Abstract:

Gas geochemistry started with empirical methods by grouping gas data to differentiate gas provinces. New laboratory calibrations with pyrolysis techniques allow to relate gas isotopes to temperature of formation, maturity of source and quality of gas. With geologic heating rates, gas isotopes can be related to age of source rock. Furthermore, we learned that each source rock has a characteristic 13C1-13C2 isotope pattern allowing the identification of source, its maturity, gas potential, time of gas formation, all information that is important for the quantitative assessment of petroleum systems.