R. Paul Philp

Petroleum and Environmental Geochemistry

My research interests are centered on the study of organic material as it is deposited in the sedimentary environment and undergoes a number of changes resulting from diagenesis, microbial degradation, and thermal maturation at higher temperatures in older sediments. Particular attention is given to studying the fate of individual organic compounds that can be related to specific sources of organic material and used to provide information on the type of hydrocarbon products a source rock will produce, its maturity, whether an oil has been biodegraded, and relative migration distances of oils. In addition, biomarkers have been shown to be useful in basin modeling studies. Development of pyrolysis techniques for the characterization of the insoluble organic matter in a known source rock is another area of research.

Environmental forensics is another area of interest and as an Emeritus Professor I continue to teach short courses, online and in person, devoted to environmental  forensic techniques in contamination cases, specifically fingerprinting techniques involving stable isotopes and biomarkers.

Other research projects include:

• Assessment of biomarkers for use as paleoclimatic and depositional environmental indicators.
• Correlation of crude oils and suspected source rocks from basins around the world including China, Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand.
• Exploitation of geochemical techniques in environmental forensic studies.

PHILP, R.P. (2015). Application of Stable Isotopes and Radioisotopes in Environmental Forensics. In: Introduction to Environmental Forensics, (eds. B. L. Murphy and R. D. Morrison), pp.396-457. Academic Press, Oxford.

CORALIE BIACHE, AMADO ENRIQUE NAVARRO FRÓMETA, FRANCISZEK CZECHOWSKI, YUEMING LU, R.PAUL PHILP (2015). Thiosteranes in samples impacted by fecal materials and their potential use as marker of sewage input. Environmental Pollution, 196, 268-275.

LILA BECKLEY, THOMAS MCHUGH, AND PAUL PHILP (2016). Utility of Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis for Vapor Intrusion Investigations. Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation, National Ground Water Association, doi: 10.1111/gwmr.12185379.

PHILP, R. PAUL. (2017). Organic facies. In: Earth Science Series. Encyclopedia of Geochemistry,  Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series.  (ED. W.M. White) Springer International, DOI.Org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_183-1,pp25-48.

PHILP, R. PAUL, (2017). Fifty years of petroleum geochemistry: A valuable asset in oil spill environmental forensics. In: Oil Spill Environmental Forensic Case Studies. Eds. Z. Wang and S. Stout. Elsevier. Doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804434-6.00002-1

ANDREA A. MICELI ROMERO, THANH NGUYEN, and R.PAUL PHILP (2018) Subsurface and outcrop organic geochemistry of the Eagle Ford shale in West, Southwest, Central and East Texas. AAPG Bull. 102(7), 1379-2412.

GREGORY T. CONNOCK, THANH X. NGUYEN, and R. PAUL PHILP (2018). Elucidating environmental fluctuations concomitant with Woodford shale deposition: An integration of sequence stratigraphy and organic geochemistry. AAPG Bull., 102(6), 959-986.

WANG, T.  and PHILP, R. P. (2019). Woodford/Mississippian Tight Oil Play in North-Central Oklahoma, AAPG  Bull., 103(5), 871-903.

CATE PEARSON and R. PAUL PHILP  (2019). Geochemical Characterization of the Late Mississippian Goddard Formation, Springer Group, and Related Oils in the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma  AAPG Bulletin, 103 (11), 2545–2571.

VAN GROOS, PAUL G. KOSTER,  PAUL B. HATZINGER, SHERYL H. STREGER, SIMON VAINBERG, R. PAUL PHILP, AND TOMASZ KUDER (2018). Carbon isotope fractionation of 1,2-dibromoethane (EDB) by biological and abiotic processes. Environ. Sci. Technol. On line version: DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b05224

ANN S. OJEDA, JEFFREY WIDENER, CHRISTOPHER E. ASTON, and R. PAUL PHILP (2018). ESRD and ESRD-DM associated with lignite-containing aquifers in the U.S. Gulf Coast region of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 221 (6), 958-966. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2018.05.002.

A. S. OJEDA, S. D. FORD, R.M. GALLUCCI, M. A. IHNAT, AND R. P. PHILP (2018). Geochemical Characterization and Renal Cell Toxicity of Water-Soluble Extracts from Gulf Coast Lignite. Environ Geochem Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-018-0196-7

CARL SYMCOX AND R. PAUL PHILP (2019). Heterogeneity of STACK/SCOOP Production in the Anadarko Basin, Oklahoma—Geochemistry of Produced Oils. Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC) DOI 10.15530/urtec-2019-513. Unconventional Resources Technology, Denver, Colorado, USA, 22-24 July 2019.

PHILP, R. P. and DEGARMO, C. D. (2019). Woodford Shale from the McAlister Cemetery Quarry, Criner Hills Uplift, Ardmore Basin, Oklahoma. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 112, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2019.104078.

GORENEKLI, Y. S.  and PHILP R. P. (2019).  Geochemical Characterization Of The Lower Pennsylvanian Morrow Shale In The Anadarko Basin Of Oklahoma. Shale Shaker, 71(2), 66-93.

SYMCOX, C. W. and R. P. PHILP, 2019, Some Observations on the Geochemical Character of STACK and SCOOP Oils: Shale Shaker Digest,  70(6), 248–260.

ALSHAREF  ALBAGHDADY and RICHARD PAUL PHILP (2020). Organic Geochemical Characterization of Crude Oils and source rocks from Concession 6, Central Sirt Basin, Libya. Arabian Journal of Geosciences 13:911. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-05746-4.

PHILP. R.P. (2020). Composition and Properties of Petroleum. In: Wilkes, H. (eds) Hydrocarbons, Oils, and Lipids: Diversity, Origin, Chemistry, and Fate. Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Springer, Cham. DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54529-5_13-1

GARCIA,  M. R., PHILP, R. P. and MARTINS, C.C. (2020).Biogenic and thermogenic terpenoid hydrocarbons 1 as potential geochemical tools to the study of sedimentary organic matter in subtropical mangrove swamps. Applied Geochemistry, 122, 104726.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2020.104726

PAUL PHILP, MATTHEW WOOD, YAGMUR SUMER GORENEKLI, THANH NGUYEN, CARL SYMCOX, HUAIDA WANG, DONGWON KIM (2021). The Presence of 18a(H)-Oleanane in Pennsylvanian and Mississippian Rocks in the Anadarko Basin, Oklahoma. Organic Geochemistry, 152, 104181.

PAUL PHILP, CARL SYMCOX, MATTHEW WOOD, THANH NGUYEN, HUAIDA WANG, DONGWON KIM (2021). Possible Explanations for the Predominance of Tricyclic Terpanes over Pentacyclic Terpanes in Certain Oils and Rock Extracts. Organic Geochemistry, 155, 104220; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2021.104220.

R. PAUL PHILP and CARL SYMCOX (2021). A Preliminary Geochemical Investigation into Shales and Oil-Stained Sands from the Simpson Group in the Anadarko Basin. Shale Shaker, 72, 14-23.