Early Eocene climate warming increased petroleum production

Abstract

From the late Paleocene, about 58 million years ago, to the early Eocene, about 51 million years ago, Earth's surface temperatures warmed by about 5°–10°C. Also in the early Eocene, there was an increase of carbon‐13‐depleted carbon in the oceans that cannot be accounted for by changes in carbon cycling at the surface. To better understand the source of that carbon, Kroeger and Funnell modeled the thermal evolution of four sedimentary basins in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The authors show that the rising surface temperatures of the early Eocene eventually led to warming of the sedimentary beds deep beneath the surface. Petroleum can be produced at only a certain range of temperatures; rising temperatures at greater depths would bring more potential source rocks into temperature conditions under which oil and gas can be produced and released.