Geochemistry of Petroleums from Germany

Country / Region: Germany

Begin of project: June 1, 2018

End of project: November 30, 2022

Status of project: December 14, 2020

Distribution of petroleums from the BGR Petroleum Archive from Germany. The archive consists of more than 1.000 petroleums of which the majority are (re)-analysed in the frame of the project Source: BGR

Geochemical data of petroleums are powerful for hydrocarbon exploration but also for the reconstruction of paleo-settings in Earth History (through oil-oil or oil-source rock correlations). In addition, geochemical biomarker "fingerprints" are also helpful for environmental forensic correlations (e.g. after oil spills). At BGR an unparalleled archive of about 1.200 petroleums from Germany exist of which only for a small part detailed geochemical data were available at project start. In the frame of the project so far more than 500 petroleum samples were analysed and respective geochemical data were archived.

Aims of the project were (i) the aquisition of geochemical data (particularly source and maturity-specific hydrocarbon biomarkers) of a large data set of German petroleums (~50 % of the BGR archive) and the transfer into internal GIS databases, the (ii) storage of stabilized petroleum fractions for forthcoming projects or requests, and the (iii) record of the BGR petroleum archive in an external BGR Geoviewer (since October 2019 online). Most of the petroleum samples are owned by E&P industry companies so that respective geochemical data are confidential. It is, however, intended that BGR will help in making the contact between interested institutions and owners of the petroleum wells.

BGR-Geoviewer

Publications:

• Blumenberg, M., Zink, K.G., Scheeder, G., Ostertag-Henning, C., Erbacher, J., 2019. Biomarker palaeoreconstruction of the German Wealden (Berriasian, Early Cretaceous) in the Lower Saxony Basin (LSB). Int. J. Earth Sci. 108, 229-244. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-018-1651-5)
• Scheeder, G., Weniger, P., Blumenberg, M., 2020. Geochemical implications from direct Rock-Eval pyrolysis of petroleum. Organic Geochemistry 146, 104051. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2020.104051)
• Słowakiewicz, M., Blumenberg, M., Więcław, D., Röhling, H.-G., Scheeder, G., Hindenberg, K., Leśniak, A., Idiz, E.F., Tucker, M.E., Pancost, R.D., Kotarba, M.J., Gerling, J.P., 2018 Zechstein Main Dolomite oil characteristics in the Southern Permian Basin: I. Polish and German sectors. Mar. Petrol. Geol. 93, 356-375. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2018.03.023)