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HOW OIL AND

GAS FORMED Oil and natural gas were formed from the remains of prehistoric plants and animals. And that’s why they’re called “fossil fuels!”. Oil and gas are important fossil fuels formed from the decomposition and pressurisation of mainly dead algae and plankton. These microscopic plants and animal absorbed energy from the sun when they were alive. It was stored as carbon molecules in their bodies. When they died, they sank to the bottom of the sea along with sand, silt and rocks. Over time, increasing pressure and temperature changed the mud, sand and silt into rock (known as source rock). It slowly “cooked” the organic matter into petroleum inside the rock formation. This phenomenon is similar to how a sponge holds water equals rock holds oil. Organic material (mostly plankton and dead algae) in these rock layers breaks down to form new structures, a waxy material, known as “kerogen” and a black tar called “bitumen”. This phenomenon is called Diagenesis. Diagenesis is a process of compaction under mild conditions of temperature and pressure. The bitumen is the heaviest components of petroleum. The kerogen will undergo further change to make hydrocarbons and, of course more bitumen.

Glossary Today!

As temperatures and pressures increase, the process of catagenesis begins. Catagenesis is the thermal degradation of kerogen to form hydrocarbon chains. After that, Oil and gas will float upward toward the surface -since oil and natural gas are less dense than water-. Some oil and natural gas migrated all the way to the surface and escaped. More often, hydrocarbons’ path upward is blocked by a layer of impermeable rock or by some other geologic formation. These trap the oil and natural gas. it may be recovered only by drilling a well.

Permeability: The ability, or measurement of a rock's ability, to transmit fluids, typically measured in darcies or millidarcies.

Monthly Article Vol #01 Wednesday, March 9 2016