Fluid Inclusions Usage for Assessing Oil Migration in Duhok, North Iraq

Salih Muhammad Awadh, Thamer K. Al-Ameri, Sahar Y. Jassim, Mehmet S. Bayraktutan

Botas International Limited.
Earth Science Department, College of Science, University of Baghdad.

DOI: 10.4236/pos.2010.11005                

Abstract

Studies of primary and secondary fluid inclusions were done on epigenetic barite samples collected from carbonates of Lower part of Sarmord Formation (Lower Cretaceous) and Aqra-Bekhme Formations (Upper Cretaceous) in Duhok, north Iraq. Lead isotopes composition in galena which associated barite that contained fluid inclusions helped the identification two events of fluid inclusions. These fluid inclusions contain brine water and hydrocarbons. Primary and secondary fluid inclusions in barite as well as lead isotopes composition in galena helped the interpretation of oil migration history and the pathway of oil migration. Ages of galena are syngronous with the events of oil and water trapping as inclusions within barite, and hence the interpreted galena generation could be assigned to the fluid inclusions age. Accordingly, the events are two phases of early and late generations that correspond to 120 m.y. and 30 m.y. respectively. Correlation with 10 PetroMod basin modeling of the generated oil from the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous Formations fitted with the event of early galena generation, whereas the oil migration started before 70 m.y. and continued to 30 m.y. ago. Palynomorphs study confirmed that the oil in source rocks is similar with the migrated oil.

Keywords

Fluid Inclusions, Oil Migration, Oil History, Paragenetic Sequence, Iraq

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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