THE USE OF COALS AS INDICATORS OF THE OCCURRENCE OF OIL AND GAS

Abstract

Petroleum hydrocarbons are not normal constituents of recent sediments but only appear when a certain stage of diagenesis is reached, through deeper burial. An investigation of the mechanism of formation of oil and gas has shown that an indication of the generation of oil in a sedimentary basin can be obtained by an examination of coals or coaly material encountered during drilling.

Coals form a continuous diagenetic and metamorphic series beginning with peat and ending with graphite. Peat and brown coal contain the same type of hydrocarbons as are present in land plants but the composition of coal hydrocarbons changes abruptly in the sub-bituminous to high-volatile bituminous coal range. This is because petroleum-type hydrocarbons are formed at this stage from precursors which are components of waxy leaf cuticles, pollen and spore coatings, by chemical reactions in which oxygen groups are removed from long-chain acids, alcohols and ester waxes. Most Australian oil occurrences are associated with coal-bearing sediments and it appears likely that they are formed at the same stage of alteration, from such land plant residues, finely disseminated in shales and siltstones.

The diagenetic changes in coal composition are caused by the increasing temperature accompanying deeper burial, and the composition of a coal, whatever its present depth, is an indication of the maximum temperature to which it has been subjected. The determination of carbon content, reflectivity and other properties of coal samples provided by a number of oil companies, together with laboratory experiments in which petroleum-type hydrocarbons were generated by artificial diagenesis of coal components, indicated that hydrocarbon generation takes place only when the carbon content of the coals approaches 80 percent. In sedimentary basins in Australia the petroleum generation zone occurs at depths varying from 5,500 to greater than 11,000ft., depending upon present or past geothermal gradient.

In addition to this lower limit of diagenesis, it has long been maintained that a relation exists (the Carbon Ratio theory) between the likely occurrence of oil and gas reservoirs in a sedimentary basin and the degree of metamorphism of coal if present. The theory sets an upper limit of alteration of organic matter, and states that oil reservoirs are unlikely to occur in areas or at depths in a basin where the 'fixed-carbon' of the coals is greater than about 65 percent (equivalent to a coal of about 85 percent total carbon — dry, mineral-matter free). The Gid-gealpa-Moomba area appears to be a part of the Cooper Basin in which the organic matter is close to this upper limit of metamorphism. The carbon content of the coal at Gidgealpa, associated with gas and light hydrocarbons, is 85-86 percent whereas that at Moomba, associated with dry gas, is higher at approximately 89 percent.

Ihus the properties of coal samples encountered during drilling can provide valuable clues for the petroleum geologist in the search for further oil and gas reserves.