Petroleum source rocks of western and central Africa [Elektronische Ressource] : the examples of the marine Tarfaya Basin, Morocco and the continental Congo Basin, Democratic Republic of Congo / Victoria Frederike Sachse

Sachse

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• Publié par: rheinisch-westfalischen_technischen_hochschule_-rwth-_aachen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 88
• Langue: Deutsch
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 29 Mo

Extrait

Petroleum source rocks of western and central Africa: the examples
of the marine Tarfaya Basin, Morocco and the continental Congo
Basin, Democratic Republic of Congo

Von der Fakultät für Georessourcen und Materialtechnik der
Rheinisch -Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule Aachen

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer

Doktorin der Naturwissenschaften

genehmigte Dissertation


vorgelegt von

Dipl.-Geol. Victoria Frederike Sachse

aus Aachen


Berichter: Univ.-Prof. Dr.rer. nat. Ralf Littke
Univ.-Prof. (em) Dr.rer. nat. Detlef Leythaeuser



Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 28.07.2011

Diese Dissertation ist auf den Internetseiten der Hochschulbibliothek online verfügbar

Victoria Sachse
Petroleum source rocks of western and central Africa: the examples
of the marine Tarfaya Basin, Morocco and the continental Congo
Basin, Democratic Republic of Congo


ISBN: 978-3-86130-385-5
1. Auflage 2011

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Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Da-
ten sind im Internet über http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar.

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Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen.


Vertrieb:

1. Auflage 2011
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Declaration of Authorship









Declaration of Authorship

I certify that the thesis presented here is original and the result of my own investigations,
except as acknowledged, and has not been submitted, either in part or whole, for a degree at
this or any other University.













Aachen,

Victoria F. Sachse





















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Acknowledgements


Acknowledgements

First of all I am deeply grateful to my advisor Prof. Dr. Ralf Littke for his supervision and his
constant interest, support and guidance throughout my studies. Further, I like to thank Prof.
Dr. Detlev Leythaeuser for fruitful and extensive discussions and, especially, his assistance
and support concerning the Jurassic part of this study. I am grateful to Prof. Littke and Prof.
Leythaeuser for supervision of my Ph.D. thesis. I also wish to thank Prof. Dr. Jan
Schwarzbauer for his patient introduction into biomarker evaluation, and Dr. Sabine Heim for
many fruitful discussions.
I thank Prof. Dr. Ulrich Glasmacher, University of Heidelberg, for discussing thermal maturity
and unpublished fission track data. I am grateful to Damien Delvaux for sample supply from
the Central Congo Basin, discussions on the Congo study as well as assistance during
writing this chapter. Many thanks also to Merouane Rachidi and Prof. Dr. Fritz Neuweiler who
provided samples from northern Morocco. Further, I like to thank my colleagues Dr. Björn
Heise, Axel Wenke, and Manuel Sehrt for the nice time in Morocco 2008 and 2009, collecting
samples required for this study. Many thanks to PD Dr. Rainer Zühlke for planning and
organizing the sampling campaigns. Dr. Lahcen Boutib and Haddou Jabour from ONHYM
are gratefully acknowledged for their support during various visits in Rabat, Morocco, and
their assistance during the field campaign. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kuhnt, Dr. Ann Holbourn, and
Mohamed Aquit are gratefully acknowledged for their assistance of sampling Tarfaya
Sondage No.2.
For sample preparation and measurements I thank Sabrina Grünelt, Rolf Mildenberger,
Donka Macherey, Dr. Sven Sindern, Anke Jurisch, Kerstin Windeck, Susan Giffin, Ferdinand
Perssen, Yvonne Esser, and Anette Schneiderwind for their support.
I gratefully acknowledge the financial support by RWE-Dea AG and logistic support by
ONHYM. In particular, Oliver Kluth, Torge Schümann, and Jürgen Schober are
acknowledged for cross-reading of various parts of the manuscripts, and greatly helped to
strengthen and focus this study.
Many thanks are due to the excellent reviewers of the manuscripts: J.A. Bojesen-Koefoed, J.
Curiale, I. Davison, S.G. Henry, C. Tiratsoo, C. Walters, and several unknown reviewers.
I like to thank all my colleagues at the Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of Petroleum
and Coal, especially Benjamin, Anna, Frederik and Joyce for their patience when I was
unbalanced and enervated. Administrative support was received by Dorothee Degen and
Olga Schefler. I will always keep in mind the fruitful and pleasant atmosphere at the institute.
I want to thank my mum, Christoph, my grandma, and my “solid rock” Frank for encouraging
and tolerating me during writing this thesis.

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Finally, I like to thank the person who had the greatest influence on my education and on my
character, my dad. This thesis is dedicated to his memory.





































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Abstract


Abstract

This study comprises newly collected organic geochemical and petrological data on quality,
quantity, maturity as well as the depositional environment of various organic matter-rich
stratigraphic units in Morocco and the Central Congo Basin, DRC. In order to gain
information about type, and maturity of the organic matter (OM) geochemical techniques
were carried out on a total of 518 samples. C measurements, elemental analysis (carbon, org
sulphur, Fe, V, and Ni), vitrinite reflectance measurements, Rock-Eval pyrolysis, bulk kinetic
measurements, and GC/GC-MS were used to determine the maturity, quality and quantity of
the organic matter as well as to define the environment of source rock deposition. In addition,
1D modeling was carried out for one locality in northern Morocco (Aït Moussa) and for two
wells from the Central Congo Basin to obtain information on burial thermal and maturation
history. For the Aït Moussa model, specific bulk kinetic parameters were used to evaluate the
petroleum generation and timing.
Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments were investigated from the Tarfaya Basin,
southern part of Morocco/Western Sahara. Based on C measurements, samples with C org org
>0.4 %, especially Late Cretaceous and Eocene sediments, but not the Paleozoic units, were
considered for further geochemical and petrological analysis. Rock-Eval pyrolysis and
biomarker assignment indicate a mixture of kerogen type I/II with an excellent petroleum
generation potential of the Late Cretaceous and Eocene samples. More detailed analysis of
Coniacian, and Late Turonian samples from a newly drilled well (Tarfaya Sondage No.2) in
the Tarfaya Basin support the latter data. In contrast to the terrestrial influenced Santonian
outcrop samples Coniacian and Santonian samples of Tarfaya Sondage No.2 revealed
marine organic matter with a higher C content and a better quality of the organic matter, org
represented by alginite. Vitrinite reflectance measurements and various sterane and hopane
ratios (e.g. Ts/(Ts+Tm), as well as T values of Rock-Eval pyrolysis indicate an early max
mature to immature range of the organic matter. Sulphur contents and C /TS support the org
theory of mainly oxygen-depleted waters, but it is still ambiguous whether the bottom waters
were permanently anoxic or rather oxygen-deficient. Although these investigated source
rocks of Late Cretaceous and Eocene age are excellent with respect to organic richness,
kerogen quality and thickness, their