The atomic H/C ratio of kerogen and its relation to organic geochemical parameters: implications for evaluating hydrocarbon generation of source rock

• Autores: Hsien-Tsung Lee, Li-Chung Sun
• Localización: Carbonates and Evaporites, ISSN 0891-2556, Vol. 28, Nº. 4, 2013, págs. 433-445
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this study, kerogen samples, including 19 from northwestern Taiwan, 15 from China, and 16 from Australia were analyzed, and integrated with 49 published data, to explore the significance of atomic H/C ratio as a parameter of source rock evaluation. Organic matters in the samples studied are of type II/III kerogen based on the relationship between HI and T max. The H/C ratio, as well as the HI, S1, and S2, generally decreases with the maturity increasing. The H/C ratio decreases slightly from 1.1 to 0.7 with the maturity increasing from Ro 0.55 to 0.85 %. Samples with H/C ratio in this range show significant change in certain other geochemical parameters (e.g., HI, S1, S2, S1 + S2, S1/(S1 + S2), S1/TOC, (S1 + S2)/TOC, T max). The atomic H/C value is in the range of 0.7-1.1, the value of the corresponding HI shows a stable increasing trend. This shows that organic matters in an oil window of Ro% = 0.55 and atomic H/C = 1.1 have reached a certain maturity and hydrocarbon potential. The QI, HI and H/C ratio shows a certain correlation, all increasing accordingly. It is inferred that hydrocarbon potential started from Ro 0.55 % and atomic H/C ratio 1.1 in this study.