--> Abstract: Vitrinite Reflectance in the 21st Century: Implication to Petroleum System Study in the Eastern Canadian Basins, by Prasanta K.(Muki) Mukhopadhyay; #90914(2000)

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Prasanta K.(Muki) Mukhopadhyay1
(1) Global Geosciences Research Ltd, Halifax, NS

Abstract: Vitrinite reflectance in the 21st Century: Implication to petroleum system study in the Eastern Canadian Basins

Sixty years of research and development of vitrinite reflectance methods have identified that the facies of vitrinite macerals, primary migration of hydrocarbons, and the heat flux within the vitrinite micro-network are the major controlling factors for the variations in maturity within closely-spaced sedimentary units. This concept was tested in defining the maturity of various source rock units in the Sable Subbasin/LaHave Platform of the Scotian Basin and the Jeane 'd Arc Basin in offshore Eastern Canada.

The research based on maturity as defined by vitrinite reflectance and fluorescence parameters (especially alteration) suggested that comparable maturity of the source rock of a selected stratigraphic unit (example: Logan Canyon, Scotian Basin) in the shelf and distal part of the basin showed anomalous variations. These variations are related to 'terrestrial dilution effect', type of plant facies, bacterial alteration, smearing of vitrinite surface by primary migration of hydrocarbons due to lowering of activation energy distribution, and the thermal effect related to the composition of lithological package. These observations are quite pertinent for the numerical modeling of hydrocarbon expulsion to address petroleum systems in the slope/shelf break region compared to the shelf areas.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90914©2000 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana