Petroleum Geology

Conditions controlling primary production and accumulation of organic matter. Source rock formation and analysis. Conversion of organic material to petroleum. Primary and secondary migration of petroleum. Porosity and permeability in reservoir rocks. The role of depositional environment as a controlling factor for reservoir quality. Classification and formation of petroleum traps. Basic understanding of pressure data and hydrocarbon-water contacts. Basin types and their petroleum potential. Regional petroleum geology of some selected petroleum provinces with examples from the Continental shelf. The exercises include construction of burial graphs, maturation calculations, source rock analysis, construction and interpretation of structure maps and migration analysis, and thin section microscopy of potential reservoir rocks.

Knowledge: The student should have knowledge about:

• Classification and composition of petroleum.
• Accumulation and preservation of organic matter in sediments.
• Source rocks, formation of petroleum.
• How primary and secondary migration of petroleum take place.
• Formation and classification of structural and stratigraphic traps, sealing.
• Reservoir rocks, porosity and permeability and what control these properties.
• Petroleum systems and hydrocarbon plays.

Skills: The student should be able to:

• Construct burial graphs and perform maturity calculations.
• Interpret simple geochemical logs.
• Evaluate the porosity of reservoir rocks based on microscope analysis of thin sections.
• Construct and interpret 1D and 3D petroleum system models.
• Carry out petroleum system, play and prospect analysis.
• Perform risk evaluation of petroleum accumulations at prospect and play level and calculating the prospect's volumetric size and value.

Lectures and obligatory exercises. The course is evaluated by a reference group.