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Earth's energy “Golden Zone”: a synthesis from mineralogical research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

P. H. Nadeau
P. H. Nadeau*
Affiliation:
The Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

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The impact of diagenetic processes on petroleum entrapment and recovery efficiency has focused the vast majority of the world's conventional oil and gas resources into relatively narrow thermal intervals, which we call Earth's energy “Golden Zone”. Two key mineralogical research breakthroughs, mainly from the North Sea, underpinned this discovery. The first is the fundamental particle theory of clay mineralogy, which showed the importance of dissolution/precipitation mechanisms in the formation of diagenetic illitic clays with increasing depth and temperature. The second is the surface area precipitation-rate-controlled models for the formation of diagenetic cements, primarily quartz, in reservoirs. Understanding the impacts of these geological processes on permeability evolution, porosity loss, overpressure development, and fluid migration in the subsurface, lead to the realization that exploration and production risks are exponential functions of reservoir temperature. Global compilations of oil/gas reserves relative to reservoir temperature, including the US Gulf Coast, have verified the “Golden Zone” concept, as well as stimulated further research to determine in greater detail the geological/mineralogical controls on petroleum migration and entrapment efficiency within the Earth's sedimentary basins.

Keywords

global energy resourcespetroleum geologyhydrocarbon migrationclay mineral diagenesisfundamental particlesquartz cementationporositypermeabilitybasin analysisNorth SeaUS Gulf Coastoil and gas reservesexploration riskstemperatureoverpressure
Type
The 2010 George Brown Lecture
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 1 - 24
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2011 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2011

Footnotes

†

Present address: Statoil ASA, Stavanger, Norway NO-4035

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