A RE-APPRAISAL OF THE APPLICATION OF ROCK-EVAL PYROLYSIS TO SOURCE ROCK STUDIES IN THE NIGER DELTA

A. Akinlua *1, T. R. Ajayi2, D. M. Jarvie3 and B. B. Adeleke4

1 Dept of Chemistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

2 Dept of Geology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

3 Humble Geochemical Services, Humble, Texas, USA.

4 Dept of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

*Author for correspondence, email: stevesanya@yahoo.com

We analysed 34 shale samples from the Tertiary Agbada Formation for TOC and Rock-Eval pyrolysis parameters in order to evaluate the effect of oil-based mud contamination on source-rock characterization. The samples were obtained from five wells in the offshore Niger Delta over a depth range of 5,460ft to 11,580ft. The results indicated that the raw (unextracted) samples were dominated by Type III kerogen. However, after extraction, both Types II/III and III kerogen were identified, consistent with previous studies. These results demonstrate that it is essential that shale samples should be extracted prior to TOC and Rock-Eval pyrolysis for accurate source-rock evaluation.

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