Volatile light hydrocarbons as thermal and alteration indicators in oil and gas fields
Authors: Arouri Khaled R. 
Published: June 2024

Volatile light hydrocarbons (VLH) are an essential component of reservoir petroleum fluids. Understanding of their origin and fate is crucial not only in exploration but increasingly also in petroleum engineering, as this greatly impacts fluid typing, proper mapping, recoverability and economic value. Due to their sensitivity to subsurface thermal stress and geological alteration processes, their proper characterisation holds promise to understanding the thermal conditions under which petroleum fluids were generated and subsequent fluid modifications during migration and within the reservoir. To study the behaviour of these hydrocarbons under different geological conditions we selected oil and gas fields from two giant conventional petroleum systems in the Arabian Peninsula collectively spanning the entire petroleum spectrum from heavy oil to dry and sour gas. In situ representative bottomhole or recombined pressure–volume–temperature (PVT) fluid composition data were constrained with molecular and stable carbon isotope geochemistry in key wells. Systematic covariance among the slope factor (SF) of propane to pentane and the isomer ratios of butane and pentane with reservoir engineering and geochemical variables in well-constrained black oil to gas condensate petroleum systems allowed the derivation of three formulas to calculate thermal maturity in terms of vitrinite reflectance equivalent from VLH fluid composition: (1) %VRe(SF) = 0.38 SF + 0.41, (2) %VRe(i4) = 1.70 (iC4/nC4) + 0.61, and (3) %VRe(i5) = 0.89 (iC5/nC5) + 0.56. The slope factor, iC4/nC4, and iC5/nC5 ratios all increase monotonically with the thermal evolution of unaltered fluids, allowing for effective application of their derived %VRe formulas across the entire unaltered fluid spectrum, from heavy oil to dry gas. Deviations from indigenous-fluid trends do occur for fluids altered by phase separation, biodegradation, thermal cracking, and thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR), but corrections can be made to minimize uncertainty in assessing true thermal maturity of altered fluids while respecting other reservoir fluid properties such as gas-to-oil ratio (GOR) and saturation pressure relationships. For instance, although a single charge that has been phase fractionated yields fluids with variable GORs, saturation pressures and slope factors, their butane and pentane isomer ratios remain reflective of the original fluid maturity. In contrast, biodegradation-induced overestimation of maturity based on the isomer ratios of butane and pentane can be corrected by the less affected SF-derived maturity parameter. Reversal to lower apparent SF-derived maturity in thermally and TSR cracked fluids can, on the other hand, be corrected by considering the less affected butane and pentane isomer ratios. Overall, maturities calculated using VLH composition correspond well with fluid type defined based on phase behaviour and source-rock kinetics, thereby putting forward new tools to quantify thermal maturity of reservoir fluids that may be applicable in other petroleum systems.