Volume 25 , Issue 2 , December 2023 , Pages 203-214
1 College of science, Geology department, Sulaimani University, Sulaimani City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
In this study, 12 outcropped rock samples from the Khabour, Kaista, Ora, and Harur
formations (Paleozoic) in the Khabour Valley were studied. The location is in
northern Iraq, in the Imbricated Thrust Zone, northeast of Duhok City. Rock-Eval
Pyrolysis was utilized to assess the thermal maturity, organic matter composition,
hydrocarbon potential, and organic richness of the Khabour, Kaista, Ora, and Harur
formations situated within the Khabour Valley. The content of Total Organic Carbon
ranges from 0.19 to 0.37 wt.%, with an average of 0.29 wt.% for the Khabour
formation, 2.07 to 3.09 wt.% for the Kaista formation, 0.58 wt.% for the Ora
formation, and 0.31 to 1.55 wt.% for the Harur formation. The source rock was rated
poor based on the TOC wt.% content. According to the results, the Khabour Valley
formations have low amounts of S2 (average 0.12 mg HC/g Rock, range 0.01-0.29
mg HC/g Rock) and Hydrogen Index (HI) (average 15.2 mg HC/g TOC, range 2-41
mg HC/g TOC). Drawing insights from the analysis of Rock-Eval data, the
formations exhibit kerogen types classified as type IV kerogen. According to the
cross plot of S2 versus TOC%, all the samples show a poor potentiality to create
hydrocarbons. The graph of HI vs Tmax demonstrates that Tmax ranges from
immature to postmature.