Species identification and concentration quantification of crude oil samples in petroleum exploration using the concentration-synchronous-matrix-fluorescence spectroscopy

Abstract In this paper, the author has developed and described a novel method for species identification and concentration quantification of crude oil sample in petroleum exploration using the concentration auxiliary parameter synchronous fluorescence technique. By introducing concentration value as a parameter, a new concentration-synchronous-matrix-fluorescence (CSMF) spectrum has been formed with a series of synchronous fluorescence spectra (SFS) at different levels of concentration. It is observed that the SFS varied with concentration level and the profiles of CSMF changed from species to species. Therefore, they can be used for species identification and concentration quantification. The CSMF of 31 crude oil samples from 20 different bore fields has been obtained to establish the database. With surface fitting, CSMF has been successfully used to discriminate the different crude oil samples from different bore fields precisely. It is also used for the quantitative analysis of concentration. Within the interesting concentration range of 10 −4  g/L to 10 g/L, the curve fitting has been used to achieve good analytical results with the relative deviation below 3%. To evaluate the practicality and efficiency of this method in field, double-blind experiments have been carried out and the relative deviation was found to be 3 times lower than by traditional fluorescence approaches. The obtained results suggest that the newly developed method may become a more specifically applicable means in petroleum exploration.