Microbial production and modification of gases in sedimentary basins: A geochemical case study from a Devonian shale gas play, Michigan basin

An expanded data set for gases produced from the Antrim Shale, a Devonian black shale in the Michigan basin, United States, has allowed for a detailed examination of the related chemical and isotopic compositional changes in the solid-gas-liquid systems that discriminate between microbial and thermogenic gas origin. In the Antrim Shale, economic microbial gas deposits are located near the basin margins where the shale has a relatively low thermal maturity and fresh water infiltrates the permeable fracture network. The most compelling evidence for microbial generation is the correlation between deuterium in methane and coproduced water. Along the basin margins, there is also a systematic enrichment in ¹³C of ethane and propane with decreasing concentrations that suggests microbial oxidation of these thermogenic gas components. Microbial oxidation accounts not only for the shift in δ¹³C values for ethane, but also, in part, for the geographic trend in gas composition as ethane and higher chain hydrocarbons are preferentially removed. This oxidation is likely an anaerobic process involving a syntrophic relationship between methanogens and sulfate-reducing bacteria. The results of this study are integrated into a predictive model for microbial gas exploration based on key geochemical indicators that are present in both gas and coproduced water. One unequivocal signature of microbial methanogenesis is the extremely positive carbon isotope values for both the dissolved inorganic carbon in the water and the coproduced CO₂ gas. In contrast, the δ¹³C value of methane is of limited use in these reservoirs as the values typically fall between the commonly accepted fields for the thermogenic and microbial gas. In addition, the confounding isotopic and compositional overprint of microbial oxidation, increasing the ¹³C_C1,C2,C3 values to typically thermogenic values, may obscure the distinction between methanogenic and thermogenic gas.