Molecular analysis of petroleum in fluid inclusions: a practical methodology

A method is described for extracting the petroleum from petroleum-bearing f luid inclusions hosted in the diagenetic cements of sedimentary rocks, whil st minimising contamination from petroleum in the pore space. A clean-up te chnique, involving the addition of extraction standards to the rock prior t o analysis, has been developed that allows increased confidence that the hy drocarbons extracted are only from included petroleum and are not mixtures of included petroleum and petroleum (or other organic material) adhering to the surface of the host minerals within the sample. Replicate quantitative analyses indicate that the technique produces highly reproducible results. The problems of analysing included petroleum and the clean-up method devel opment are discussed and examples of analyses of included petroleums from c arbonate reservoir and carrier units are given. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science L td. All rights reserved.