Red Sea Hydrocarbon
System Focus On The Source Rock and
Hydrocarbon
Generation
Tammam Mohamed Tammam
Potential source rocks were identified in the Egyptian Red Sea wells. These
are Middle-Late Miocene and/or Early Miocene. The former contains up to 7.0%
total organic carbon (TOC) and kerogen
type
is I and II. TOC values in the later
up to 1.0% and
kerogen
type
is II-III.
Source rocks maturity, determined mainly by vitrinite reflectance and Tmax, reveals that the studied sequences have a maturity range from marginally mature to mature and over mature only were they are affected by abrupt change associated with thermal anomaly.
Vitrinite reflectance plots, revealed two thermal events affecting the maturity. The first event is Pre-intra-Rudeis unconformity, with a gradient of 0.26 to 0.66 % Ro per 1,000 feet of burial. The later event occured at the Post intra-Rudeis unconformity with a gradient of 0.02 to 0.06 % Ro increase per 1,000 feet.
As a result of tectonism and the variation in the temperature gradients, the
present top oil window varies in depth from 1540 to 3505 m and the hydrocarbon
generation
modelling suggests that, the
generation
may have occured during Late
Miocene time and is still going on.
Rock-Eval analysis indicates that there is ample evidence of hydrocarbon
migration in the region.
AAPG Search and Discover Article #91019©1996 AAPG Convention and Exhibition 19-22 May 1996, San Diego, California