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Justin E Birdwell

Research Engineer
Email: jbirdwell@usgs.gov
Office Phone: 303-236-1534
Fax: 303-236-3202
ORCID: 0000-0001-8263-1452
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Petroleum within unconventional source-rock reservoirs is hosted in organic matter and mineral pore space as well as in voids and microfractures. Recent work has shown that for source-rock reservoirs in the dry gas window, significant portions of methane (CH4), the main component of petroleum at elevated maturities, can be stored within fine organic matter porosity. However, within reservoirs at lower thermal maturities (e.g., peak oil or wet-gas conditions), the distribution and behavior of CH4 and the higher alkanes that comprise gas condensates across pore sizes is unclear, especially for fine pores with diameters <50 nm. Understanding CH4 within these settings provides insight for petroleum generation, movement,...
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Inorganic compositions of flowback and co-produced waters from hydrocarbon extraction have been studied directly and through laboratory experiments that seek to replicate subsurface water-rock interaction. Here a broad analysis is made of compositions from the U.S. Geological Survey Produced Waters Database (v2.3) and leachates (water, hydrochloric acid, artificial brine) for 12 energy-resource related shales from across the United States. The database illustrates common ranges for 26 elements in 4 produced water types and enhanced solubility with increasing ionic strength is observed for Al, Ba, Fe, Li, Mn, Rb, Sr, and possibly 11 other elements. Differences are observed between laboratory leachates and produced...
Geological models for petroleum generation suggest thermal conversion of oil-prone sedimentary organic matter in the presence of water promotes increased liquid saturate yield, whereas absence of water causes formation of an aromatic, cross-linked solid bitumen residue. To test the influence of exchangeable hydrogen from water, organic-rich (22 wt.% total organic carbon, TOC) mudrock samples from the Eocene lacustrine Green River Mahogany zone oil shale were pyrolyzed under hydrous and anhydrous conditions at temperatures between 300 and 370°C for 72 hrs. Petrographic approaches including optical microscopy, reflectance, Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy, supplemented...
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This data release contains geochemical and spectroscopic laboratory results associated with the journal article "Middle-Late Holocene paleolimnological changes in central Lake Tanganyika: Integrated evidence from the Kavala Island Ridge (Tanzania)". Data include bulk organic geochemistry, organic stable carbon isotope, and infrared spectroscopic analyses. Location for LT-TANG17-9B-1U-1: latitude: -5.952900, longitude: 29.639700. Coring site is located ~ 14 km offshore in ~ 420 m of water.
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The Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Group in southwest Texas represents a geologic record of the Cenomanian-Turonian period in the southern Western Interior Seaway (WIS) of North America prior to and during the Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE-2). Geochemical data generated and compiled here were collected on core samples taken from a wellbore near Del Rio, TX for the purpose of better characterizing the properties and variability within the Eagle Ford Group, an important and prolific petroleum source rock unit. The data have been integrated with sedimentological observations to characterize paleoenvironmental conditions at the southern WIS before and during OAE-2 (French et al., 2024).
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