Kerogen Kinetics of the Red River Formation, Williston Basin, North Dakota

Abstract

Eight wells were examined in the Williston Basin Red River Formation in North Dakota. Kerogen samples from each well were taken from various depths and analyzed using multiple heating-ramp Rock-Eval pyrolysis. The purpose of this study was to apply the Kissinger Equation to Rock-Eval data to determine if multiple kerogens exist within each well and/or within the formation (and how they relate to each other) and also to generate a linear equation used to determine true values of activation energy and frequency factor. Activation energy and frequency factor values were derived from the Arrhenius and Kissinger equations and used to statistically construct error ellipses (measurement error) for each sample. Overlapping error ellipses represented similar kerogens while error ellipses with no overlap represented different kerogens. This study found at least five different kerogens are present within the Red River Formation. A calibrated compensation effect, which will give the true value of activation energy and frequency factor after accounting for measurement error, was calculated for the Red River Formation.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90291 ©2017 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Houston, Texas, April 2-5, 2017