Testing reproducibility of vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance measurements in North American unconventional petroleum systems (2019)

To test reproducibility of vitrinite and solid bitumen reflectance measurements in mudrocks, an interlaboratory study (ILS) was conducted using six samples from United States unconventional petroleum systems. Samples selected from the Marcellus, Haynesville, Eagle Ford, Barnett, Bakken and Woodford are representative of resource plays currently under exploitation in North America. All samples are from marine depositional environments, are thermally mature (Tmax >445°C) and have moderate to high organic matter content (2.9 to 11.6 wt.% TOC). The organic matter of the sample is dominated by solid bitumen, which contains intraparticle nano-porosity. Visual evaluation of organic nano-porosity via SEM suggests that intraparticle organic [...]