Abstract
The study of crude oil geochemistry becomes difficult when crude oils are altered by microbial action (biodegradation) and water washing. Parameters used for comparison of oils to determine genetic relationships (i.e., oil-oil correlation), depositional environments, and time of oil generation (i.e., thermal maturity of source rock at time of oil generation/expulsion) are altered by microbial degradation and/or water washing. Much of this knowledge comes from petroleum geochemists, who have been documenting case histories of such occurrences through the years (e.g., Winters and Williams, 1969; Bailey et al., 1973a, b; Rubinstein et al., 1977; Connan et al., 1975, 1980; Seifert and Moldowan, 1979; Rullkötter and Wendisch, 1982; Volkman et al., 1983; Momper and Williams, 1984; Palmer, 1984; Williams et al., 1986).
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Palmer, S.E. (1993). Effect of Biodegradation and Water Washing on Crude Oil Composition. In: Engel, M.H., Macko, S.A. (eds) Organic Geochemistry. Topics in Geobiology, vol 11. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2890-6_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2890-6_23
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