| Title | Mineral carbon MinC (%) from Rock-Eval analysis as a reliable and cost-effective measurement of carbonate contents in shale source and reservoir rocks |
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| Author | Jiang, C ; Chen,
Z; Lavoie, D; Percival, J B; Kabanov, P |
| Source | Marine and Petroleum Geology vol. 83, 2017 p. 184-194, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2017.03.017 |
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| Year | 2017 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20160334 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Subjects | geochemistry; fossil fuels; sedimentology; carbonates; shales; source rocks; reservoirs; carbon; dolomites; calcite; hydrocarbon geochemistry; x-ray diffraction; x-ray diffraction analyses; basins;
sedimentary basins |
| Illustrations | location maps; tables; formulae; graphs |
| Program | Geoscience for New Energy Supply (GNES) Shale-hosted petroleum resource assessment |
| Released | 2017 03 18 |
| Abstract | The content (abundance) of carbonates in rocks is an important element for petroleum geochemists, geologists and engineers to consider during hydrocarbon exploration and production. Carbonate minerals
can be related to the depositional environments of the source rocks and hence the type of organic matter that can be subsequently modified through diagenetic processes. The total carbonate content in shales can also be used to deduce their
fracability as reservoir rock for shale gas/oil extraction. At present, mineralogical analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD) is the most widely used technique in the oil and gas-related petrophysical and geochemical laboratories for identifying and
quantifying carbonate minerals in rock samples. In contrast, the use of the total mineral carbon content parameter MinC (%) from Rock-Eval analysis has been limited despite (1) the parameter¿s effectiveness as demonstrated through instrument and
methodology development; and (2) the presence of a large volume of Rock-Eval results due to its widespread use in the oil and gas industry.
In this study, we acquired XRD and Rock-Eval analytical results on over nine hundred rock samples ranging
from Ordovician to Cretaceous age from four petroleum sedimentary basins in Canada. Least-squares regression analyses produce empirical equations with R2 values greater than 0.92 for the correlations between XRD total carbonate contents and the
Rock-Eval MinC (%) values of six different suites of samples. This indicates that the MinC (%) values generated by Rock-Eval 6 and other instruments of similar capability can be used with confidence for estimating the amounts of total carbonates in
sedimentary rock samples. While the correlation between the two types of carbonate content measurements is geology-specific, a global linear regression model (R2 of 0.97) based on the large combined data set has been proposed for approximating the
total carbonate abundances based on Rock-Eval MinC (%) values. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
The percentage Mineral Carbon ( MinC (%)) is routinely generated from Rock-Eval analysis of source and reservoir rock samples. However, the application
of MinC as a measurement of total carbonate contents in rocks has not been as well received as the other Rock-Eval parameters for hydrocarbon potential. We have collected Rock-Eval MinC values and XRD mineralogy data on over 900 samples ranging in
age from Ordovician to Cretaceous from four different Canadian sedimentary basins. Statistical analysis of the data indicates that there is a strong linear correlation between the Rock-Eval MinC (%) values and the total carbonate contents from XRD
analysis. This suggests that the Rock-Eval MinC parameter can be used with high confidence as a proxy for the content of total carbonates in rock samples. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 299679 |
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