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An integrated approach to evaluate the unconventional hydrocarbon generation potential of the Lower Goru Formation (Cretaceous) in Southern Lower Indus basin, Pakistan

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Abstract

Southern Lower Indus basin is an oil and gas prone basin, which is important for producing hydrocarbon in Pakistan. Due to limited Rock-Eval pyrolysis data availability in the prospective shale gas basin, the organic facies geochemical characteristics study is a challenging task for researchers. The primary objective of this study is an evaluation of the Lower Goru Formation organic facies hydrocarbon potential by geochemical data and its subsurface facies distribution study by well tops and seismic data. The study area is situated at the Southern Lower Indus basin of Pakistan that is considering the prospective shale gas basin with immense unconventional hydrocarbon potential. In the present study, Rock-Eval pyrolysis data analysis along with the integration of both seismic and well tops data were conducted for investigation of source rock generation potential of organic facies variability within the Lower Goru Formation. The geochemical approaches used in the current study show that the Lower Goru Formation encountered in, bears fair to excellent total organic carbon (TOC) content values of 0.50–3.60% in Well-A and 0.10–4.69% in Well-B. Additionally, the results of Rock-Eval pyrolysis data show that interbedded shales of the Lower Goru Formation contain different types of kerogen (III, II–III, and II) with variable generation potential of oil and gas.

Research highlights

  • The study area is located in the Southern Lower Indus basin of Pakistan which is considering the prospective shale-gas basin with immense unconventional hydrocarbon potential.

  • The integration of geophysical and geochemical data is a predictive tool for the source rocks evaluation.

  • In this article, we incorporate seismic and geochemical data to evaluate organic facies geochemical characteristics and subsurface geological structure.

  • Lower Goru facies have fair to very good potential to produce hydrocarbon.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to Directorate General Petroleum Concession (DGPC) Pakistan, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) Pakistan, and LMKR Pakistan for providing data for this research and like to pay compliments to Dr Khalid Amin Khan (Manager Exploration) from OGDCL for their kind guidance and help to get data. Muhsan Ehsan acknowledges Mr Mohsin Raza from University of East London, United Kingdom (UK) and Mr Ahsan Shafi from School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan for their moral support and help to complete this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geophysics and Geomatics, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430 074, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Muhsan Ehsan, Hanming Gu & Saiq Shakeel Abbasi

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Bahria University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Muhsan Ehsan

  3. Institute of Geology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Abid Ali & Muhammad Armaghan Faisal Miraj

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, FLSI, Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), Quetta, Pakistan

    Malik Muhammad Akhtar

  5. Department of Space Science, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Munawar Shah

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  1. Muhsan Ehsan
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  2. Hanming Gu
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Contributions

Muhsan Ehsan, Hanming Gu, and Abid Ali contribute to the conceptualization, methodology, and writing: review and editing section of the paper; Malik Muhammad Akhtar and Saiq Shakeel Abbasi contributed literature review, software, and formal analysis; Muhammad Armaghan Faisal Miraj and Munawar Shah contributed towards the reversion of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Muhsan Ehsan.

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Communicated by Pratul K Saraswati

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Ehsan, M., Gu, H., Ali, A. et al. An integrated approach to evaluate the unconventional hydrocarbon generation potential of the Lower Goru Formation (Cretaceous) in Southern Lower Indus basin, Pakistan. J Earth Syst Sci 130, 90 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01584-4

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