Thermal extraction combined with pyrolysis to evaluate the unconventional play potential of an organic-rich shale interval Free

To successfully define a petroleum system, adequate source rock evaluation must take place (Magoon and Dow, 1994). The feasibility of source rock screening techniques used by petroleum geochemists to characterize conventional hydrocarbon accumulations as an analogue for unconventional shale play potential is of question. Pyrolysis is a common geochemical technique, it utilizes crushed rock samples to detect hydrocarbon signatures while heating overtime (McCarthy et al., 2011). Pyrolysis gives insights on the viability of an examined rock sample as a source rock, this conclusion is reached by assessing source rock type, thermal maturity and source rock quality. (Carvajal et al., 2015). Customized temperature program for unconventional reservoir rock evaluation has great potential to characterize retained-hydrocarbons (Albert et al, 2017). In this study, a programmed pyrolysis was used for the purpose of dissecting the conventional S1 peak in classic pyrolysis. Understanding the free hydrocarbons will give an insight into the amount and type of producible hydrocarbon within the examined unconventional shale samples from the Arabian Plate.