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An examination of the petroporphyrins found in oil shale from the Julia Creek Deposit of the toolebuc formation

Conference · · Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Pet. Chem., Prepr.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6288744

The nature of the petroporphyrins found in a variety of crude oils, oil shales, ancient and recent sediments have been a subject of continual interest since these compounds were first isolated from such materials by Treibs et al. some fifty years ago. It is now generally agreed that the petroporphyrins represent the degradation products of chlorophyll and that they consist predominantly of homologous series of deoxophylloerythroetioporphyrin (DPEP) and etio porphyrins. However, as yet unidentified porphyrin compounds which do not belong to either of these two classes have been observed in some samples and the proposition that all petroporphyrins are derived from chlorophyll has also been questioned. The oil shale of the Toolebuc formation in Queensland, Australia has been shown to contain relatively high concentrations of vanadium and nickel porphyrin compounds. Saxby et al. have suggested that these porphyrins are largely of the DPEP and etio-type and also observed significant variations in their concentrations in samples taken from various sites in the deposit. In this paper we describe two further aspects of the porphyrin compounds in this deposit. First, the variations in the concentrations of the chloroform extractable metal porphyrin compounds through well-characterized drill cores was determined, and second, the nature of the vanadium porphyrins was examined using absorption spectrophotometry and insertion probe, fast atom bombardment (FAB) and field desorption (FD) mass spectrometry techniques.

Research Organization:
CSIRO Division of Energy Chemistry, Lucas Heights Research Laboratories, Sutherland, NSW
OSTI ID:
6288744
Report Number(s):
CONF-830303-
Journal Information:
Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Pet. Chem., Prepr.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Pet. Chem., Prepr.; (United States) Vol. 28:1; ISSN ACPCA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English