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Source rock characteristics of organic-rich shales in the Late Jurassic Lam Member and their contribution to oil and gas generation potentials in Al-Jawf exploration region, NW Yemen

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Abstract

The shale intervals in the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) Lam Member were collected from four exploration wells in the Al-Jawf region, northwestern Yemen, for combination of organic geochemical and microscopic investigations. This study mainly attempts to provide information on source rock characterization, including quantity, quality, and thermal maturity, and evaluate their suitability as petroleum generation potential, thereby contributing for future petroleum exploration along the Al-Jawf region. The geochemical findings reveal that the shale intervals in the Lam Member have favorable hydrocarbon source rocks with total organic carbon (TOC) contents between 0.50 and 6.43 wt. %, and they have laterally changed from one well site to another. The shale samples also have hydrogen index (HI) values between 50 and 433 mg HC/g TOC, resulting in two dominant organic facies of types II–III and III kerogen, with little type II, and thereby contributing to generate both oil and gas. The high contributions of mixed types of II–III and III kerogen were also demonstrated from the presence of the marine sapropelic organic matter and vitrinite derived from terrigenous plant input as observed by visual kerogen examination. According to both maturity indicators of geochemical Tmax (417–451 °C) and vitrinite reflectance (VRo) values (0.36–0.86%), the Lam shale intervals from the examined wells in the Al-Jawf region are currently in immature to peak mature of oil window. These thermal maturity levels of the organic matter intervals in the analyzed Lam shales are affected by the burial temperature distributions with the depth. In this regard, the source rock characteristics of the analyzed Lam shale samples in the studied wells are further distributed on the maps, and show that the Lam shales in the southwestern part of the Al-Jawf exploration region in the area around Kamaran-01 well are considered to be effective source rocks for generating amounts of oil.

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Fig. 1
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source rocks, with higher generation potential in several Lam shale samples

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source rock generation potential

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source rocks in terms of both oil and gas generation potential, with significant potential for gas generation from the analyzed Lam shale in the Al-Jawf sub-basin

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Acknowledgements

The dataset used in this study was supplied by the Ministry of Oil and Minerals and Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority (PEPA) of Yemen, which is gratefully acknowledged. The authors extend their sincere appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this work through Research Group No. RG-1438-059. Special thanks go to Mr. Madyan Yahya for drawing the geological maps and sections. The constructive comments by anonymous reviewers have improved the original manuscript and are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geology Department, Faculty of Applied Science, Taiz University, 6803, Taiz, Yemen

    Mohammed Hail Hakimi

  2. Geosciences Department, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

    Nor Syazwani Zainal Abidin

  3. Geology and Geophysics Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Ali Kahal, Hussain Al Faifi & Saleh Qaysi

  4. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Bahria University, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Adeeb Ahmed

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  1. Mohammed Hail Hakimi
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Correspondence to Mohammed Hail Hakimi.

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Hakimi, M.H., Abidin, N.S.Z., Kahal, A. et al. Source rock characteristics of organic-rich shales in the Late Jurassic Lam Member and their contribution to oil and gas generation potentials in Al-Jawf exploration region, NW Yemen. Arab J Geosci 14, 2532 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-08658-z

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