Fuels

Abstract

The occurrence of fluid hydrocarbons in rocks depends on four critical properties of a sedimentary basin (Dickinson, 1975a): there must be organic-rich source beds within the sedimentary sequence; there must have been appropriate heat for sufficient time for thermal maturation of petroleum or gas; there must have been permeable migration paths for the fluid hydrocarbons to move from the source beds to the reservoirs; and there must be porous reservoir beds confined within some trapping configuration by impermeable, finer-grained or over-pressurized capping beds, which prevent the hydrocarbons from escaping.