Oxidation Tmax: A new thermal maturity indicator for hydrocarbon source rocks

摘要

Highlights?New method for maturity determination is proposed.?Oxidation Tmax to complement traditional pyrolysis.?When pyrolysis Tmax is unreliable, oxidation Tmax to be used instead.?We propose a Rock-Eval 6 oxidation Tmax-based oil window: between 471 and 531°C.AbstractWe report a new thermal maturity indicator for hydrocarbon source rocks based on non-isothermal programmed temperature oxidation of organic matter.Open system pyrolysis (e.g., Rock-Eval) is a fast and inexpensive analysis method and thus it is widely used in geochemical screening of source rocks. Pyrolysis Tmax based maturity assessment is known to be adversely affected by the presence of oil-based mud and organic contaminants. Moreover, pyrolysis does not yield reliable Tmax for overmature or organic-lean samples. With these limitations in mind, we aimed at utilizing thermal oxidation behav