Is it possible to replenish oil in abandoned fields due to the interaction of hydrothermal solutions with enclosing bituminous and carbonous rocks? (Experiment with the participation of fluid inclusions)

Abstract

The article considers the possibilities of oil and gas replenishment in previously worked out fields on the basis of experimental data on the interaction of bituminous and carbonaceous rocks with hydrothermal solutions and the simultaneous growth of quartz with fluid inclusions in them. These solutions can generate and transport oil and gas in pre-critical, sub- and supercritical states. The data obtained confirm the ideas of a number of petroleum geochemists about the migration of liquid hydrocarbons in the Earth’s interior in the form of high-temperature homogeneous, including supercritical fluids, and also explains the possibility of deep metamorphism of oil and the formation of the deepest fields of dry gas and graphite. It is especially important that the results of experimental studies using synthetic water-hydrocarbon inclusions make it possible to state that depleted oil fields can replenish lost oil and gas due to the interaction of hydrothermal solutions with the surrounding host bituminous and carbonaceous rocks.