Predicting petroleum phase and composition

The mechanisms, effects and pathways by which petroleum migrates from the source rock to the reservoir remain enigmatic. However, recent results have demonstrated that the fluids phase behaviour plays an overriding role in the subsequent fractionation behaviour. Here we propose to further our understanding of source rock control on hydrocarbon composition and develop a new compositional kinetic approach for basin modeling especially tailored to match the PVT data formats commonly used by reservoir engineers, and calibrated to actual petroleum discoveries. We expect that as petroleum exploration moves to continuously deeper targets the correct prediction of hydrocarbon composition will become an increasingly important factor for prospect economics.