Re-Establishing the Merits of Thermal Maturity and Petroleum Generation Multi-Dimensional Modeling with an Arrhenius Equation Using a Single Activation Energy

作     者：David A.Wood 

作者机构：DWA Energy Limited 

出 版 物：《Journal of Earth Science》 (地球科学学刊（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2017年第28卷第5期

页      面：804-834页

核心收录：

学科分类：081803[工学-地质工程] 08[工学] 0818[工学-地质资源与地质工程] 0708[理学-地球物理学] 0704[理学-天文学] 

基　　金：The final publication is available at Springer via https ://doi. org/10.1007/s 12583-017-0735-7 

主　　题：time-temperature maturity index kerogen activation energies kerogen reaction rates multi-dimensional thermal maturity models petroleum generation versus vitrinite reflectance burial/ thermal history analysis. 

摘      要：Thermal maturation and petroleum generation modeling of shales is essential for suc- cessful exploration and exploitation of conventional and unconventional oil and gas plays. For basin- wide unconventional resource plays such modeling, when well calibrated with direct maturity meas- urements from wells, can characterize and locate production sweet spots for oil, wet gas and dry gas. The transformation of kerogen to petroleum is associated with many chemical reactions, but models typically focus on first-order reactions with rates determined by the Arrhenius Equation. A miscon- ception has been perpetuated for many years that accurate thermal maturity modeling of vitrinite re- flectance using the Arrhenius Equation and a single activation energy, to derive a time-temperature index （~TTIARa）, as proposed by Wood （1988）, is flawed. This claim was initially made by Sweeney and Burnham （1990） in promoting their ＂EasyRo＂ method, and repeated by others. This paper dem- onstrates through detailed multi-dimensional burial and thermal modeling and direct comparison of the ~TTIARR and ＂EasyRo＂ methods that this is not the case. The ~TTIA^R method not only provides a very useful and sensitive maturity index, it can reproduce the calculated vitrinite reflectance values derived from models based on multiple activation energies （e.g., ＂EasyRo＂）. Through simple expres- sions the ~TTIAaa method can also provide oil and gas transformation factors that can be flexibly scaled and calibrated to match the oil, wet gas and dry gas generation windows. This is achieved in a more-computationally-efficient, flexible and transparent way by the ~TTIARR method than the ＂EasyRo＂ method. Analysis indicates that the ＂EasyRo＂ method, using twenty activation energies and a constant frequency factor, generates reaction rates and transformation factors that do not realisti- cally model observed kerogen behaviour and transformation factors over geologic time scales.