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Organic Acids and Carbonate Stability, the Key to Predicting Positive Porosity Anomalies

  • Chapter
Organic Acids in Geological Processes

Summary

A systematic and sequential set of carbonate reactions characterizes many clastic source/reservoir rock systems during progressive burial. Typically, in its simplest form, this sequence of carbonate reactions with increasing thermal exposure is: (1) formation of early carbonate cements that preserve intergranular volume (IGV); (2) dissolution of early carbonate cements, enhancing porosity and resulting in positive porosity anomalies; (3) formation of late carbonate cements, again preserving IGV; and (4) if temperatures are high enough and if quartz cementation is inhibited, dissolution of late carbonate cements, again enhancing porosity.

If this sequence of carbonate reactions is coupled with parallel organic reactions, including generation and decarboxylation of organic acids and acid anions, a predictive, process-oriented model can be constructed for the carbonate reactions. The model consists of three operations: (1) interpretation of reaction pathways; (2) kinetic modeling of organic reactions; and (3) simulation of rock/water interactions in either time or temperature space. Integrating these three operations allows us to predict zones of carbonate dissolution or optimum porosity enhancement (positive porosity anomalies) in source/reservoir rock systems.

The sandstones of the Latrobe Group in the Gippsland Basin of Australia are characterized by early dolomite and late Fe-magnesite cements. The two cementation events were separated temporally by a significant carbonate dissolution event (early dolomite dissolution) that resulted in a zone of porosity enhancement, a positive porosity anomaly characterized by 30+% porosity and up to 2 darcies permeability, in a present-day depth interval from 1400 to 2600m. The predictive, process-oriented diagnostic model described in this chapter predicts a significant positive porosity anomaly resulting from dolomite dissolution (dolomite undersaturation) within a present-day depth interval from 1200 to 2800 m. The predicted positive porosity anomaly is based on the assumption that organic acid/acid anions, derived from the thermocatalytic cleavage of oxygen-bearing functional groups from kerogen, from the reaction of water with kerogen during maturation, and from redox reactions between hydrocarbons and mineral oxidants, are a definitive component in the alkalinity of the formation fluids at temperatures greater than 80°C.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, 82071, USA

    Ronald C. Surdam & Peigui Yin

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  1. Ronald C. Surdam
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  1. 222 Bowstring Drive, Sedona, Arizona, 86336, USA

    Edward D. Pittman (Consulting Petrologist-Sedimentologist) (Consulting Petrologist-Sedimentologist)

  2. U.S. Geological Survey, P.O. Box 25046, M.S. 977, Denver, Colorado, 80225, USA

    Michael D. Lewan

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Surdam, R.C., Yin, P. (1994). Organic Acids and Carbonate Stability, the Key to Predicting Positive Porosity Anomalies. In: Pittman, E.D., Lewan, M.D. (eds) Organic Acids in Geological Processes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78356-2_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78356-2_13

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