reactions and (2) the total amo nt of oil that can be generated from a source rock is a constant. The input data required for the model include the amount of bitumen derived from dry pyrolysis (S1), the amount of kerogen pyrolysate (S2) also derived from dry pyrolysis, the kinetic parameters (E and A) of the kerogen, and the geothermal history of the source rock.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91022©1989 AAPG Annual Convention, April 23-26, 1989, San Antonio, Texas.