Abstract

In the description of petroleum systems, vitrinite reflectance (VR) is the most widely utilized maturity indicator because of its wide availability and acceptance. In modeling petroleum generation, however, it has become apparent that within the SE Asian region, VR has a major limitation due to the widespread occurrence of vitrinites with hydrogen-rich compositions and suppressed reflectance. A new maturity indicator, fluorescence alteration of multiple macerals (FAMM) has been devised to overcome this problem. Calibration of the method has been carried out for Australian Permian/Mesozoic and Indonesian Tertiary coals and source rocks, and the method has been applied to petroleum exploration in basins of the North West Shelf of Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Japan. This paper reviews the FAMM method as applied to South East Asian and Australasian source rocks, compares and contrasts results with VR, and gives examples of its application to wells intersecting sequences with complex tectonics and samples containing multiple populations of organic matter. The method promises to be useful in refining petroleum generation aspects of petroleum system description in SE Asia.