Comparison of bulk kinetic parameters for asphaltenes from long-time stored and related fresher-produced crude oils

Two investigated long-time stored oils, which were produced in the 1960s, show strong compositional changes compared to fresher oil samples from the same well and production zones. Asphaltenes isolated from stored and fresher-produced oil pairs show highly similar results from open-system pyrolysis. However, asphaltenes from long-time stored oils show higher reactivity compared to those from fresher oils. The study shows that differences exist in kinetic models based on asphaltenes from fresh-produced oil and those based on oil that has undergone long-term storage, and that these differences may impact geological predictions using such models. Factors controlling the chemical differences between stored and fresher asphaltenes are unclear and hard to determine, because of a broad range of factors controlling compositional differences between these oil pairs. The difference in chemical kinetics might be related to chemical storage effects, but different well-site sampling techniques between decades, or even incomplete homogenization of the long-time stored oils in barrels before sampling may also have an impact.