oa Assessing Source Rock Maturity within the Prince Albert and the Whitehill Formations

Petroleum plays a pivotal role in society, so much so that petroleum accounts for a huge percentage of the world’s energy consumption. The population boom has made the demand for this commodity increase exponentially. New ventures into the petroleum sector are increasing to keep up with the demand of hydrocarbons. The Karoo in South Africa is an area in which petroleum studies are being reviewed with particular interest, especially within the Tanqua and Laingsburg subbasins of the Karoo. Research in this area is becoming more readily available as the oil industry seeks to gain more knowledge for exploration purposes. Understanding this region can help aid in offshore development that is not as readily accessible as the onshore sediments. Using new modern technologies as well as old geochemical techniques we can expand our knowledge on hydrocarbons within this onshore environment. The particularly formations of interest comprises of the Prince Albert and the Whitehill of the Lower Ecca group, located within the southern tip of the Laingsburg subbasin. The Prince Albert consists of siliceous shale, whereas the Whitehill is made up of very fine grained black shale that has been weathered white. These sedimentary rocks are important for hydrocarbon exploration research due to the fact that it is found onshore and has not been altered by faulting, fracturing and metamorphism. The present research work deals with interpreting and distinguishing the different type of rock lithologies, to identify the source rock zones and organic matter within the Whitehill and Prince Albert formations. This will be achieved by utilizing different geochemical analysis (such as XRD, XRF, rock eval pyrolysis, vitrinite reflectance, TOC and SEM) to assess the maturity and the quality of the source rocks.