Organic petrography, Rock–Eval pyrolysis and biomarker geochemistry of Maastrichtian Gombe Formation, Gongola Basin, Nigeria
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Date
2019-08-31
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology (Springer)
Abstract
The Maastrichtian Gombe Formation is located within one of the inland basins of Nigeria (Gongola Basin). Surface and
borehole samples of coal and interbedded shale of this formation were evaluated to determine the organic matter richness,
quality, maturity, source and depositional environment through organic geochemical techniques such as total organic carbon
(TOC) determination, Rock–Eval pyrolysis, chromatography and organic petrography. The genetic potential and average TOC
value of the coals, shales and coaly shales are 38.03 wt%, 3.14 wt% and 12.1 wt%, respectively, indicating moderate-to-good
source potential. HIs are less than 200 mgHC/gTOC for all the samples indicating Type III kerogen for most of the samples
(gas prone) and plant contributions from terrestrial sources. The source rocks were characterized by high molecular weight
n-alkanes which range from C10–
C41 in the coals and C9–
C41 in the shales. The n-alkanes distributions in the coals maximize
at C29
indicating terrestrial sourced organic matter, while the shales maximize at C16
and C29
indicating mixed sources. Pr/
Ph of the coals and shales ranges from (2.15–3.51) to (0.95–2.37), respectively, suggesting fluvio-deltaic deltaic and coastal
swamp depositional environments. The predominance of pristane over phytane suggests humic origin of the organic matter.
The sterane/hopane values (< 0.6) indicate incorporation of bacterial inputs commonly associated with terrigenous organic
matter in the coals. The CPI is greater than unity, Tmax is generally < 435 °C and vitrinite reflectance less than 0.55 Ro for
most of the samples and suggest the samples are of low maturity status to expel liquid hydrocarbon.
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Citation
Jimoh et al., 2019