The source rock potential of the Karroo coals of the south western Rift Basin of Tanzania

Rift basin is an important petroleum basin type, in which about one third of oil and gas was discovered. To research on the main controlled elements of oil and gas accumulation, five typical rift basins in Europe are focused on the geological condition such as source rock, reservoir, seal, petroleum system, and accumulation with logging, hole, measured and analytical methods, and so on. The results showed the main regional seal controlled the petroleum distribution in the rift basin. Seals are defined by main regional seal, minor regional seas and local region according to thickness, distribution, lithostratigraphy. Viking Graben of North Sea has main regional seal about 3000m thick during late Jurassic and Cretaceous, about 81 percent of petroleum is in the Jurassic reservoir; Anglo-Dutch basin has main region thick seal during Triassic through Jurassic, and Permian reservoir accounted for 73 percent of basin reserves; Voring Basin has the main regional seal during Cretaceous through early Tertiary, the Jurassic reservoir has 85 percent of whole basin reserves; Northeast and Northwest Germany Basins have the evaporites as main regional seals during late Permian, and Permian reservoir accounted for more than 80 percent of basin reservoir, respectively. Rift Basin can develop reservoir like turbidite, source rock, seal in the basin dynamic opinion. Some main regional seals may develop overpressre because of quick subside and hydrocarbon generation at some conditions, it can strengthen seal capability. Oil and gas can migration to the main regional seal by normal faults caused by rifting, which can stop further migration so that they were accumulated under the main regional seal.

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Source rock evaluation and petroleum system modeling of the South Barents and South Kara basins

arktos ◽

10.1007/s41063-018-0039-x ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Peter Sobolev

Keyword(s):

Source Rock ◽

System Modeling ◽

Petroleum System ◽

The South ◽

Petroleum System Modeling ◽

Source Rock Evaluation

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Organic matter identification in source and reservoir carbonate in the Lower Cretaceous Mauddud Formation in Kuwait

GeoArabia ◽

10.2113/geoarabia100417 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 17-34

Author(s):

Fowzia H. Abdullah ◽

Bernard Carpentier ◽

Isabelle Kowalewski ◽

Frans van Buchem ◽

Alain-Yves Huc

Keyword(s):

Gas Chromatography ◽

Organic Matter ◽

Source Rock ◽

Lower Cretaceous ◽

Carbonate Rocks ◽

Total Organic Matter ◽

The South ◽

Core Samples ◽

The North ◽

Kerogen Type

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to identify the source rock, reservoirs and nonproductive zones in the Lower Cretaceous Mauddud Formation in Kuwait, using geochemical methods. This formation is one of the major Cretaceous oil reservoirs. It is composed mainly of calcarenitic limestone interbedded with marl and glauconitic sands. Its thickness ranges from almost zero in the south to about 100 m (328 ft) in the north. A total of 99 core samples were collected from six oil fields in Kuwait: Raudhatain, Sabiriyah and Bahra in the north, and from the Burgan, Ahmadi and Magwa in the south. Well logs from these fields (gamma ray GR, sonic, resistivity, density) were correlated and used in the study. The core samples were screened for the amount and nature of the organic matter by Rock-Eval 6 pyrolysis (RE6) using reservoir mode. A set of samples was selected to study the properties of the organic matter including the soluble and insoluble organic parts. The geochemical characterisation was performed using different methods. After organic solvent extraction of rock samples, the solvent soluble organic matter or bitumen was characterised in terms of saturates, aromatics and heavy compounds (resins and asphaltenes). Then the hydrocarbon distribution of saturates was studied using gas chromatography (GC/FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for tentative oil-source rock correlation. After mineral matrix destruction of previously extracted rocks, insoluble organic matter or kerogen was analysed for its elemental composition to identify kerogen type. The geology and the analytical results show similarities between the wells in the southern fields and the wells in the northern fields. Average Total Organic Matter (TOC) in the carbonate facies is 2.5 wt.% and the highest values (8.0 wt.%) are in the northern fields. The clastic intervals in the northern fields show higher total organic matter (1.3 wt.%) relative to the southern fields (0.6 wt.%). The total Production Index is higher in the carbonate (0.6) than the clastic section (0.3). This reflects the amount of extractable hydrocarbons, which are usually associated with the carbonate section in this formation, representing its reservoir section. Although the carbonate rocks are dominated by richer total organic matter, there are some intervals, with low total organic matter values (0.07 wt.%), representing its poor reservoir sections. The kerogen type varies between type II-III and III in the shales with a slightly better quality in the carbonate section. It is immature in almost all the studied fields. The composition of the rock extract has no relation with the rock type. Some sandstone show similar extract composition to the carbonate rocks in the reservoir intervals. The extracts from these intervals show different genetic nature than those in the shales. The maturity level in the reservoir extract is much higher than in the shale intervals. Thus, the oil accumulated in the reservoir might be largely related to migrated oil from a more mature source rock deposited in a clearly different environment than the associated shaly intervals. The best candidates being a more deeply buried Early Cretaceous Sulaiy Formation and Upper Jurassic Najmah Formation.

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