About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 52 (1968)

Issue: 1. (January)

First Page: 194

Last Page: 194

Title: Introduction to Composition and Stratigraphy Relationships of Permian Basin Oils, Texas and New Mexico: ABSTRACT

Author(s): Previous HitHaroldNext Hit J. Holmquest, Jr., Robert T. Johansen, Previous HitHaroldTop M. Smith

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The present Oil Study Committee of the West Texas Geological Society was organized to study the oil composition and related stratigraphy of six projects in the Permian basin. These projects include the Simpson, Pennsylvanian, Wolfcamp, Abo, and Yeso rock units, and the multipay field study. Crude oils and associated water samples were analyzed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines Petroleum Research Center at Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Carbon isotope data were provided by the Sinclair Research Laboratory, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Oil samples were distilled and the gasoline-gas oil part determined. The volume percent of paraffins (straight or branched chains), aromatics, and naphthenes (ring compounds) were derived for boiling fractions 1-7 (gasoline) and also of the aromatics for fractions 8-12 (gas oil). The carbon isotopic composition was determined for the high boiling fraction (+350°F). This composition is a function of the type of organic material deposited, the environment of deposition, and maturation history of the organic material. Data from Recent sediments show an increasing C13 isotopic composition from the rocks deposited in the terrestrial environment through those deposited in the open-marine, marine-carbonate, and marine-evaporite environments. Water samples were analyzed for pH specific gravity, calcium and magnesium, sulfate, chloride, sodium, and resistivity.

Analytical data, including aromatic profiles, were used to group the oils based on elements of similarity. These groups were compared with isotopic composition and associated water data. Interpretation was based on the geologic history of the rock units involved in each project.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 194------------

Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists