Use of iron-bearing scavenging reservoirs to unlock stranded sour hydrocarbons with amber hydrogen by-product

Origin of the hydrocarbon gases carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide in Dodan Field (SE-Turkey)

It has been shown that a large body of evidence on the sources, transformation, and migration of hydrocarbons in soils has been acquired by different researchers. Available data about the origin and behavior of hydrocarbon gases, total petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkanes, and other compounds have been considered successively. A wide range of natural and anthropogenic factors affecting the transformation and migration of hydrocarbons in soils have been analyzed. The indicative value of these compounds has been explained. At the same time, many problems related to hydrocarbons in soils are still insufficiently understood. Sparse and fragmentary data are available in the literature on the interaction of different hydrocarbon groups in the soil. Few data refer to the features of hydrocarbons in background zonal soils; there are almost no interzonal comparisons. The behavior of hydrocarbons in soils of different landscape-geographical positions is characterized in isolated publications. The hydrocarbon status of soils as an integral complex of interrelated hydrocarbons is almost not analyzed. Hydrocarbons of a single class (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, hydrocarbon gases, n-alkanes, etc.) are usually characterized in each publication.

Inorganic metal chalcogenide materials are of great importance in the semiconducting field for various electronic applications such as photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, sensors, and many others. Compared to traditional vacuum processing routes, solution processing provides an alternate cost-effective route to synthesize these inorganic materials through its ease of synthesis and device fabrication, higher material utilization, mild processing conditions, and opportunity for roll-to-roll manufacturing. One such versatile solution chemistry involving a mixture of amine and thiol species has evolved in the past few years as a common solvent for various precursor dissolutions including metal salts, metal oxides, elemental metals, and chalcogens.The amine-thiol solvent system has been used by various researchers for the fabrication of inorganic materials, but without the complete understanding of the chemistry involved in this system, utilizing its full potential, and overcoming any inherent limitations will be difficult. So, to identify the organometallic complexes and their reaction pathways, the precursor dissolutions in amine-thiol solutions, specifically for elemental metals like Cu, In and chalcogens like Se, Te were studied using X-ray absorption, nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared, and Raman spectroscopy along with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry techniques. These analyses suggested the formation of metal thiolate complexes in the solution with the release of hydrogen gas in the case of metal dissolutions confirming irreversibility of the dissolution. Insights gained for chalcogen dissolutions confirmed the formation of different species like monoatomic or polyatomic clusters when different amine-thiol pair is used for dissolution. Results from these analyses also identified the role of each component in the dissolution which allowed for tuning of the solutions by isolating the complexes to reduce their reactivity and corrosivity for commercial applications.After identifying complexes in metal dissolution for Cu and In metals, the decomposition pathway for these complexes was studied using X-ray diffraction and gas chromatography mass spectrometry techniques which confirmed the formation of phase pure metal chalcogenide material with a release of volatile byproducts like hydrogen sulfide and thiirane. This allowed for the fabrication of impurity-free thin-film Cu(In,Ga)S2 material for use in photovoltaic applications. The film fabrication with reduced carbon impurity achieved using this solvent system yielded a preliminary promising efficiency beyond 12% for heavy alkali-free, low bandgap CuInSe2 material. Along with promising devices, by utilizing the understanding of the chalcogen complexation, a new method for CuInSe2 film fabrication was developed with the addition of selenide precursors and elemental selenium which enabled first-ever fabrication of a solution-processed CuInSe2 thin film with thickness above 2 μm and absence of any secondary fine-grain layer.Along with thin-film fabrication, a room temperature synthesis route for lead chalcogenide materials (PbS, PbSe, PbTe) with controlled size, shape, crystallinity, and composition of nanoparticle self-assemblies was demonstrated. Micro-assemblies formed via this route, especially the ones with hollow-core morphology were subjected to a solution-based anion and cation exchange to introduced desired foreign elements suitable for improving the thermoelectric properties of the material. Adopting from traditional hot injection and heat up synthesis routes, a versatile synthesis procedure for various binary, ternary, and quaternary metal chalcogenide (sulfide and sulfoselenide) nanoparticles from elemental metals like Cu, Zn, Sn, In, Ga, and Se was developed. This new synthesis avoids the incorporation of impurities like O, Cl, I, Br arising from a traditional metal oxide, halide, acetate, or other similar metal salt precursors giving an opportunity for truly impurity-free colloidal metal chalcogenide nanoparticle synthesis.

Low-carbon production of iron and steel: Technology options, economic assessment, and policy

Gaseous Hydrocarbons in Soil

The Proterozoic to Devonian Amadeus Basin of central Australia contains two hydrocarbon fields — oil and gas at Mereenie and gas at Palm Valley, both within Ordovician sandstone reservoirs. Significant gas and oil shows have also been recorded from Cambrian sandstones and carbonates in the eastern part of the basin. The hydrocarbon generation histories of documented source rocks, determined by Lopatin modelling, largely explain the distribution of the hydrocarbons. The best oil and gas source rocks occur in the Ordovician Horn Valley Siltstone. Source potential is also developed within the Late Proterozoic sequence, particularly the Gillen Member of the Bitter Springs Formation, and the Cambrian.Consideration of organic maturity, relative timing of hydrocarbon generation and trap formation, and oil/source typing leads to the conclusion that the Horn Valley Siltstone charged the Mereenie structure with gas and oil. At Palm Valley, only gas and minor condensate occur because the trap was formed too late to receive an oil charge. Differences in organic facies may also, in part, account for the dry gas and lack of substantial liquid hydrocarbons at Palm Valley. In the eastern Amadeus Basin, the Ordovician is largely absent but Proterozoic sources are well placed to provide the gas discovered by Ooraminna 1 and Dingo 1. Any oil charge here would have preceded trap development.

The petroleum hydrocarbons (oil and gas) and kerogen macromolecules are abundant within the extraterrestrial atmospheric particles. These hydrocarbons occur as reservoir of lakes and oceans or in hydrate forms on various planets (Earth, Mars, moons of Saturn and Jupiter), asteroid belts, carbonaceous chondrites, and as solid residue within the planets or moons in the Solar System and beyond. The abundance of PAHs in the outer Solar System may indicate that the genesis of these primitive biomarker hydrocarbons may have formed abiogenically much earlier (> 5Ga) than the formation of our Solar System (~ 5 Ga). However, the origin of petroleum on Earth is overwhelmingly connected to the biogenic organic matter that is related to source rocks (thermal degradation of macromolecular kerogen). This may show a similar genesis of the kerogen macromolecules and petroleum hydrocarbons (oil and gas) within the carbonaceous chondrites (CCs), Mars, and selected moons from Saturn and Jupiter. They may be biologically and genetically related. Recent evidence of the possible presence of source rocks (organic rich black carbonaceous rocks) and associated petroleum system elements within Eberswalde and Holden areas of Mars may indicate similar terrestrial associations. Similarly, studies of Carbonaceous Chondrites using biological, petrological, SEM/EDS, and petroleum geochemical methods may also indicate the presence of source rock macromolecule within the CCs. These studies pointed out two new issues: (1) approximately, the major part of the CCs possibly originated from archaea, bacteria, and primitive algal remains; and (2) three types of temperature events affecting the petroleum generation within these carbonaceous chondrites: (i) lower temperature events (<200oC) in comets and cooler asteroids or planets (examples: Murchison, Tagish Lake, Orgueil); (ii) intermediate temperature events (200 - 300oC) as associated within the deeper section of the comets, asteroids or planets (examples: ALH 840001, and NWA); (iii) high temperature induced zones (>400-500oC) within asteroids or planets or moons (examples: Allende, Vigarano, EET) where organic matter is closely associated with the volcanic or intrusives. The processes of forming oil and gas within Mars and the Moons of other Planets may be connected to both low and high temperature events of kerogen transformation. As such, (a) in the low temperature events, hydrocarbons may be genetically related to petroleum system elements (source, reservoir, seal, and carrier bed systems; (b) in the high temperature events, bitumens and PAHs were derived from the organic remnants (e.g bacterial clusters) which may be connected to volcanic sources possibly associated with a bacterial mat.

This article proposes the use of Big Data principles to support the future extraction of hydrocarbon resources. It starts out by assessing the possible energy-system transformations in order to shed some light on the future need for hydrocarbon resource extraction and corresponding drilling needs. The core contribution of this work is the development of a new database and the corresponding GIS (geographic information system) visualization project as basis for an analytical study of worldwide hydrocarbon occurrences and development of extraction methods. The historical period for the analytical study is from 1900 to 2000. A number of tasks had to be implemented to develop the database and include information about data collection, processing, and development of geospatial data on hydrocarbon deposits. Collecting relevant information made it possible to compile a list of hydrocarbon fields, which have served as the basis for the attribute database tables and its further filling. To develop an attribute table, the authors took into account that all accumulated data features on hydrocarbon deposits and divided them into two types: static and dynamic. Static data included the deposit parameters that do not change over time. On the other hand, dynamic data are constantly changing. Creation of a web service with advanced functionality based on the Esri Geoportal Server software platform included search by parameter presets, viewing and filtering of selected data layers using online mapping application, sorting of metadata, corresponding bibliographic information for each field and keywords accordingly. The collected and processed information by ROSA database and GIS visualization project includes more than 100 hydrocarbon fields across different countries.

Microbial H2S generation in hydrocarbon reservoirs: Analysis of mechanisms and recent remediation technologies

Summary Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are among the common contaminants associated with the hydrocarbon fields in Offshore Sarawak. Current production plant could only handle up to 400 ppm of H2S concentration. H2S modeling is suggested to forecast and predict upcoming prospects to meet facilities limitation. Petroleum system modeling (PSM) software was proposed as the tool to model H2S generation, migration, and accumulation. H2S concentration and isotope data are collected and interpreted to determine the possible origin of H2S. Hypothetically we propose that areas of high H2S could be identified based on circumstantial evidence of having Cycle II carbonate body with more than 120°C temperature. However, we could not be certain of the actual intensity of the generation nor the loss of H2S and therefore, there is no certainty that having Cycle II carbonate with more than 120°C will result in high H2S concentration. In addition, we are looking at H2S as contaminant to hydrocarbon, where any modeling for H2S concentration need to include both hydrocarbon and H2S thus increasing the complexities and uncertainties. The H2S source and process could be tweaked to match measured data but it is not possible to generate a predictive H2S model.

Hydrocarbon gas often contains some amounts of heavier hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon components that contribute to its properties (i.e. viscosity and density). Prediction of the density and viscosity values for hydrocarbon gases is necessary in several hydrocarbon gas engineering calculations such as the calculation of gas reserves, gas metering, gas compression, estimating the pressure gradient in gas wells and for the design of pipeline and surface facilities. Literature correlations for the density and viscosity of pure hydrocarbon gas such as methane, ethane, propane, butane and isobutene are available. However, wide-ranging and accurate correlations for predicting the gas viscosity and density are not available for gas mixtures associated with heavier hydrocarbon components and impurities components such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium and hydrogen sulphide. This paper presents two new models for estimating the density and viscosity of pure hydrocarbon gases and hydrocarbon gas mixtures containing high amounts of pentane, plus small concentrations of non-hydrocarbon components (i.e. carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium), over a wide range of temperatures and pressures on the basis of fuzzy logic approach. The density model was developed using apparent molecular weight, pseudo-reduced temperature and pseudo-reduced pressure. However, the viscosity model was developed using density, apparent molecular weight and pseudo-reduced temperature. The fuzzy models were derived from 5,350 measurements of density and viscosity of various pure gases and gas mixtures. The partitioning of the input space into the fuzzy regions, represented by the individual rules, was obtained through fuzzy clustering. Accuracy of the new fuzzy models was compared to various literature correlations by blind tests using 1,460 measurements of density and viscosity. The results show that the new fuzzy models are more accurate than the compared correlations. Introduction Accurate determination of the density, viscosity and phase behaviour of pure hydrocarbon gases and hydrocarbon gas mixtures is essential for reliable reservoir characterization and simulation and, hence, for optimum usage and exploitation. The variety of possible natural gas mixtures at different conditions of interest preclude obtaining the relevant data by experimental means alone, thus, requiring the development of prediction methods. Natural gas is a mixture of many components. Wide ranging correlations for the viscosity of the lower alkanes, such as methane, ethane, propane, butane and iso-butane, have already been developed and are available in the literature(1–3). However, wide-ranging correlations are often not readily available for many of the higher alkanes and impurities such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. These impurities may be present in small quantities in natural gas and are important when modelling the mixture properties(4). In this paper, the fuzzy logic technique was applied for developing new efficient empirical models to estimate density and viscosity of pure hydrocarbon gases (from methane to pentane) and hydrocarbon gas mixtures (different gas mixtures of methane with ethane and/or propane,...., n-Decane) containing small concentrations of non-hydrocarbon components (i.e. carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium) over a wide range of temperatures (0–238 °C) and pressures (1–890 bar). The new models are designed to be simpler and more efficient than the existing equations of state (EOS).

Toward a predictive model for predicting viscosity of natural and hydrocarbon gases

Against the backdrop of an accelerating global low-carbon energy transition, oil and gas field enterprises as traditional energy producers are under immense pressure to reduce energy consumption and carbon emission intensity in their production operations. During hydrocarbon extraction, particularly in gathering, transportation, and treatment processes, continuous thermal energy input is essential to maintain fluid mobility, prevent freezing, and meet process requirements. The resultant energy consumption constitutes a significant component of both operational costs and carbon footprints. Consequently, effectively reducing energy consumption in gathering/processing systems while achieving clean heating alternatives has emerged as one of the key imperatives for oilfield enterprises pursuing green. Western China's desert regions harbor abundant oil and gas resources, yet their extreme environmental conditions impose severe challenges on production equipment. Taking this oilfield as a representative case, its location deep within a typical desert basin subjects operations to ground temperature extremes ranging from −33.2°C to 70.6°C. Under such conditions, extracted fluids require continuous heating at well sites to ensure safe and uninterrupted transportation. Historically, gas-fired heaters and electromagnetic heaters have served as primary heating solutions, but the former suffers from fossil fuel consumption and direct carbon emissions, while the latter incurs prohibitively high electricity demands. To support China's dual-carbon goals and advance clean energy adoption at well sites, heat pump technology has emerged as a promising alternative due to its utilization of ambient thermal energy, high efficiency, and low carbon footprint.[1] Consequently, the oilfield has deployed nearly 100 heat pump units across multiple configurations, including single-stage, cascade, transcritical CO2, and solar collector-integrated systems, aiming to replace conventional heating methods. However, the actual operational performance and reliability of air-source heat pumps under frigid conditions remain inadequately validated.[2] The absence of systematic field data and in-depth analysis has created significant uncertainty, severely constraining large-scale implementation of this technology in similar harsh-environment oilfields. To address this research gap and scientifically evaluate the applicability and energy efficiency of various heat pump systems under extreme cold conditions in actual well sites, this study implemented systematic field monitoring and analysis of seven representative heat pump systems configurations during a typical low-temperature season. The investigated systems encompassed single-stage, cascade, transcritical CO2, and flat-plate collector-integrated units. Throughout the winter operational period (November 2024 to March 2025), the research team collected 3000 high-resolution datasets capturing critical parameters including flow rates, inlet/outlet temperatures, partial composition and ambient conditions. Applying the first law of thermodynamics and standardized heat transfer models, we quantitatively evaluated three key performance indicators: actual heat delivery capacity, coefficient of performance (COP), Clean replacement rate. Through comprehensive techno-economic analysis considering capital expenditure and operational outcomes, this research identifies optimized solutions for clean thermal energy supply in hydrocarbon fields under analogous extreme environments.

Future CCS implementation in india: A systemic and long-term analysis

Insights into the factors controlling fluid circulation through the crust and the nature of fluid venting at the seafloor are first steps in understanding their effect on ocean properties and climate change. New data on the seafloor morphology, sub-surface sedimentary stratification, and water column of the sedimented Southern Trough hydrothermal field (Guaymas basin) were acquired during the BIG cruise in 2010. These data provide accurate and high-resolution information on the geological context of the vents, on the distribution of acoustic anomalies in the water column, and on the possible nature of the fluid generating these echoes. More than 40 hydrothermal edifices were observed. The southern zone of the study area hosts hydrothermal sites that differ from the northern area. The southern vents are located inside or at the edge of small sub-circular depressions and the relationship between active edifices and collapsed areas involves different steps in the continous hydrothermal setting. Sub-bottom data show surface and sub-surface events, with some reflection layers possibly indicating subsurface hydrothermal precipitates or lithification with an estimated age of approximately 10 000 to 20 000 years. Based on the position and maximum altitude of the acoustic anomalies above the seafloor, two types of fluid emission echoes are distinguished: 1) anomalies reaching a maximal altitude of ∼350 m above the seafloor and seen both at the northern and southern fields and 2) strong, narrow and straight anomalies reaching 1334 or 1702 m above the seafloor that are only present in the southern hydrothermal fields of the studied area. We suggest that there are two types of echoes reflecting different fluid escapes based on the physical conditions of fluid venting and degassing and their relationship to geologic features: hydrothermal fluids or hydrothermal fluid mixed with hydrocarbon gas, oil or condensates rising through the water column. The collapsed depressions observed in the southern part facilitate the release of light hydrocarbon (gas, oil, and condensates) soluble at a high temperature and transported by hydrothermal fluids towards the shallow sedimentary levels where they accumulate. These light hydrocarbons rapidly migrate at high levels in the water column. This contrasts with the northern fields where hydrothermal circulation linked to deeper faults, re-mobilize heavier non-soluble hydrocarbons which do not migrate at high levels in the water column.