Understanding the origin and fate of hydrocarbons in the subsurface was the major endeavor of organic geochemists during the second half of the twentieth century. They succeeded to the point where the deciphered interplaying of elements and processes paved the way for the revolutionary concept of the petroleum system, a unifying paradigm that plays an important role in decision making associated with oil and gas exploration. The chemistry and physics involved have been addressed in a quantitative way and integrated into the other aspects of petroleum geology, giving rise to the development of numerical basin modeling. This book has been designed to offer an overview of different aspects of the geochemistry of fossil fuels, in particular the functioning of a petroleum system. In this respect, it can be viewed as a foundation for approaching basin modeling. This book will be of interest to a large audience including specialists in the field, nonspecialist professionals, and undergraduate and graduate students.
Heavy oils, extra-heavy oils and tar sands are major players for the future of energy.They represent a massive world resource, at least the size of conventional oils. They are found all over the world but Canada and Venezuela together account, by themselves, for more than half of world deposits. They share the same origin as the lighter conventional oils, but their geological fate drove them into thick, viscous tar-like crude oils. Most of them result from alteration processes mediated by microbial degradation. They are characterized by a low content of lighter cuts and a high content of impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen compounds and metals ; so, their production is difficult and deployment of specific processes is required in order to enhance their transportability and to upgrade them into valuable products meeting market needs, and honouring environmental requirements.Although these resources are increasingly becoming commercially producible, less than 1% of total heavy crude oil deposits worldwide are under active development. The voluntarily wide scope of this volume encompasses geology, production, transportation, upgrading, economics and environmental issues of heavy oils. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, but to provide an authoritative view of this very important energy resource.
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