--> Abstract: A Test of a Kinetic Model of Petroleum Generation, Expulsion, and Cracking in the Maracaibo Basin, Venezuela, by J. J. Sweeney, A. K. Burnham, R. L. Braun, S. Talukdar, and C. Vallejos; #91012 (1992).

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ABSTRACT: A Test of a Kinetic Model of Petroleum Generation, Expulsion, and Cracking in the Maracaibo Basin, Venezuela

SWEENEY, JERRY J., ALAN K. BURNHAM, and ROBERT L. BRAUN, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, SUHAS TALUKDAR, DGSI, The Woodlands, TX, and CARLOS VALLEJOS, INTEVEP, S.A., Caracas, Venezuela

A computer model based on chemical kinetics, called PMOD, has been developed to simulate petroleum generation and cracking, pore pressure buildup, and fluid expulsion from a compacting source rock. The chemistry reaction mechanism and kinetics for the La Luna shale were developed from hydrous pyrolysis and rapid, programmed, open pyrolysis experiments in the laboratory. The resulting chemistry mechanism includes light, medium, and heavy components of three oil composition species, and gas species such as CH4, wet gas, CO2, H2S, and H2. Oil composition includes sulfur content, H/C ratio, saturate content, API gravity, pristane/phytane ratio, and phytane/C18 ratio. Testing with the "real world" was done by comparing calculations for 22 different wells in the Maracaibo basin with measure Rock-Eval and composition data from oils and extracts. Calculations indicate that organic maturation accounts for a large fraction of the overpressuring during oil generation and early cracking. Observed geochemical maturity parameters of the source rock agree well with calculations. Calculations of compositions of oil in Cretaceous reservoirs below the La Luna Formation best match the observations when it is assumed that the reservoir has undergone the same thermal history as the source rock.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91012©1992 AAPG Annual Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 22-25, 1992 (2009)