ABSTRACT: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in the Discrimination of Crude Oils

James A. Noel, Eric Daugstrop

A research project to study the discrimination of crude oils from the Northern Appalachian, Illinois, and Michigan basins has been conducted for the past three years. The eventual goal of the project is to learn the location of the origins and migration routes of the oils within and among the basins. Various approaches have been tried to discriminate among the oils with varying success. Two have been the nickel/vanadium ratios approach and the plotting of histograms of 14 different trace elements and their amounts. Examples of these are presented to show the characteristics of each technique.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was completed during the last year on several hundred samples. Other workers have used this approach on source rocks with some success. The difference from their approach,

besides using crude oil, is that the equipment at Ashland University is of the older type which detects hydrogen atoms instead of carbon 13. Because of this, the alkanes are very noticable on the curves, whereas the aromatics appear only as nearly imperceptible peaks. We reran each sample on the same chart but greatly exaggerated the scale so that the aromatics would be revealed. Examples of the curves of oils of the same age and basin and different ages and basins are presented and discussed.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90998 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, London, Ontario, Canada, September 10-12, 1990