insight review articles Biological activity in the deep.pdfVIP

insight review articles Biological activity in the deep subsurface and the origin of heavy oil Ian M. Head, D. Martin Jones Steve R. Larter NRG petroleum group, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, NE1 7RU, UK (e-mail: steve_larter@) At temperatures up to about 80 °C, petroleum in subsurface reservoirs is often biologically degraded, over geological timescales, by microorganisms that destroy hydrocarbons and other components to produce altered, denser ‘heavy oils’. This temperature threshold for hydrocarbon biodegradation might represent the maximum temperature boundary for life in the deep nutrient-depleted Earth. Most of the world’s oil was biodegraded under anaerobic conditions, with methane, a valuable commodity, often being a major by-product, which suggests alternative approaches to recovering the world’s vast heavy oil resource that otherwise will remain largely unproduced. iodegraded oils dominate the world petroleum The effects of biodegradation on the composition and inventory1, with the largest oil reserves being physical properties of crude oil and natural gases are well found, not in the Middle East, but on the flanks known. Oxidation of oil (C6+ components) during of foreland basins in the Americas (Box 1 Fig. 1). biodegradation leads to a decrease in saturated hydrocarbon Biodegraded oils also represent a significant content (and to a smaller decrease in aromatic hydrocarbon B fraction of the petroleum in conventional oil reserves and content) and API gravity, a measure that correlates with eco- will be common among future oil discoveries likely to be nomic value, whereas oil density, sulphur content, acidity, made in deep-water areas of the world (for example, the viscosity and metal con