The volumetric potential assessment of the oil shales of Tremembé Formation, Taubaté Basin, Brazil

Abstract

Abstract This assessment of the volumetric potential of the oil shales of Tremembé Formation (Oligocene, Taubaté Basin, Brazil) was based on the sedimentological study of 2457 total organic carbon and 1007 Rock–Eval pyrolysis analyses of core samples from nine survey wells drilled in the central portion of Taubaté Basin. Along a 240-m-thick package in the upper part of Tremembé Formation, thirteen chemostratigraphic units with thicknesses varying from 10 to 35 m were identified. The upper interval (unit L), 30 m thick, exhibited the highest organic content and original generation potential and was thus studied in detail. In unit L, oil yield maps were constructed, seeking to identify the most attractive areas for industrially exploiting the oil shales, and volumetric calculations employing a probabilistic Monte Carlo method were conducted to quantify the potentially recoverable oil volume. Three exploratory scenarios based on yield values (S1 + S2) were considered for calculating the oil volumes, seeking to offer different exploratory scenarios for decision making. For the scenario that considered only average yields above 100 mg HC/g rock, the recoverable oil volume is 525 million bbl (P90) to 884 million bbl (P10); for the scenario that considered only average yields above 80 mg HC/g rock, the recoverable oil volume is 1.4 billion bbl (P90) to 2.6 billion bbl (P10); and for the scenario that considered only average yields above 60 mg HC/g rock, the recoverable oil volume is 3.6 billion bbl (P90) to 5.4 billion bbl (P10).

Keywords

• Organic geochemistry
• Chemical stratigraphy
• Area yields
• Volume calculation
• Monte Carlo method