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Biodegradation and Origin of Oil Sands in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin

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Biodegradation and Origin of Oil Sands in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin Pet.Sci.(2008)5:87-94 87 DOI 10.1007/s12182-008-0015-3 Biodegradation and origin of oil sands in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin Zhou Shuqing1, Huang Haiping1,2 ＊ and Liu Yuming1 1 School of Energy Resource, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China 2 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Calgary, T2N 1N4, Calgary, Canada Abstract: The oil sands deposits in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) comprise of at least 85% of the total immobile bitumen in place in the world and are so concentrated as to be virtually the only such deposits that are economically recoverable for conversion to oil. The major deposits are in three geographic and geologic regions of Alberta: Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River. The bitumen reserves have oil gravities ranging from 8 to 12° API, and are hosted in the reservoirs of varying age, ranging from Devonian (Grosmont Formation) to Early Cretaceous (Mannville Group). They were derived from light oils in the southern Alberta and migrated to the north and east for over 100 km during the Laramide Orogeny, which was responsible for the uplift of the Rocky Mountains. Biodegradation is the only process that transforms light oil into bitumen in such a dramatic way that overshadowed other alterations with minor contributions. The levels of biodegradation in the basin increasing from west (non-biodegraded) to east (extremely biodegraded) can be attributed to decreasing reservoir temperature, which played the primary role in controlling the biodegradation regime. Once the reservoir was heated to approximately 80 °C, it was pasteurized and no biodegradation would further occur. However, reservoir temperature could not alone predict the variations of the oil composition and physical properties. Compositional gradients and a wide range of biodegradation degree at single reservoir column indicate that the water-leg size or the volume ratio of oil to water is one of the critical local controls for the vertical variations of biodegradation degree and oil physical properties. Late charging and mixing of the fresh and degraded oils ultimately dictate the [ nal distribution of compositions and physical properties found in the heavy oil and oil sand [ elds. Oil geochemistry can reveal precisely the processes and levels that control these variations in a given field, which opens the possibility of model-driven prediction of oil properties and sweet spots in reservoirs. Key words: Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB), oil sands, biodegradation, mixing 1 Introduction a number of conditions necessary for the biodegradation of petroleum: a) low reservoir temperature, < 100 °C usually Once expelled from source rocks, the crude oil was 20-60 °C; b) the presence of water or other type of electron subject to a complex series of subsequent compositional acceptor (Fe, SO4, N, Mn); c) an oil-water contact; d) modi[ cations that may occur during the migration and within the presence of microorganisms; e) nutrients (e.g. nitrate, the reservoirs (Tissot and Welte, 1984; Hunt, 1996). Thermal phosphate) (Connan, 1984; Wenger et al, 2002; Head et al, maturation and biodegradation are the most common ones, 2003). Increasing levels of biodegradation generally cause but other phenomena involving evaporative fractionation, a decline in oil quality, diminishing the producibility and water washing, gas washing, deasphalting, thermochemical value of oil. With increasing biodegradation, the oil becomes sulfate reduction, gravity segregation, and dewaxing may all more viscous, richer in sulfur, resins, asphaltenes, and metals contribute to the alteration of crude oil either in the reservoirs (e.g. Ni and V), has higher total acid number and lower API or along the migration pathways (Larter and Aplin, 1995; gravity (Connan, 1984; Peters and Moldowan, 1993; Wenger Wenger et al, 2002). Most of these alteration processes in the et al, 2002; Head et al, 2003; Jones et al, 2008). Once oil was reservoirs usually reduce the commercial value of the oil and severely biodegraded, light normal oil was transformed into complicate the development procedures. heavy viscous oil or even oil sand. In fact, biodegradation Biodegradation impacts petroleum exploration and seems to be the only process which can alter the chemical production by removing hydrocarbon compounds that are of and physical properties of the oil in such a dramatic way most value and impacting the in-situ density and viscosity as causing a decrease of API gravity from 40° to 5° and an that determine well \ ow rate (Larter et al, 2006). There are increase of viscosity from less than 1 centipoises to over one million centipoises. Almost all commercial accumulated *Corresponding author. email: [email protected] heavy oils and oil sands are originated from biodegradation. Received May 21, 2007 88 Pet.Sci.(2008)5:87-94 Among them the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin is the that truncated strata ranging from lowermost Cretaceous largest one in the world holding such kind of unconventional in the foothills to lower Paleozoic on the eastern margin of resources. the basin. Regionally, the Devonian Prairie Evaporite has a wedge-shaped cross-section that tapers to the northeast. 2 Geological background and oil sand On the eastern side, over the edge of the salt collapse zone distribution due to dissolution, anticlinal traps may develop within the Cretaceous section. The anticlinal development forms the The Western Canada Sedimentary Basin covers an area structural component of the trapping mechanism that keeps of 1,400,000 km2 in the western part of North America. the oil in the McMurray Formation. The seal of oil sand It contains a sedimentary section that ranges in age from is formed by overlapping Clearwater shales of the Upper Early Paleozoic to Early Tertiary. The basin developed in the Mannville Group. Early Paleozoic and can be divided into two distinct parts, Identi[ cation of the source rocks of the WCSB oil sands re\ ecting sedimentation in two profoundly different tectonic remains controversial, however, the closest biomarker settings. The Paleozoic to Jurassic platformal succession, characteristic of these bitumens and oils is the Devonian- dominated by carbonate rocks, was deposited on the stable Mississippian Exshaw Formation (Fowler et al, 2001). This craton adjacent to the ancient (dominantly passive) margin marine source rock is thin (10 m), but is commonly extremely of North America. The overlying mid-Jurassic to Paleocene organic-rich (TOC up to about 20%) and is composed largely foreland basin succession, dominated by clastic rocks, was of oil-prone type I kerogen and has hydrocarbon indices formed during active margin orogenic evolution of the (HI) up to 600. Burial history models illustrate the time of Canadian Cordillera. The Laramide Orogeny was responsible hydrocarbon generation from the Exshaw Formation ranging for the uplift of the Rocky Mountains (Wright et al, 1994). from 110 and 80 Ma in the vicinity of the Alberta-British Concomitant with this uplift, the basin was tilted to the west Columbia border to about 60-56 Ma in the Peace River and assumed the geometry of an asymmetrical foreland basin, area (Riediger et al, 1999; 2000). The uplift that occurred with a gently dipping eastern margin and a thrust-bounded in the WCSB following the Laramide Orogeny in the Early western margin. The foreland basin wedge is characterized by Tertiary would have stopped hydrocarbon generation and upward-coarsening progradational cycles capped by extensive brought the reservoirs nearer to the surface, thereby further non-marine deposits (Fig. 1). facilitating biodegradation which continued until the present. During the Early Cretaceous, a major drop of sea level The McMurray or equivalent sands were the primary resulted in the significant erosion across the entire foreland collectors of the generated oil and provided the main conduit trough (pre-Mannville unconformity). The earliest post- for migration. It is speculated that the migration path was at unconformity sediments include the alluvial fan and least 360 kilometres for the Athabasca deposit and at least 80 braided stream deposits of the Cadomin Formation and the kilometres for the Peace River deposits (Anfort et al, 2001; fluvial deposits of the Lower Mannville Group. Mannville Adams et al, 2004). The lighter oil was then subjected to deposition took place over a profound unconformity surface the biodegradation transforming them into heavy oil and oil ROCKY MOUNTAINS FOOTHILLS PLAINS Banff Calgary Fort McMurray Metres 3,000 Oil sands 2,400 and heavy oil 1,800 deposits 1,200 Oil 600 No oil Oil and gas and gas Sea or gas level 0 -600 Oil -1,200 and gas -1,800 No oil or gas -2,400 Precambrian -3,000 -2,800m “basement” below sea level -3,600 -4,200 British Columbia Alberta Saskatchewan Younger clastic sediments (sandstones and shales) Older carbonate sediments (limestones and dolomites) Ancient crystalline rocks (ie. granites) Generation and migration of oil Fig. 1 Cross section of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin indicating the distribution of oil and gas Pet.Sci.(2008)5:87-94 89 sands. Biodegradation effects on oil compositions and physical There are three major oil sand deposits in the WCSB: properties in the WCSB have been investigated by various Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River (Fig. 2a). The studies (Brooks et al, 1988; Riediger et al, 1999; Obermajer et Athabasca Oil Sands, located in the northeastern of Alberta, al, 2004; Bennett et al, 2006; Larter et al, 2006), all illustrating cover an area of approximately 75,000 km2 and hold a similar trend in that biodegradation levels intensify from the largest and most accessible reserves of bitumen with west to east in the Cretaceous deposits. Once the effects resources mainly in the McMurray Formation of the Lower of biodegradation are removed, the majority of heavy oils Cretaceous Mannville Group. The reservoir bed is at the and oil sands in the Lower Cretaceous looked very similar.
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