Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:49:23.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Petroleum migration in the Miocene Monterey Formation, California, USA: constraints from fluid-inclusion studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Robert J. Bodnar
Robert J. Bodnar*
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Miocene Monterey Formation constitutes a fracture-controlled petroleum reservoir, with intercalated calcareous and fine-grained siliceous rocks serving as both the source and reservoir for oil accumulations. Petroleum is produced from macroscopic fractures, and numerous tar and asphalt seeps at the surface attest to the present-day movement of hydrocarbons through fractures in the Monterey Formation. Many fractures are filled with carbonate (mostly calcite and dolomite), quartz, baryte and anhydrite. These same fractures often contain tar or oil filling openings, and occasionally a thin layer of oil can be seen coating growth surfaces between two generations of vein-filling minerals.

Evidence for migration of fluids through these fractures in the geological past is provided by aqueous and petroleum fluid inclusions contained within vein-filling minerals. Vein-filling dolomite from Jalama Beach contains three different types of primary petroleum inclusions (based on fluorescence characteristics)—indicating that oils with significantly different API gravities flowed through the fractures. Petrographic and microthermometric analyses of oil and coexisting aqueous inclusions indicate that the fracture-filling minerals precipitated from aqueous solutions of seawater salinity at ∼75–100°C, and that oil was introduced into the fracture system episodically during mineral growth. A sample from the Lion's Head area consists of early calcite and late quartz, both of which contain aqueous inclusions with seawater salinity. Inclusions in quartz homogenize at slightly higher temperatures than those in calcite. These data are consistent with calcite deposition during an early heating event, followed by quartz deposition during cooling. No petroleum inclusions were observed in the Lion's Head sample.

Keywords

petroleummigrationfluid inclusionsMonterey FormationCalifornia
Type
Near-surface and surficial environments
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 54 , Issue 375 , June 1990 , pp. 295 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aulstead, K. L. and Spencer, R. J. (1985) Diagenesis of the Keg River Formation, Northwestern Alberta: Fluid inclusion evidence. Canad. Petrol. Geol. 33, 16-83.Google Scholar
Belfield, W. C., Helwig, J. A., LaPointe, P. R. and Dahleen, W. K. (1983) South Ellwood Oil Field, Santa Barbara Channel, cA. A Monterey Formation fractured reservoir. In Petroleum Generation and Occurrence in the Miocene Monterey Formation, California (Isaacs, C. M. and Garrisons, R. E., eds.) Pacific Section, Soc. Econ. Paleont. Mineral. Publ. 33, 213-22.Google Scholar
Bodnar, R. J. (1989) Fluid inclusion evidence for the physical and chemical conditions of petroleum generation in the Miocene Monterey Formation of California, USA [abstr.]. European Current Research on Fluid Inclusions, Imperial College, London, Abstracts, 10-11.Google Scholar
Bone, Y. and Russell, N. J. (1988) Correlation of vitrinite reflectivity with fluid inclusion microthermometry: Assessment of the technique in the Cooper/Eromanga Basins, South Australia. Austral. J. Earth Sci. 35, 567-70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broomhall, R. W. and Allan, J. R. (1985) Regional caprock-destroying dolomite on the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Arabian Shelf. Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME Paper SPE 13697, pp. 157-60 + 10 figures. [Presented at the SPE 1985 Middle East Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Bahrain, March 11-14, 1985.]Google Scholar
Burley, S. D., Mullis, J. and Matter, A. (1989) Timing diagenesis in the Tartan reservoir (UK North Sea): constraints from combined cathodoluminescence microscopy and fluid inclusion studies. Marine. Petrol. Geol. 6, 98-120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burruss, R. C. (1981) Hydrocarbon fluid inclusions in studies of sedimentary diagenesis. In Short Course on Fluid Inclusions: Applications to Petrology. (Hollister, L. S. and Crawford, M. L., eds.) Min. Assoc. Canada Short Course Handbook, 6, 138-56.Google Scholar
Burruss, R. C. (1985) Paleotemperatures from fluid inclusions—advances in theory and technique [abstr.. AAPG Bulletin, 69, 241-2.Google Scholar
Burruss, R. C., Cercone, K. R. and Harris, P. M. (1983) Fluid inclusion petrography and tectonic-burial history of the A1 Ali No. 2 well: Evidence for the timing of diagenesis and oil migration, northern Oman Foredeep. Geology, 11, 567-70.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crain, W. E., Mero, M. E. and Patterson, D. (1985) Geology of the Point Arguello Discovery. AAPG Bull. 69, 537-45.Google Scholar
Curiale, J. C., Cameron, D. and Davis, D. V. (1985) Biological marker distribution and significance of oils and rocks of the Monterey Formation, California. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 49, 271-88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunham, J. B. and Blake, G. H. (1987) Guide to coastal outcrops of the Monterey Formation of western Santa Barbara County, California. Pacific Section, Soc. Econ. Paleontol. Mineral. Publ. 53, 36 pp.Google Scholar
Haszeldine, R. S., Samson, I. M. and Cornford, C. (1984a) Quartz diagenesis and convective fluid movement: Beatrice oilfield, UK North Sea. Clay Minerals, 19, 391-402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haszeldine, R. S., Samson, I. M. and Cornford, C. (1984b) Dating diagenesis in a petroleum basin, a new fluid inclusion method. Nature, 307, 354-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, M. E. and Donovan, T. J. (1984) Luminescence properties and chemical composition of crude oils. U.S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 84-385, 30 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horsfield, B. and McLimans, R. K. (1984) Geothermometry and geochemistry of aqueous and oil-bearing fluid inclusions from the Fateh field, Dubai. Organic Geochem. 6, 733-40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaacs, C. M. (1981) Porosity reduction during diagenesis of the Monterey Formation, Santa Barbara coastal area, California. In The Monterey Formation and Related Siliceous Rocks of California (Garrison, R. E. and Douglas, R. G., eds.) Pacific Section, Soc. Econ. Paleont. Mineral. Publ. 15, 257-71.Google Scholar
Isaacs, C. M. (1984) Field trip guide to deposition and diagenesis of the Monterey Formation, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria areas, California. U.S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 84-98, 91 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaacs, C. M. and Petersen, N. F. (1987) Petroleum in the Miocene Monterey Formation, California U.S.A. In Siliceous sedimentary rock-hosted ores and petroleum (Hein, J. R., ed.) Van Nostrand-Reinhold, New York, NY, 83–116.Google Scholar
Jensenius, J. and Burruss, R. C. (1990) Hydrocarbon-water interactions during brine migration: Evidence from the composition of hydrocarbon inclusions in calcite from Danish North Sea oil fields. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 54, 705-13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lang, W. H. Jr. and Gelfand, J. C. (1985) The evaluation of shallow potential in a deep field wildcat. Log Analyst, 26, 13-22.Google Scholar
LaPointe, P. R., Belfield, W. C. and Helwig, J. A. (1984) Analysis of fracturing and fluid flow characteristics of the Monterey Formation, Santa Barbara Channel, CA. Society of Petroleum Engineers Paper SPE12734, pp. 97-102 + 14 figures. [Presented at the 1984 California Regional Meeting of SPE of AIME held in Long Beach, CA, April 11-13, 1984.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malley, P., Jourdan, A. and Weber, F. (1986) Study of fluid inclusions in the silica overgrowths of the North Sea reservoir sandstones: a possible new diagenetic history of the Brent and Alwyn area. C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris, 302, 653-8.Google Scholar
McLimans, R. K. (1985) Migration and maturation of hydrocarbons—evidence from fluid inclusions [abstr.]. AAPG Bulletin, 69, 286-7.Google Scholar
McLimans, R. K. (1987) The application of fluid inclusions to migration of oil and diagenesis in petroleum reservoirs. Appl. Geochem. 2, 585-603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narr, W. and Burruss R. C. (1984) Origin of reservoir fractures in Little Knife Field, North Dakota. AAPG Bulletin, 68, 1087-100.Google Scholar
O'Hearn, T. C. and Moore, C. H. (1985) Fluid inclusion study of diagenetic mineral phases, Upper Jurassic Smackover Formation, southwest Arkansas and northeast Texas [abstr.]. AAPG Bulletin, 69, 294.Google Scholar
Pagel, M., Walgenwitz, F. and Dubessy, J. (1986) Fluid inclusions in oil and gas-bearing sedimentary formations. In Thermal Modeling in Sedimentary Basins (Burrus, J., ed.), 565-83.Google Scholar
Peng, D. Y. and Robinson, D. B. (1976) A new twoconstant equation of state. Ind. Eng. Chem. Fund. 15, 59-54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pisciotto, K. A. (1978) Basinal sedimentary facies and diagenetic aspects of the Monterey Shale, California. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, 450 pp.Google Scholar
Potter, R. W. II and Brown, D. L. (1977) The volumetric properties of aqueous sodium chloride solutions from 0° to 500°C and pressures up to 2000 bars based on a regression of available data in the literature. U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1421-C, 36 pp.Google Scholar
Roedder, E. (1979) Fluid inclusion evidence on the environments of sedimentary diagenesis, a review. SEPM Spec. Pub. 26, 89-107.Google Scholar
Roedder, E. (1984) Fluid Inclusions. Mineral. Soc. Amer. Reviews in Mineralogy, 12, 644 pp.Google Scholar
Roedder, E. and Bodnar, R. J. (1980) Geologic pressure determinations from fluid inclusion studies. Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 8, 263-301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterner, S. M. and Bodnar, R. J. (1984) Synthetic fluid inclusions in natural quartz. I. Compositional types synthesized and applications in experimental geochemistry. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 48, 2659-68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsui, T. F. and Jordan, C. F. (1985) Fluid inclusions and porosity development in Arun gas field, Indonesia [abstr.]. AAPG Bulletin, 69, 312-13.Google Scholar
Visser, W. (1982) Maximum diagenetic temperature in a petroleum source-rock from Venezuela by fluid inclusion geothermometry. Chem. Geol. 37, 95-101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werre, R. W., Bodnar, R. J., Bethke, P. M. and Barton, P. B. Jr. (1979) A novel gas-flow fluid inclusion heating/freezing stage [abstr.]. Geol. Soc. Am. Abstracts with Program, 11, 539.Google Scholar
Winter, B. L. and Knauth, L. P. (1990) Isotopic investigation of carbonate fracture fills in the Monterey Formation, California. J. Sediment. Petrol. (in press).Google Scholar