On the depth,time and mechanism of origin of the heavy to medium-gravity naphthenic crude oils

Paraffinic crude oils are designated ‘primary’ because their composition is very close or identical to that of the hydrocarbons extracted from the corresponding oil source rocks. Heavy and medium-gravity naphthenic crude oils, on the other hand, typically are quite different compositionally from hydrocarbon mixtures in either mature or immature shales.The normal paraffin carbon number odd/even ratio 2C₂₉/(C₂₈ + C₃₀) of all the heavy to medium-gravity crude oils which could be analysed are in exactly the same range as is observed for the primary paraffinic crude oils, namely 0.95–1.42. The naphthene indices of the medium to heavy gravity naphthenic crude oils and of the primary paraffinic crude oils from the same area are identical or close. These facts are significant because both the n-paraffin carbon number odd/even ratio and the naphthene index of shale hydrocarbons are strongly depth and subsurface temperature dependent. The facts observed demonstrate beyond question that, in the same area, the paraffinic precursors of the heavy to medium-gravity naphthenic crude oils are generated and expelled in the identical depth range, and from the same mature relatively deep oil source beds as the primary paraffinic crude oils. Later, during and/or after a generally upward migration into oil reservoirs, the primary crude may be transformed compositionally into a naphthenic crude oil.In none of the five widely scattered oil basins studied are medium to heavy naphthenic crude oils found at temperatures greater than a limiting subsurface temperature. The abruptness of the temperature cutoff of the change in oil compositions in all five oil basins, as well as the average value of the cutoff temperature of 66°C (150°F), leaves no doubt that the mechanism of this crude oil transformation process is microbial.Optical activity, which was observed in narrow saturate hydrocarbon fractions of the 80–325°C range of all microbially transformed crude oils, but not in the primary untransformed oils, is strong additional evidence for the microbial nature of the crude oil transformation process. The observed optical activity is explained by the microbial digestion at different rates of optical antipodes present in the primary paraffinic crude oils.To gain perspective the vast scale of the microbial oil transformation process in nature is pointed out. Billions of tons of heavy to medium-gravity naphthenic crude oils, originating from the microbial transformation of primary paraffinic oils, are present in oil fields and tar sands all over the world.