Oil cracking: An important way for highly efficient generation of gas from marine source rock kitchen

Abstract

The potentials of gas generation by kerogen in the late period and by crude oil cracking are closely related to the origin of natural gas in the high-to over mature marine area and their exploration perspectives. The carbon structure of kerogens, with different types and at different evolution stages, have been experimentally studied using the high magnetic field solid13C nuclear magnetic resonance technique in order to determine the oil and gas potential of kerogens. Results show that the contents of gas potential carbon(GPC) of types I, II, III kerogens at the high-to over mature stage are very low, indicating their weak gas-generating capacity and limited gas production; however, the content of oil potential carbon(OPC) of the low mature type I kerogen is much higher, implying that a large amount of crude oil generated during the oil-generating period will be the material for later gas generation by oil cracking. The kinetic experiment of gas generation by crude oil cracking shows that, when the temperature is about 160°C (Ro=l.6%), the crude oil will start to produce large amounts of gas; the temperature range for major gas generation of crude oil is higher than that of the kerogens, and the gas production is 2 to 4 times higher than that of kerogens. The natural gas derived from oil cracking (called oil-cracked gas) is much abundant in methyl hexamethylene, which is quite different from the natural gas produced by thermal degradation of kerogens (named kerogen degradation gas) at high-to over mature stage.