Accurately determine specific Stages of Petroleum Formation
Lewan GeoConsulting Services concentrate on the specific issues and concerns of clients from the collection of samples in the field to relevant laboratory analyses to resolve issues and address concerns with new insights about petroleum systems, plays, or prospects.
Determine whether needed outcrop samples are representative of unweathered potential source
rocks based on field and geochemical laboratory data.
Lewan GeoConsulting has expert experience ensuring that thermally immature outcrop samples for initially evaluating the petroleum potential of your petroleum system, play of prospect are unweathered, representative, and suitable for subsequent geochemical analyses.
Determine petrographically whether source rocks have true potential to generate and expel petroleum.
Lewan GeoConsulting will determine whether your potential source rocks have sufficient organic richness to generate and expel oil. This can be readily determined with one cook and look hydrous pyrolysis run.
Determine whether the vitrinite within a potential source rock follows the true coal or suppressed reflectance trends
In addition to vitrinite reflectance values not being fixed for oil generation all oil-prone typeII kerogen, Lewan GeoConsulting is also aware that there are two different trends for vitrinite reflectance with thermal maturity, the common trend is the coal trend that is assumed in most models. The suppressed trend show a much lower relationship to thermal stress. Lewan GeoConsulting has experience with determining which trend a given source rock will follow based on small-scale hydrous pyrolysis. Although the cause of this suppressed trend remains controversial, the small scale hydrous pyrolysis is a quick way to determine which trend a source rock follows.
Provide accurate interpretations of thermal stress levels of a source rock based on reliable and well-documented vitrinite reflectance measurements and regional geology
Lewan GeoConsulting has experience with and recognized organic petrographers that they use for documenting vitrinite reflectance measurements, which is important indeveloping an understanding of the thermal stress experienced by an active pod of source rock in a petroleum system as demonstrated in the re-interpretation of the thermal stress experienced by the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth basin. This becomes important when deciding whether exploration strategies are focused on primary or secondary natural gas accumulations.
Provide or assist clients in constructing oil-generation maps of the active pod of their source rocks rather than just vitrinite reflectance maps, which only depict thermal stress levels.
Because oil-prone Type-II kerogens can generate oil at different vitrine reflectance values, Lewan GeoConsultants uses an Rock-Eval HI established relationships with kerogen atomic H/C ratios or Atomic H/(H+C) fractions to determine and map stages of petroleum formation and transformation ratios (TR) to test kinetic models.
Assist clients in constructing 4-, 3- and 1-D models for oil generation and expulsion that in addition to stages of petroleum formation, determine migration pathways and catchments to determine areas with the greatest potential for new petroleum discoveries.
Lewan GeoConsulting has experience in evaluating stages of petroleum formation in the Western Canada Sedimentary basin to determine source of the Athabasca tar sands, New Albany Shale in the Illinois Basin to determine prospective areas for further exploration, and the Sargelu in the Mesopotamian basin to determine areas for future oil production in Iraq.
Determine whether uranium decay in uranium-rich source rocks generate petroleum earlier or with different compositions.
Lewan GeoConsulting has found that early paleozoic rocks Older than 400 Ma with Uppm/TOC wt% ratios geater than 10 like the Alum Shale of Scandinavia do show signs of radiation damage with lower expelled condensate-like oil yields, and kerogen atomic H/C ratios. Radiation does not enhance timing or quantity of oil generation.
Apply vanadium and nickel concentrations and their Proportionality to correlate oils and tars to one another and their source rocks.
Research conducted by Lewan GeoConsulting and various other sources suggests that the V/Ni ratio in both oils and the bitumen found in their source rocks remains remarkably consistent throughout processes such as thermal maturation, expulsion, migration, and biodegradation. This steadiness establishes it as a reliable correlation parameter.
Assist clients in determining whether transition metals in source rock can be catalytic in gas or oil generation.
Through experimental investigations, Lewan GeoConsulting has determined that the presence of transition metals in the Kupferschiefer formation in Poland does not exert any catalytic influence on the generation or composition of gas.
Evaluate whether organic acids are responsible for secondary porosity in reservoirs or migration pathways
Lewan GeoConsulting can evaluate the role of organic acids on generation of Secondary porosity on a local reservoir scale or basin-wide scale.
Determine with geochemical data the collective loss of original spilled oil in open oceans and the effects of biodegradation, evaporation, and photo oxidation.
Lewan Geochemistry can determine the collective loss of originally spilled oil on the basis of asphalting content and composition.
Determine and apply the best kinetic parameters in modeling petroleum formation.
While the topic remains controversial, Lewan GeoConsulting asserts that hydrous pyrolysis kinetics, which rely on the generation of actual oil in the presence of water at lower temperatures, offer greater validity compared to Rock Eval kinetics. Rock Eval kinetics are based on electronic signals that include both bitumen and oil, occurring under unnatural subsurface conditions at higher temperatures. This preference for hydrous pyrolysis kinetics has been substantiated through various comparative studies conducted in regions such as the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, the Menilite Shales of the Polish Carpathians, Jurassic source rocks in the Zagros Basin of Iraq, and Green River source rocks in the Uinta Basin. Moreover, hydrous pyrolysis kinetics adhere to established scientific methods in chemical kinetics, while Rock Eval kinetics rely on an engineering curve-fitting approach.
Determine and apply best kinetic parameters to determine the timing of mineral diagenesis and its impact on petroleum formation.
Lewan GeoConsulting has experience with evaluating clay mineral diagenesis (smectite to Illite) and silica diagenesis (Opal-A to Opal CT to quartz and their effects on petroleum potential and timing with regards to petroleum formation.
For unconventional plays determine the quantity and quality of oil retained in maturing source rocks with low temperature hydrous pyrolysis.
Lewan GeoConsulting has developed and pioneered low temperature hydrous pyrolysis (LTHP) to provide clients with a physical sample and quantity of the retained oil in a maturing source rock, which is as good if not better than TRA, dean-stark, or rock Eval based methods.
Establishing Hydrous Pyrolysis capabilities in new or existing laboratories
Ever since the groundbreaking research that introduced the potential of hydrous pyrolysis in emulating the natural formation of petroleum, Lewan GeoConsulting, with its 36 years of extensive experience, stands ready to assist and advise clients in setting up their own hydrous pyrolysis capabilities. Our track record includes successful establishment in locations such as Krakow, Rio de Janeiro, Oklahoma City, and Denver. Furthermore, Lewan GeoConsulting can collaborate with clients and industry researchers to develop experiments aimed at testing novel hypotheses, whether pertaining to conventional or unconventional projects.
Determine whether humic coals can be a source of oil.
Lewan GeoConsulting has experience that shows some humic coals may be the source of expelled oil.
Estimate pressures generated during petroleum formation and their effects on petrophysical properties of maturing source rocks.
Lewan GeoConsulting, in partnership with students Keethikanand and Dr. Al Duhilian from the Colorado School of Mines, has tackled this matter through theoretical computations and experimental findings. These findings suggest that pressures reaching up to 10,000 psi can emerge during the peak of oil generation. The collaborative research also revealed that these generative pressures have the potential to not only create conjugate fractures but also open bedding planes. This occurs particularly when the source rock lacks sufficient confinement from equivalent lithostatic pressures or when it is not properly secured by a rigid metal clamp.
Assess whether thermal maturation affects isotope geochronology age determinations of source rocks.
Lewan GeoConsulting in Collaboration with Drs. Rooney and Selby have Provided a better understanding of the influence of thermal maturation induced by hydrous pyrolysis of ages determined by K/Ar and Os/Re isotope methods.
Assess the impact of thermal maturation on the reliability of oil correlation parameters like isotopes of H, C, and S, biomarker signatures, and alkane distributions.
Lewan GeoConsulting has expertise in evaluating the effects of thermal maturity on oil correlation parameters. True representative biomarker signatures are sometimes weakly bound into kerogen and are only revealed with at low thermal maturities generated by low-temperature, also some isomer biomarker ratios related to thermal maturation show a reversal with thermal maturation as first observed in hydrous pyrolysis experiments and latter observed in natural maturation. δ13C is controlled by the original source of organic matter, but the dD is controlled by the associated water δD during thermal maturation.
Class Offerings
Three half–day (3– to 4–hour) workshop on new insights on Petroleum Formation and Geochemistry to train managers and geological staff on new concepts and approaches to source rock characterization including thermal maturation, stages of petroleum formation, determining petroleum charge from and retained petroleum in maturing source rocks, and timing and extent of petroleum formation in petroleum systems.
