Analysis of volatiles in fluid inclusions by direct online crushing mass spectrometry

Abstract

A new tool has been increasingly used in organic geochemistry; it is the application of fluid inclusions hosted in minerals, mainly quartz, from rock samples recovered in basin wells. In this paper we develop a new practical screening method to identify the presence of petroleum in fluid inclusions from siliciclastic and carbonatic minerals. The method is called detection of petroleum inclusions and allows analyzing the presence of volatiles in oil fluid inclusions extracted by online crushing from cuttings samples. This method offers the advantage of working with solid samples, as a micro-scaled sealed vessel (MSSV) system. Moreover it is simple, relatively fast and presents a satisfactory reproducibility. For the successful analysis it is essential to carefully control the analytical procedures, including the cleaning of samples and blank runs. Results were compared with previously reported methods. © 2011.