Table Of ContentPetroleum Exploration:
Past, Present, and Future
ThePast:PetroleumgeologistlookingforoilinPersia(nowIran)in
the early twentieth century. (Courtesy of the British Petroleum.)
The Present: Petroleum geoscientists looking for oil anywhere in
the world in the latetwentieth century. (Courtesyof Esso UK plc.)
The Future: Post-millennial cyber-cadet seeking abiogenic petro-
leum anywhere in the universe. (Courtesy of Paradigm Geophys-
ical, created by Sachnowitz & Co.)
ELEMENTS
OF PETROLEUM
GEOLOGY
THIRD EDITION
R C. S
ICHARD ELLEY
S A. S
TEPHEN ONNENBERG
AMSTERDAM(cid:129)BOSTON(cid:129)HEIDELBERG(cid:129)LONDON
NEWYORK(cid:129)OXFORD(cid:129)PARIS(cid:129)SANDIEGO
SANFRANCISCO(cid:129)SINGAPORE(cid:129)SYDNEY(cid:129)TOKYO ACADEMIC
AcademicPressisanimprintofElsevier PRESS
Preface to the Third Edition
The first edition of Elements of Petroleum third editions the importance of unconven-
Geology was published in 1985, some tionally occurring petroleum has been real-
30years ago. The objective of the book was ized. Technological advances, notably in
to describe the elements of petroleum geol- horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing
ogy. Beginning with the deposition and have enabled gas and oil to be produced
maturationofasourcerock,followedbythe from the very source rocks themselves,
migration of petroleum from the source into without migration and entrapment in a
a porous permeable reservoir rock trapped conventional reservoir. The production of
beneathanimpermeableseal.Thisbookalso gas and oil from shale, together with coal
described the science and technology of pe- bed methane is accelerating. This shift has
troleum exploration and production, from many economic and environmental benefits,
the first geophysical surveys to the finale of not least because it diminishes reliance on
enhanced recovery. burning coal leading to a cut in carbon
Whenthesecondeditionwaspublishedin dioxide emissions.
1998thefundamentalelementsofpetroleum We hope that this third edition will, like
geology remain little changed, but the sci- its predecessors, be useful for student geo-
ence and technology of petroleum explora- scientistsandengineerspreparingforacareer
tion and production had evolved. For in the energy industry, and also for mature
example, ever improving computer power practitioners in the upstream petroleum
enabled the development of 3D seismic industry seeking a wide ranging account of
surveys. The ability to interpret reflecting alargeareaofscienceandengineering.
horizons progressed to interpreting the RCS
amplitudeofindividualseismicwavetraces.
Royal School of Mines
When Elsevier requested the production
Imperial College
of a third edition RCS, by now in the spring
London, UK
time of his senility, felt daunted by the
SAS
task. Elsevier suggested a co-author. SAS
accepted the challenge and has made a Colorado School of Mines
major contribution to the revision. In the Golden
intervening years between the second and Colorado, USA
vii
Acknowledgments
Therearetwomainproblemstoovercome Gebruder Borntraeger, Geoexplorers Interna-
in writing a book on petroleum geology. The tional Inc., Cambridge University Press, the
subject is a vast one, ranging from arcane as- Canadian Association of Petroleum Geolo-
pects of molecular biochemistry to the math- gists, Chapman and Hall, Esso UK plc.,
ematicalmysteriesofseismicdataprocessing. Coherence Technology Company, W.H.
The subject is also evolving very fast as new Freeman and Company, Geology, The Geolo-
data become available and new concepts are gists Association of London, Geological Maga-
developed. I am very grateful to the many zine, the Geological Society of London, the
people who read draft of the manuscript, GeologicalSocietyofSouthAfrica,GulfCoast
pointed out errors of fact or emphasis, and Association of Geological Societies, the
suggested improvements. Much of this load GeophysicalDevelopmentCorporation,GMG
was borne by staff at the Imperial College, Europe Ltd., GVA International Consultants,
London University. The geophysical sections the Institute of Petroleum, the Journal of
were dealt with by Dr Thomas-Betts and the GeochemicalExploration,theJournalofPetroleum
late Weildon and the late Williamson, Geology, Marine and Petroleum Geology,
geochemistry by the late Dr Kinghorn, petro- McGraw-Hill, the Norwegian Petroleum
leum engineering by the late Professor Wall, Society,NUMARUKLtd.,theOffshoreTech-
and most of the remaining topics by the late nology Conference, Paradigm Geophysical
ProfessorStoneley.MrMaretofSchlumberger Corporation, Princeton University Press,
reviewed formation evaluation section. Sachnowitz & Co., Schlumberger Wireline
Forpermissiontousepreviouslypublished Logging Services, Schlumberger Oil-field Re-
illustrations I am grateful to the following: view,theSocietyofPetroleumEngineers,the
Academic Press, the American Association Society of Professional Well Log Analysts,
of Petroleum Geologists, Applied Science Springer-Verlag, John wiley & Sons, World
Publishers,BadleyEarthSciencesLtd.,Black- GeoscienceUKLtd.,andWorldOil.
well Scientific Publications, BP Exploration,
ix
C H A P T E R
1
Introduction
AndGodsaiduntoNoah.Maketheeanarkofgopherwood;roomsshaltthoumakeintheark,andshalt
coatitwithinandwithoutwithpitch.Genesis6:13-14
1.1 HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PETROLEUM EXPLORATION
1.1.1 Petroleum from Noah to Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
Petroleumexplorationisaveryoldpursuit,astheprecedingquotationillustrates.TheBible
contains many references to the use of pitch or asphalt collected from the natural seepages
withwhichtheMiddleEastabounds.Herodotus,writinginabout450BC,describedoilseeps
inCarthage(Tunisia)andtheGreekislandZachynthus(Herodotus,c.450BC).Hegavedetails
ofoilextractionfromwellsnearArdericcainmodernIran,althoughthewellscouldnothave
beenverydeepbecausefluidwasextractedinawineskinontheendofalongpolemounted
on a fulcrum. Oil, salt, and bitumen were produced simultaneously from these wells.
Throughout the first millenium AD, oil and asphalt were gathered from natural seepages in
many parts of the world. The early uses of oil were for medication, waterproofing, and
warfare.Oilwasappliedexternallyforwoundsandrheumatismandadministeredinternally
as a laxative. From the time of Noah, pitch has been used to make boats watertight. Pitch,
asphalt, and oil have long been employed in warfare. When Alexander the Great invaded
India in 326 BC, he scattered the Indian elephant corps by charging them with horsemen
waving pots of burning pitch. Nadir Shah employed a similar device, impregnating the
humps of camels with oil and sending them ablaze against the Indian elephant corps in
1739 (Pratt and Good, 1950). Greek fire was invented by Callinicus of Heliopolis in AD 668.
Its precise recipe is unknown, but it is believed to have included quicklime, sulfur, and
naphtha and it ignited whenwet. Itwas a potent weapon in Byzantine naval warfare.
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, asphalt, oil, and their by-products were produced
only from seepages, shallow pits, and hand-dug shafts. In 1694, the British Crown issued a
patent to Masters Eele, Hancock, and Portlock to “make great quantities of pitch, tarr, and
oyle out of a kind of stone” (Eele, 1697). The stone in question was of Carboniferous age
and occurred at the eponymous Pitchford in Shropshire (Torrens, 1994). The first well in
the Western World that specifically sunk to search for oil (as opposed to water or brine)
appears to have been at Pechelbronn, France, in 1745. Outcrops of oil sand were noted in
thisregion,andLouisXVgrantedalicensetoM.delaSorbonniere,whosankseveralborings
and built a refinery in the same year (Redwood, 1913). The birth of the oil shale industry is
ElementsofPetroleumGeology 1
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-386031-6.00001-1 Copyright©2015ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.
2
1. INTRODUCTION
credited to James Young, who began retorting oil from the Carboniferous shales at Torban,
Scotland, in 1847. The resultant products of these early refineries included ammonia, solid
paraffin wax, and liquid paraffin (kerosene or coal oil). The wax was used for candles and
the kerosene for lamps. Kerosene became cheaper than whale oil, and therefore the market
for liquid hydrocarbons expanded rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century. Initially, the
demand was satisfied by oil shales and from oil in natural seeps, pits, hand-dug shafts,
and galleries. Before exploration for oil began, cable-tool drilling was an established
technique in many parts of the world in the quest for water and brine (Fig. 1.1). The first
welltoproduceoilintentionallyintheWesternWorldwasdrilledatOilCreek,Pennsylvania,
by Colonel Drake in 1859 (Owen, 1975). Previously, water wells in the Appalachians and
elsewhere produced oil as a contaminant. The technology for drilling Drake’s well was
derivedfromChineseartisanswhohadtraveledtotheUnitedStatestoworkontherailroads.
FIGURE1.1
Earlycable-toolrigusedinAmericathemotivepowerwasprovidedbyonemanandaspringpole.
CourtesyofBritishPetroleum.
3
1.1 HISTORICALREVIEWOFPETROLEUMEXPLORATION
Cable-tooldrillinghadbeenusedinChinasinceatleastthefirstcenturyBC,thedrillingtools
being suspended from bamboo towers up to 60m high. In China, however, this drilling
technology had developed to produce artesian brines, not petroleum (Messadie, 1995). The
first “oil mine” was opened in Bobrka, Poland, in early 1854 by Ignacy Lukasiewicz (Frank,
2005; Wikipedia, 2014 “History of the Petroleum Industry”). Lukasiewicz was interested in
usingseepoilasanalternativetothemoreexpensivewhaleoilandwasthefirstintheworld
to distill kerosene from seep oil.
A rapid growth in oil production from subsurface wells soon followed, both in North
America and around the world. A major stimulus to oil production was the development
of the internal combustion engine in the 1870s and 1880s. Gradually, the demand for lighter
petroleumfractionsovertookthatforkerosene.Useswerefound,however,foralltherefined
products, from the light gases, via petrol, paraffin, diesel oil, tar, and sulfur, to the heavy
residue. Demand for oil products increased greatly because of the First World War
(1914e1918). By the 1920s, the oil industry was dominated by seven major companies,
termed the “seven sisters” by Enrico Mattei (Sampson, 1975). These companies included:
European:
British Petroleum
Shell
American:
Exxon (formerly Esso)
Gulf
Texaco
Mobil
Socal (or Chevron)
British Petroleum and Shell found their oil reserves abroad from their parent countries,
principally in the Middle and Far East, respectively. They were thus involved early in
long-distance transport by sea, measuring their oil by the seagoing tonne. The American
companies, by contrast, with shorter transportation distances, used the barrel as their unit
of measurement. The American companies began overseas ventures, mainly in Central and
South America, in the 1920s. In the 1930s, the ArabianeAmerican Oil Company (Aramco,
now Saudi Aramco) evolved from a consortium of Socal, Texaco, Mobil, and Exxon.
Following the Second World War and the postwar economic boom, the idea of oil consortia
becameestablishedovermuchofthefreeworld.Oilcompaniesriskedtheprofitsfromonepro-
ductiveareatoexploreforoilinnewareas.Totakeonalltherisksinanewventureisunwise,
socompanieswouldinvestinseveraljointventures,orconsortia.Table1.1showssomeofthe
majorconsortia,demonstratingthestatelydanceofthesevensistersastheychangedtheirpart-
nersaroundtheworld.Inthisprocessthemajorconsortiasharedamutualloveehaterelation-
ship.Theobjectofanybusinessistomaximizeprofit.Thus,itwastotheirmutual benefitto
exportoilfromtheproducingcountriesascheaplyaspossibleandtosellitintheworldmarket
forthehighestpricepossible.Theadvantageofacartelisoffsetbythedesireofeverycompany
toenhanceitssalesattheexpenseofitscompetitorsbysellingitsproductscheaper.
In 1960, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in
Baghdad and consisted initially of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela
(Martinez, 1969). It later expanded to include Algeria, Dubai, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia,
4
1. INTRODUCTION
TABLE1.1 PartnersofSomeoftheMajorOverseas OilConsortiaa
TheConsortium, I.P.C., Aramco, KuwaitOil Admar, A.D.P.C., Oasis,
Companies Iran Iraq SaudiArabia Co.,Kuwait AbuDhabi AbuDhabi Libya
B.P. X X X X X
Shell X X X X
Exxon X X X X
Mobil X X X X
Gulf X X
Texaco X X
Socal X X
C.F.P. X X
Conoco X
Amerada X
Marathon X
aNotethatpartnersandtheirpercentageinterestvariedoverthelifetimeofthevariousconsortia.
Libya,Nigeria,Qatar,andtheUnitedArabEmirates.Toqualifyformembership,acountry’s
economy must be predominantly based on oil exports; therefore, the United States and the
United Kingdom do not qualify. By the mid-1970s, OPEC was producing two-thirds of the
freeworld’soil.TheobjectofOPECistocontrolthepoweroftheindependentoilcompanies
by a combination of price control and appropriation of company assets. For many OPEC
countries,oilistheironlynaturalresource.Onceitisdepleted,theywillhavenoassetsunless
theycanmaximizetheiroilrevenuesandspendtheminthedevelopmentofotherindustries.
TheOPECobjectivehasbeennotablysuccessful,althoughitslargepriceincreasesintheearly
1970s contributed to a global recession, which affected both the developed and the poorer
Third World countries alike.
The idea of the producing state controlling the oil company’s activities has now been
exported from OPEC. Not only have state oil companies been formed in countries that
formerly lacked indigenous oil expertise (e.g., Statoil in Norway and Petronas in Malaysia),
but they have also been formed in those that had the expertise (Petrocan in Canada and the
former Britoil in the United Kingdom). Formerly, the profit that the oil companies made in
one country was theriskcapital tobeinvested inthe next country.Withstate oilcompanies
the taxpayer shares the risk and the profit.
The most influential state oil andgascompanies based in countriesoutsidethe Organiza-
tionofEconomicCo-operationandDevelopmentaccordingtotheFinancialTimes(2007)are:
(cid:129) China National Petroleum Corporation (China)
(cid:129) Gazprom (Russia)
(cid:129) National Iranian Oil Company (Iran)
(cid:129) Petrobras (Brazil)
5
1.1 HISTORICALREVIEWOFPETROLEUMEXPLORATION
(cid:129) Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (Venezuela)
(cid:129) Petronas (Malaysia)
(cid:129) Saudia Aramco (Saudi Arabia)
Thisgroupofstateoilandgascompanieshasbeenlabeledthe“NewSevenSisters(Hoyos,
2007).” These largely state-owned companies are the new rule makers and control almost
one-thirdof theworld’soiland gas productionandmorethan one-thirdof theworld’stotal
oil and gas reserves.
1.1.2 Evolution of Petroleum Exploration Concepts and Techniques
FromthedaysofNoahtoOPECtheroleofthepetroleumgeologisthasbecomemoreand
more skilled and demanding. In the early days, oil was found by wandering about the
countryside with a naked flame, optimism, and a sense of adventure. One major U.S.
company, which will remain nameless, once employed a chief geologist whose exploration
philosophy was to drill on old Indian graves. Another oil finder used to put on an old hat,
gallopabout theprairieuntilhis hat dropped off,andstartdrilling where it landed. History
records that he was very successful (Cunningham-Craig, 1912). One of the earliest explora-
tiontoolswas“creekology.”Itgraduallydawnedontheearlydrillersthatoilwasmoreoften
found by wells located on river bottoms than by those on the hills (Fig. 1.2). The anticlinal
theory of oil entrapment, which explained this phenomenon, was expounded by Hunt
(1861). Up to the present day, the quest for anticlines has been one of the most successful
exploration concepts.
Experiencesoonproved,however,thatoilcouldalsooccuroffstructure.Carll(1880)noted
that the oil-bearing marine Venango sands of Pennsylvania occurred in trends that reflected
not structure, but paleoshorelines. Thus was borne the concept that oil could be trapped
stratigraphically as well as structurally. Stratigraphic traps are caused by variations in
deposition, erosion, or diagenesis within the reservoir.
Through the latter part of the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth century, oil
exploration was based on the surface mapping of anticlines. Stratigraphic traps were found
accidentally by serendipity or by subsurface mapping and extrapolation of data gathered
FIGURE 1.2 Creekologydtheeaseoffindingoilintheolddays.
