Status and Outlook of Oil Field Chemistry-Assisted Analysis during the Energy Transition Period

Analytical chemistry is powerful in analyzing complex mixtures of crude oil and brine subsurfaces on the basis of atomic and molecular levels. Geochemistry applies chemical principles and experiments to understand earth science and engineering problems. Crude oil’s molecule structure, especially for the resin and asphaltenes, could only be understood using advanced analytical chemistry techniques. Fingerprinting geochemistry applied for conventional and unconventional reservoirs helps better identify hydrocarbon resources. Subsequently, the reservoir fluid geodynamics (RFG) discipline is promoted because of the gap between the basin modeling and reservoir simulation models with geochemistry data. Fluid migration could be elaborated from the geological time when the reservoir trap was formed to nowadays with the span of millions of years. Also, asphaltene geochemistry data could be used to delineate reservoir compartmentalization. This work reviews the state-of-art theory and technology of analytical chemistry and geochemistry applied in the upstream oil and gas industry and proposes an improvement of high-resolution chemistry power for efficient and sustainable energy development.