Petroleum Geology

Chapter 1
 Outline

History of petroleum exploration

Application of Geoscience to Petroleum Exploration and
Development
Rocks and Minerals
Plate Tectonics
Sedimentary Basin
History of Petroleum
Exploration
 History of Petroleum Exploration

Petroleum (Greek)
Petra Rock
Oleum Oil
 History
Natural Seeps of Oil & Gas in earliest recorded history
But no real demand exist.
Kerosene lamps in 1860 to 1880
1882 Electric Light Bulb --- END of Oil ????
1895 Internal Combustion Engine -- New Demand for Oil
HUNGER for OIL started
1901 SPINDLE Top, Texas (LARGE Volumes of Oil is Possible)
1902 Large scale CAR production
1920s Use of Seismic Reflection to map Subsurface (Oil boom in USA, Mexico, Persia, Venezuala)
1930s East Texas Oil field, use of GEOLOGY to find Oil
1950s Search World wide -- Onshore and shallow water offshore
1960s Use of Computers to Store and Process the Seismic data
1960s Large scale Petrochemical Plants
1970s Use of Geochemistry .
1980s Coals as Oil Source
1990s HUNGER for GAS
Lucas-1 well, Spindle Spindle Top,
Top,Texas Texas
Geoscience Application to
Petroleum Exploration &
Development
Lets watch this!!!
 GEOLOGY
Study of solid Earth, the
material of which it is
made, the structure of
those materials, and the
processes acting upon
them.

History of the Earth’s,

provides primary
evidence for plate
tectonics, evolutionary
history life and past
climates. Mineral & hydrocarbon
exploration, evaluate
water resources;
predicting &
understanding of natural
hazards, remediation of
environmental problems
Geoscience Application to Petroleum
Exploration & Development
Where do Petroleum Geologist Work?
G&G in the Life of a Field
Current Situation!!!
ROCKS and MINERALS
LET US WATCH THIS VIDEO
 MINERALS

Naturally occurring inorganic substances

Definite chemical composition and specific crystal structure
❑ Crystal structure is controlled by composition that directly determines which atoms of which
elements will be distributed in which arrangement
Fundamental building blocks of rock materials in the earth
 Minerals
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES:
Guidelines for filed identification of
specimens that may occur combined with
other minerals or in very small amounts in
particular sample
Hand lens is used for this identification
Permit identification of hand specimens
without involving time consuming & difficult
laboratory procedures
 Minerals
SHAPE

TASTE HARDNESS

Physical
properties

LUSTER COLOR

WEIGHTS

List the other 2!!

 SHAPE

Minerals grow into consistent crystal shape, which are controlled by

chemical composition of mineral
• Six crystal system that include all minerals
• Some mineral compounds can form more than one mineral with entirely
different crystal structures – polymorphs which are quite different in
appearance
• Study of mineral crystal forms is called crystallography
 HARDNESS

•How mineral resists scratching – hardness

•Only fresh mineral surfaces should be tested
•Weathered mineral surfaces will result in hardness measurements that can be
quite different from fresh unweathered mineral
•Mohs’ hardness scale – scale from softest to hardest by which mineral
hardnesses are determined
LIST OUT THE MOHS’ SCALE!!!!!!!
 WEIGHTS
•Specific gravity of mineral – its weight relative to the weight of an equal
volume of water
•Obtained by dividing the weight of mineral in air by difference between its
weight in air & its weight in water.
•Most mineral specimens are difficult to measure because associated with
other minerals
•Very heavy and very light minerals easily recognized by specific gravity
 LUSTER

•How mineral reflects light determine its type of luster

•Most minerals are considered to have metallic or nonmetallic luster, with few
having sub metallic luster.
 TASTE

•Some minerals have very distinctive taste qualities that facilitate their
immediate identification
•Rock salt (halite) & salvite are two minerals with distinctive tastes.
 CLEAVAGE

•How mineral parts along weaknesses in its crystal lattice

•tendency of crystalline materials to split along definite crystallographic
structural planes
•result of the regular locations of atoms and ions in the crystal
•create smooth repeating surfaces that are visible both in the microscope and
to the naked eye
•Quartz tightly bonded & produce no cleavage
•Mica have one direction of cleavage and calcite has three directions
 FRACTURE

•Random breakage of mineral along no

particular orientation
 ROCKS
Three (3) types of rock:
1) IGNEOUS
2) SEDIMENTARY
3) METAMORPHIC

✔ Sedimentary rocks: of interest to petroleum geology, as reservoir, source, seals

✔ Igneous & Metamorphic : not of interest, generally, but may form potential
reservoir for petroleum only when porosity is present, e.g. fractures
 ROCKS

IGNEOUS: formed from the crystallization of molten rock (magma or lava) from within the
earth’s mantle. Common igneous rocks include granite, basalt, and gabbro.

METAMORPHIC : formed from pre-existing rocks by mineralogical, chemical and/or

structural changes in response to marked changes in temperature, pressure, shearing stress,
and chemical environment. These changes generally take place deep within the earth’s
crust. Examples of common metamorphic rocks include slate, marble and schist.

SEDIMENTARY : formed as sediments, either from eroded fragments of older rocks or

chemical precipitates. Sediments are compacted and cemented after burial under
additional layers of sediment. Thus sandstone forms by the lithification of sand particles and
limestone by the lithification of shells and other particles of calcium carbonate. These types
of rocks are typically deposited in horizontal layers, or strata, at the bottom of rivers,
oceans, and deltas. Limestone, sandstone, and clay are typical sedimentary rocks.
ROCK CYCLE

❖ Tectonism controls
the rock cycle and is
important to many
surficial processes
and other Earth
Cycles.
 ROCKS

Types of ROCK IGNEOUS SEDIMENTARY METAMORPHIC

SOURCE OF MATERIAL • Melting of rocks in • Weathering and • Rocks under HIGH

hot, deep crust erosion of rocks temperatures &
and upper mantle exposed at surface HIGH pressures in
deep crust and
upper mantle

ROCK-forming CRYSTALLIZATION DEPOSITION -> BURIAL RECRYSTALLIZATION

PROCESS -> LITHIFICATION
 ROCKS
PARENT ROCK ALTERATION DUE TO METAMORPHIC ROCK
PRESSURE, HEAT OR
CHEMICAL FLUID IN
LIMESTONE OR DOLOSTONE MARBLE
THE SUBSURFACE

SHALE OR MUDSTONE SLATE, PHYLLITE, SCHIST

SANDSTONE QUARTZITE

SHALE, BASALT, GABBRO SCHIST

MIXED SEDIMENTARY ROCKS & GNEISS

GRANITE
 WHAT ROCKS TELL US

IGNEOUS COMPOSITION TECTONIC SETTING

TEXTURE COOLING HISTORY

SEDIMENTARY CHEMICAL COMPOSITION SURFACE ENVIRONMENT

GRAIN SIZE ENERGY OF ENVIRONMENT

METAMORPHIC COMPOSITION ORIGINAL ROCK TYPE

MINERAL MAKEUP TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE

TEXTURE DEGREE OF CHANGE

GEOLOGIC TIME
 AGE DATING
Before radioactive materials were discovered, geologists used this and other principles and an
understanding of fossils to determine the relative ages of sedimentary rock layers; that is,
how old they are in relation to one another. Relative dating does not tell us how long ago
something took place, only that it followed one event and preceded another.
Once radioactivity was discovered, geologists used the physics of radioactive decay to
pinpoint a rock’s absolute age, that is, how many years ago it formed.
Absolute dating did not replace relative dating, but simply supplemented the relative dating
technique.
The principle methods that have been used for direct radiochronology of sedimentary rocks
are as follows:
1. The Carbon-14 technique for organic materials.
2. The Potassium-Argon and Rubidium-Strontium techniques for glauconites,
hornblende, microclines, muscovites, biotites, etc.
3. The Thorium-230 technique for deep ocean sediments and aragonite corals.
4. The Protactinium-231 technique for ocean sediments and aragonite corals.
5. The Uranium-238 technique for apatite, volcanic glass, zircon, etc.
Plate Tectonics
PLATE TECTONICS
(1965)

CONTINENTAL DRIFT
(1900s)
 CONTINENTAL DRIFT
200 million years ago, Pangea broke up into smaller continents and these
continents have since ‘’drifted’’ to their present positions
Alfred Wegener 1900’s
o Continents were once a single land mass that drifted apart.
o Fossils of the same plants and animals are found on different continents
o Called this supercontinent Pangea, Greek for “all Earth”
o 245 Million years ago
o Split again – Laurasia & Gondwana 180 million years ago
In 1965, continental drift and seafloor spreading were combined
into a unifying idea
WHAT’s THE NEW IDEA???
Evidence of Pangea
 What is Plate Tectonics?

If you look at a
map of the world,
you may notice
that some of the
continents could fit
together like pieces
of a puzzle.
Plate Tectonics

The Earth’s crust is divided into 12 major plates which are moved in various
directions.
This plate motion causes them to collide, pull apart, or scrape against each
other.
Each type of interaction causes a characteristic set of Earth structures or
“tectonic” features.
The word, tectonic, refers to the deformation of the crust as a consequence
of plate interaction.
Nature and Composition of
Earth

Earth’s interior:
✔Crust
✔Mantle
✔Core
(Inner/Outer)
 Crust
• Most importance layer in petroleum geology
• Can be divided into:
Oceanic crust
- Lies under the oceans
- Thin layer (8-11 km)
- Made up by heavy rock formed when molten rock (magma) cools

Continental crust
- Thick layer (30-40 km)
- Composed of rock that is relatively light as compared to oceanic crust
• Crust continuously changing and moving because of:
1) Orogeny
2) Weathering/erosion
• DEFINE:
OROGENY/ MOHOROVICIC/LITHOSPHERE/ASTHENOSPHERE????
Mantle
Total thickness ~ 2850 km
Si, Fe, Mg most abundant
Can be divided into:
Upper mantle (90 km)
- Rigid: Uppermost part of the mantle, part of the Lithosphere
- Flowing (Asthenosphere): the lower part of the upper mantle that exhibits plastic (flowing)
properties. Located below the lithosphere (crust and upper mantle)
Lower mantle (2800 km)
- Semi-rigid
- The deepest parts of the mantle, just above the core
Outer Core
Thickness: 2270 km
Mobile liquid

Inner Core
• Thickness: 1216 km
• Solid metallic sphere, mainly iron, minor silicon,
and carbon
• Density 13.5 x that of water
What are tectonic plates made of?
Plates are made of rigid
lithosphere.
The lithosphere is made up
of the crust and the upper
part of the mantle.
What lies beneath the tectonic plates?

Below the
lithosphere (which
makes up the
tectonic plates) is
the asthenosphere
 Weathering and Erosion

‘’ Weathering and erosion are closely interrelated

geological processes. As a rock weathers, it becomes
susceptible to erosion. Erosion is the removal of weathered
debris. These and additional forces and processes have
resulted in the creation of subsurface geological
formations in which petroleum reservoirs are found’’
 Weathering and Erosion
Two (2) types of weathering:
1) Physical
2) Chemical

•Occurs when solid

rock is fragmented
Physical by physical processes
that do not change
the rock’s chemical
composition.
•Wind (Aeolian forces)
/ Water (freezing,
flowing, waver
action) / Heat /
Glacial when
•Occurs movement.
•Example:
minerals inFrost
a rock are
Chemical wedging.
chemically altered or
dissolved.
•Potassium feldspar ->
kaolinite (clay)
 CONVECTION CURRENTS
Plate of lithosphere are moved
around by the underlying hot
mantle convection cells
Heat trapped in the Earth caused
convection currents
The currents would rise beneath
continents, spread laterally, the
plunge beneath the oceans.
Convection currents beneath the
plate move the crustal plates in
different direction.
The source of heat driving the
convection currents is cooling of
the hot interior and radioactivity
deep in the Earth’s mantle.
Types of plate boundary

• Divergent

• Convergent

• Transform
PLATE BOUNDARIES

• The driving mechanisms of

subsidence are ultimately related to
processes within the relatively rigid,
cooled thermal boundary layer of
the Earth known as the lithosphere.
• The lithosphere is composed of a
number of tectonic plates that are in
relative motion with one another.
• The relative motion produces
deformation concentrated along
plate boundaries which are of three
basic types:
❑ • Divergent boundaries
❑ • Convergent boundaries
❑ • Transform boundaries
Plate boundaries

Convergent, divergent and

transform boundaries represent
the three main classes of
plate-boundaries.

Plate boundaries are

characterized by plate-motion
gradient and discontinuity.

Lithospheric deformations are

intimately related to gradient in
the displacement field.

Mountain belt develop as the

result of convergent plate
motion. The colliding margins
deform in contraction during
which folding and thrusting
develop.
 Divergent Boundaries

• Spreading ridges
– As plates move apart new material is
erupted to fill the gap
DIVERGENT PLATE BOUNDARIES

Continental rifting (a) may lead to opening of an ocean with a mid-ocean

ridge (b, c)
concerned with the structures formed, and the tectonic processes associated
with, the stretching of the crust or lithosphere.
Areas of extensional tectonics are typically associated with:
The development of continental rifts, with or without the effects of mantle upwelling
The gravitational spreading of zones of thickened crust formed during
continent-continent collision
Tensional flexures along strike-slip faults
On passive margins where an effective basal detachment layer is present at the
upper end of a linked system

Rift basin evolves into passive margin

 Convergent Boundaries
• There are three styles of convergent
plate boundaries
– Continent-continent collision
– Continent-oceanic crust collision
– Ocean-ocean collision
Continent-Continent Collision

Forms mountains, e.g. European Alps,

Himalayas
Himalayas
Continent-Oceanic Crust Collision

Called SUBDUCTION
Subduction

Oceanic lithosphere
subducts underneath the
continental lithosphere
Oceanic lithosphere
heats and dehydrates as
it subsides
The melt rises forming
volcanism
E.g. The Andes
Ocean-Ocean Plate Collision

When two oceanic plates collide, one runs over the

other which causes it to sink into the mantle forming a
subduction zone.
The subducting plate is bent downward to form a very
deep depression in the ocean floor called a trench.
The worlds deepest parts of the ocean are found along
trenches.
E.g. The Mariana Trench is 11 km deep!
 Transform Boundaries
Where plates slide past each other

Above: View of the San

Andreas transform fault
Sedimentary Basin
The Wilson Cycle:
If continents rift apart to form ocean
basins, other oceans must close.

This may be repeated throughout Earth

history.

This cycle is known as the Wilson Cycle:

(1) Rifting of continents by mantle

diapirism

(2) Continental drift, seafloor spreading

& formation of ocean basins
(3) Progressive closure of ocean basins
by subduction of ocean lithosphere
(4) Continental collision and final
closure of ocean basin
 Basin Development
A sedimentary basin is an area in
which sediments have
accumulated during a particular
time period at a significantly
greater rate and to a
significantly greater thickness
than surrounding areas.

(Compare with physiographic

basin – a depression in the
surface of the land or sea-floor
that may or may not be infilled
with sediments).
SEDIMENTARY BASINS

As sediments accumulate they load the lithosphere causing it to

sink.
As the lithospere sinks thick accumulations of sediment can form.
The sinking of the lithosphere is called subsidence.
A sedimentary basin is the sediment-filled depression.
There are a number of types of sedimentary
basins - here are a couple of examples:
Rift basins form in continental rifts - areas in
which the lithosphere has been stretched by
tectonic forces. Surface subsides because
the crust becomes thinner as it stretches.
Passive margin basins: When subsidence
continues after it leads to rifting (and then
seafloor spreading) sediments accumulate.
These occur along the passive margins of
continents - i.e. not at a plate boundary.
When sea level rises or falls, this leads to
transgression or regression respectively.
During a transgression for example, the
shoreline migrates inland. Evidence of such
events can be seen in depositional
sequences.
Sedimentary basins of one type or another
today cover about 70% of the Earth's
surface and contain sediment thicknesses
that range from about a kilometer to several
10's km.

Some basins are geologically young others

have existed for 100's million years.
Investigations of sedimentary basins have been the
result of collaboration between the different
disciplines within the Earth Sciences: where
geophysics, geochemistry, structural geology,
stratigraphy and sedimentology have all played an
important part.

A major breakthrough was the plate tectonic paradigm, which

allowed basins to be classified according to a unifying geodynamic
theory.
 Sedimentary Basin Development
Basin development usually involves:
– Initiation; often due to crustal extension
– Subsidence; gradually decreasing through time
– Modifying tectonics; involving further extension, uplift, wrenching or compressional deformation
•The history depends on many geodynamic factors:
– Stress evolution and Plate position
❖ extensional, compressional, interior or marginal

– Type of lithosphere / crust

– Sedimentary factors
❖ sedimentation rate, climate, sea-level evolution

•As a result, basins may be simple or complex

- Basins may have unique attributes, but they evolve through relatively standard phases
The majority of the basin types we see today represent the present-day expression of
an evolution through a number of phases or cycles in basin evolution – a kind of
snap-shot
These cycles are represented by sedimentary sequences and form building-blocks
from which sedimentary basins are made
Like bricks, cycles are relatively consistent in character. They also tend to follow each
other in a relatively consistent order.
Basins formed from these cycles are built up in different ways to form distinct types and,
depending on many factors (geodynamic, sedimentary and tectonic), may develop
unique characteristics
Processes governing sedimentary
basin creation and evolution
Cycles in the development of some typical sedimentary
basin types
Simple and complex basins
Basin cycles can be broken down into stages:
Single cycle basin
comprising only a rift
cycle: the Phitsanulok
Basin, Thailand

Multiple cycle basin,

with rift, post-rift and
foreland cycles: The
Swiss Molasse Basin
Basin Cycles & Stages

Rift cycles (graben or interior fracture cycles)

– Half-grabens, symmetrical grabens, distributed grabens
• Stages: initiation; maximum subsidence; waning

Sag cycles (subsidence without faulting)

– Interior sag cycles and stages
– Post-rift sag cycles and stages
• Interior or “failed rifts”
• Passive margins (marginal sags)

Compressional cycles
– Interior (“A” type subduction zones)
• Foreland basins (inversion, foredeep, fold & thrust belts)
• Intra-plate basins (inversion)

– Marginal (“B” type subduction zones)

• Forearc basins