FT‐IR measurements of petroleum fluid inclusions: methane, n‐alkanes and carbon dioxide quantitative analysis

Abstract

AbstractA recent advancement in petroleum geochemistry is to model fossil oil composition using microthermometric and volumetric data acquired from individual fluid inclusion analysis. Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) microspectroscopy can record compositional information related to gas (CH4 and CO2) and alkane contents of petroleum inclusions. In this study, a quantitative procedure for FT‐IR microspectrometry has been developed to obtain, from individual fluid inclusions, mol percentage concentrations of methane, alkanes and carbon dioxide as constraints to thermodynamic modelling. A petroleum inclusion in a sample from the Québec City Promontory nappe area was used as standard to record a reference spectrum of methane. The analytical procedure is based on the measurement of CH4/alkane and CH4/CO2 band area ratios. CH4/alkane infrared band area ratio is obtained after spectral subtraction of the reference methane spectrum. This area ratio, affected by absolute absorption intensities of methane, methyl and methylene, provides a molar CH4/alkane ratio. Methyl/methylene ratio (CH2/CH3) ratio is obtained following procedures established in previous work. CO2/CH4 concentration ratio is estimated from relative absolute absorption intensities. Application to natural inclusions from different environments shows good correlation between FT‐IR quantification and PIT (petroleum inclusion thermodynamic) modelling.