The document discusses various theories on the origin of petroleum, including:
1) Organic origin from remains of ancient plant and animal life undergoing heat and pressure over time.
2) Possible abiogenic origin through geological processes like interactions between water and metallic carbides or carbon dioxide and alkali metals.
3) A "duplex origin" where abiogenic hydrocarbons were later consumed and altered by early life forms.
The document discusses various theories on the origin of petroleum, including:
1) Organic origin from remains of ancient plant and animal life undergoing heat and pressure over time.
2) Possible abiogenic origin through geological processes like interactions between water and metallic carbides or carbon dioxide and alkali metals.
3) A "duplex origin" where abiogenic hydrocarbons were later consumed and altered by early life forms.
The document discusses various theories on the origin of petroleum, including:
1) Organic origin from remains of ancient plant and animal life undergoing heat and pressure over time.
2) Possible abiogenic origin through geological processes like interactions between water and metallic carbides or carbon dioxide and alkali metals.
3) A "duplex origin" where abiogenic hydrocarbons were later consumed and altered by early life forms.
• Even though believer of organic origin of petroleum
agrees on its origin, they differ on the issues related to – The process of formation and the primary organic constituents, i.e., marine / continental origin? – Quantity of present day petroleum as directly obtained from hydrocarbon of living organisms or by the transformation of hydrocarbon compounds into petroleum? – Nature of energy involved in the transformation? Viz. biochemical action, heat and pressure, radioactivity, catalytic phenomena, etc. • As far as the occurrence of petroleum is concerned, two schools of thought prevails: – All petroleum was formed in place, either at or adjacent to the position of the present pools – Petroleum has migrated from areas of origin to trap areas i.e., source area doesn’t necessarily coincide with the accumulation area. Theories of origin of petroleum • Cosmic theory
• Bertheiot (1865), Mendaleef (1877) suggested the
formation of petroleum in the earth’s interior by the action of water on metallic carbides such as those of Ca and Fe. Another proposed mechanism involved the interaction of alkali metals with CO2 and water
• Mantle theory/ Gold’s earthquake out gassing theory
(Gold,1979; Sugisaki et al, 1983; Gold and Held,1987). Enriched d13C of methane from the hot spots of red sea, Lake Kivu (East Africa), and East Pacific rise depicts an abiogenic origin (Mac Donald, 1983). Theories of origin of petroleum • Reasons favouring organic origin of proto-petroleum:
The vast amount of organic matter and hydrocarbons
now found are in the sediments of the earth; and carbon and hydrogen predominate in the remains of both plant and animal organic matter
Petroleum crude is a complex mixture of hydrocarbon
compounds belonging to a number of homologous series which, with no stretch of imagination, can be synthesized from elemental stage
Many ‘crudes’ have been found to contain porphyrin
pigments – an essential component of all forms of life Theories of origin of petroleum Most of the ‘crudes’ contain nitrogen – an essential component of amino acids [CH2(NH2)COOH] – a basic constituent of life All forms of ‘crude’ posses the property of rotating the plane polarized light which is possessed by cholesterol (C26H45OH) – again an essential component of both plant and animal life. Only inorganic substances which possess this property are cinnabar (HgS) and quartz (SiO2) The intimate relation of organic matter with the petroleum in the sediments leaves little doubt that organic matter was the original source of the petroleum Theories of origin of petroleum
Although the components of petroleum unite to form an extremely
complex mixture, the elemental chemical analyses of most petroleum are remarkably similar, even of those vary widely in physical properties. Most petroleum is chiefly composed of 11-15% hydrogen and 82-87% carbon by weight.
Element Crude oil Asphalt Natural gas Organic material
An abiologically formed oil might have been resulted from
processes involving Fischer – Tropsch type reactions occurring long before the first sediments were formed. The first living organisms then used this hydrocarbon mixture as a source of carbon and hydrogen, and possibly also of nitrogen and sulfur.
Genesis of petroleum by Fischer – Tropsch synthesis (a method to
produce synthethetic hydrocarbon) is as follows
C + Fe + H + OH CH4 + C2H6 + C3H8 + C4H10 + FeO
CO2 + HOH + Fe CH4 + FeO C + HOH + Fe CH4 + CO2 + H2 CO2 + H2 CH4 + H2O Duplex origin of petroleum • CO2 and Hydrogen are passed over a catalyst of haematite and magnetite at temperature in excess of 500°C
• Robinson (1963) suggested this process could
produce methane and liquid petroleum in nature. Szatmari (1986, 1989) discussed this process in the light of plate tectonics. According to him, hydrocarbon could be generated by F – T process at convergent plate boundaries where sedimentary rocks and oceanic crust undergo subduction. Carbon dioxide could be produced by the metamorphism of carbonates, and hydrogen by the serpentinization of ophiolites. The latter would provide the iron oxides necessary to catalyse the reaction Origin of petroleum Criteria for a sedimentary rock to be effective oil source rock • TOC content > 0.4% • Elemental carbon: 75 – 90% (< 75% - immature; • > 90% due to advanced catagenesis) • Bitumen : TOC > 0.05 • Kerogen should be of amorphous or oil prone type rather than of structured or gas prone type • Vitrinite reflectance (RO) > 0.6 and < 1.3 • H : C and O : C atomic ratios of kerogen residues should be favourable. Principle phase of oil formation occurs at an H : C between 0.84 and 0.69.
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