Abstract
Saturated biomarker source and maturity parameters obtained from Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were analyzed using multivariate statistical methods to maximize diagnostic information on the hopanes and sterane spectrum. This statistical method provided the identification of structural relationships (similarities and differences) between various fingerprint descriptors for the crude oil samples. The results emphasized the separation of the oil samples in regards to their locations into two genetic families. This separation pattern is more evident when principal component analysis was applied to biomarker data compared with the standard biomarker cross-plots. Such compositional differences are commonly attributed to unique source rock paleodepositional environments. The plotted source and maturity diagnostic parameter in a dendrogram separated the oils into two families both having terrestrial input. The group that have higher terrestrial input contain more oleananes, and have the highest Pr/Ph ratio. They are generated from source rocks with a high abundance of terrestrial organic matter. The second groups of oils have mixes of terrestrial and marine organic matter with lesser amount of oleananes.
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Osuji, L.C., Oforka, N.C. & Onojake, M.C. Multivariate analysis of source and maturity biomarker indices of crude oils from SW Niger Delta. Geosci J 18, 365–371 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-014-0001-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-014-0001-2