Dear James,

asphaltene in gas reservoirs is sort of unlikely. Would you please share the pictures?

The aggregates and films are now solid bitumen/pyrobitumen but may have originated as asphaltene aggregates when the original oil became unstable and the asphaltenes flocculated out from suspension. Sorry I can't share images directly with you but a few are available in some of the recent papers I have posted at ResearchGate. Thanks for your interest. BTW I am a graduate of Aberdeen University! - Jim

Dear James,

Here you go some references.

Microstructure characterization of asphaltenes from atmospheric residue before and after hydroprocessing LIU Yong-jun* College of Chemical Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China. JOURNAL OF FUEL CHEMISTRY AND TECHNOLOGY Volume 40, Issue 9, September 2012 Online English edition of the Chinese language journal Received: 14-Jan-2012; Revised: 21-Mar-2012 * Corresponding author. Tel:13559222170; E-mail: [email protected] Foundation item: Supported by the General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (51178195) and the Scientific Research Foundation for Advanced Talents, Huaqiao University(10BS315) Copyright © 2012, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier Limited. All rights reserved. RESEARCH PAPER Cite this article as: J Fuel Chem Technol, 2012, 40(9), 1086−1091

Fluid Phase Equilibria 291 (2010) 103–110 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Fluid Phase Equilibria journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fluid Characterization of asphaltenes precipitated with three light alkanes under different experimental conditions Peng Luoa, Xiaoqi Wang b, Yongan Gub

Microstructural study of asphaltene precipitated with methylene chloride and n-hexane. R. Pe´rez-Herna´ndeza,b,*, D. Mendoza-Anayaa , G. Mondrago´n-Galiciaa , M.E. Espinosaa,b, V. Rodrı´guez-Lugoc , M. Lozadad , J. Arenas-Alatorrea. Fuel 82 (2003) 977–982