Ordovician oils in Mohawkian and Cincinnatian reservoirs of the United States Mid-Continent retain the biochemical imprint of Middle and Upper Ordovician oceanic life before the evolution of land plants and most vertebrates. Thus, these oils have some geochemical features that distinguish them from younger oils.

These features include (1) a predominance of n-C₁₅, n-C₁₇, and n-C₁₉ alkanes in the saturated hydrocarbon fraction, (2) relatively low amounts of longer chain n-alkanes, (3) low amounts of chlorophyll-derived isoprenoids, such as pristane and phytane, and (4) abundant C₂₉ sterane relative to C₂₇ with rearranged forms (diasteranes) predominant over normal steranes. Ordovician oils also generally contain little sulfur and have a somewhat variable light stable carbon isotopic composition with ^dgr¹³C_sat and ^dgr¹³C_aro values of -28 to -31^pmil (PDB), but these features are typical of many marine oils.

The unusual chemistry of these Ordovician oils supports the interpretation of Reed, Illich, and Horsfield (1986) that prokaryotic organisms provided the organic matter for most Ordovician oils. Although their claim for Gloeocapsamorpha (a problematic unicellular prokaryote, possibly a blue-green alga or an unusually large bacterium) cannot be proven from oil chemistry alone, knowing that indigenous Mid-Continent Ordovician oils were derived from prokaryotic organisms may aid in future exploration for these reservoirs.