Expulsion of oil from petroleum source rocks: inferences from pyrolysis of samples of unconventional grain size

Abstract

Oil expulsion efficiencies from different lithologies have been investigated and compared employing pyrolyses of samples of unconventional grain-size (from 300 mg HC/g C(org)) show that liquid range hydrocarbons are expelled from coal when the generated oil exceeds the coal sorption capacity. This suggests that expulsion of oil from liptinite-poor, or in general H-poor, humic coals is primarily limited by the release of generated liquid hydrocarbons from kerogen because such coals, generally, do not generate sufficient amounts of liquid hydrocarbons to overcome the coal sorption capacity. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.