Petroleum Potential and Oil Correlation of the Middle Jurassic Sargelu Formation, Iraq

Thamer Al-Ameri¹, Ahmed Asker Najaf¹, John E. Zumberge², Stephen W. Brown^2
1 University of Baghdad, Jadiriyah, Iraq
² GeoMark Research, Ltd, Houston, TX

Upper Jurassic carbonate source rocks are well known on the Arabian Plate, especially from The Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and southern Iraq. Much less is known about Middle Jurassic sediments as possible source horizons. To this end, forty (40) potential source rock samples from the Middle Jurassic Sargelu Formation were collected from six different wells located in the greater Kirkuk region of northern Iraq. Sample depths range from 5,125 ft (1,562 m) to 10,866 ft (3,312 m). In addition, outcrop samples were obtained from the type locality at the Surdash Anticline. About 20% of the samples contain TOC values over 4% with Rock-Eval Hydrogen Indices between 100 and 600 at corresponding Tmax values within the oil generative window. Four samples from a 23 ft (7 m) section of core at about 7,400 ft (2,256 m) from one well average 16% TOC, 442 HI, and 439°C Tmax.

Terpane and sterane biomarker distributions as well as stable carbon isotope values were determined for oils in the region and potential Sargela source rock extracts in order to determine dependable oil to source rock correlations.