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Does anyone have any interesting journal papers on the above topic? I have access to most major journal sites. Looking for papers on igneous traps/reservoirs and effect on maturation. Thanks!

Have non out the top of my head, but sounds like a very interesting topic! Are you doing a thesis/research on it or are you actively pursuing such a find?

I'm actually doing an MSc in Computer Science next year and am currently considering my research project with the possibility of creating a modelling program for igneous thermal heat evolution. From what I can tell there isn't a lot of software that currently allows for this and the only program I've found isn't entirely accurate. With the way petroleum reserves are declining, I'm just interested in seeing whether atypical systems such as this could provide a decent area of research.

For anyone interested have a read of:

Modeling an atypical petroleum system: A case study of hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation related to igneous intrusions in the Neuquen Basin, Argentina

The abstract is very interesting. What is that diamondoids technique they are talking about? And eventhough they state it's economic are they actually producing from this reservoir?

Don't have a ScienceDirect subscribtion though so can not get into the details.

"In Altiplanicie del Payu´ n area, both the Upper Jurassic Vaca Muerta and the Cretaceous Agrio source rocks are largely immature (0.4–0.6% VRE). However, significant thicknesses of source rock have been locally matured by thermal anomalies related to Tertiary intrusions of alkaline laccoliths. Commercial oil accumulations (20– 33API) and oil shows have been identified along the entire stratigraphic column, both in sandstone/carbonate and fractured overpressured igneous reservoirs."

"The good geochemical correlation between oils and source rock samples from the study area, having a different molecular signature than burial generated oils from deeper areas of the basin, is interpreted as the result of local maturation processes during emplacement and cooling of the igneous rocks."

Fascinating that they've identified commercial accumulations from local maturation such as this. I'm just wondering how viable this can be as the sole source of hydrocarbon generation.

Had a search around for the diamondoid technique.

"diamondoids, a class of petroleum compounds whose unique thermal stability leads to their progressive concentration during cracking, can be used to identify the occurrence and estimate the extent of oil destruction and the oil deadline in a particular basin. We are also able to identify oils consisting of mixtures of high- and low-maturity components, demonstrating that our method yields valuable information on the cracking and mixing processes affecting petroleum systems."

I suppose the insight into the mixing process helps them assume that local heating did occur. I'm wondering however whether the interaction between these high maturity and low maturity sources may just be down to a very high thermal gradient and extensively thick source rock.