The Golden Beach, Emperor and Halibut Subgroups and Strzelecki Group are the major hydrocarbon so... more The Golden Beach, Emperor and Halibut Subgroups and Strzelecki Group are the major hydrocarbon source rocks in the Gippsland Basin. The principal objective of this work was to study the source rocks characteristics and to employ bulk geochemical parameters along with biomarker characteristics to identify and distinguish crude oils samples from three oil fields (Bignose, Gudgeon, and Halibut Fields) in the basin and correlate them with their potential source rocks in order to establish the genetic relationship between them. The study also focused on gas correlation to understand the occurrence of oil in the middle part of the basin and gas towards the basin margins. To investigate the possible oil-source rock correlation, the source rock characteristics and geochemistry of the four potential source rocks was studied in order to understand their hydrocarbon generative potentials, levels of maturation, and to select the best quality source rocks for correlation studies. Six crude oil s...
The Yola Sub-basin in the Northern Benue Trough is a frontier exploration basin in northeastern N... more The Yola Sub-basin in the Northern Benue Trough is a frontier exploration basin in northeastern Nigeria and to date, there is no subsurface data available. The oldest sedimentary units in the Yola Sub-basin is the Bima Formation, followed by Yolde, Dukul, Jessu, Sekuliye, Numanha and Lamja Formations, ranging in age from Berremian-Aptian-Albian to Santonian. The sediments of Jessu Formation were studied based on facies analysis (lithofacies and palynofacies) and geochemistry (biomarker distribution) with an objective of analysing and interpreting the source input/origin, paleodepositional conditions, paleodepositional environment and to reconstruct depositional and facis model for the studied successions. The study revealed that the sediments were deposited in a distal oxic-suboxic to relatively anoxic shelf (shallow marine) environment with both aquatic,-marine and terrestrially derived source inputs.
The depositional environment of the Gombe Formation was determined using grain size parameters in... more The depositional environment of the Gombe Formation was determined using grain size parameters in which sixteen sandstone samples and ninety nine pebbles were subjected to granulometric and pebbles morphometric analysis respectively. The granulometric analysis for the sixteen (16) samples of the Gombe Formation show an average graphic mean of 2.51ϕ (fine grained sandstone), mean standard deviation of 0.58ϕ (moderately well sorted sandstone), mean skewness value of 0.09ϕ (nearly symmetrical) and mean kurtosis value of 0.89ϕ (platykurtic). The Bivariate plot of standard deviation vs. skewness indicated dominance of fluvial environment. While the probability curves plots showed a dominance of three sand populations indicating influence of marine processes. Environmental discrimination formulae for Y1, Y2 and Y3 indicated dominance of Aeolian, shallow agitated marine environment and shallow marine environment respectively. The plots of Y2 vs.Y1 and Y3 vs. Y2 showed a dominance shallow marine environment. The morphometric analysis indicates both fluvial and beach environment with dominance of fluvial environment.
BIMA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (2536-6041)
Pebbles have been reported in the Sandstones units of the Kerri - Kerri Formation, but their appl... more Pebbles have been reported in the Sandstones units of the Kerri - Kerri Formation, but their application as a tool for interpreting the depositional environment is limited. In this context, 510 quartz pebbles and 16 sandstone samples were collected for pebble morphometric and grain size analyses in order to assess the depositional environment of the formation. For the pebble morphometric study, the long (L), intermediate (I), and short (C) axes of each pebble were measured. For each pebble, four geometrical parameters related to depositional environmental studies were computed, these are: Maximum Projection Sphericity, Oblate Prolate Index, Coefficient of Flatness, and Disk - Road - Index. The standard sieving method was used to sieve the sandstone samples. Mean grain size (Mz), sorting (I), skewness (SKI), and kurtosis (KG) were determined as statistical parameters of the grain size. The mean value of the computed pebble shape parameters for the pebbles of the Kerri – Kerri Formati...
Role of diagenetic alterations on porosity evolution in the cretaceous (Albian-Aptian) Bima Sandstone, a case study from the Northern Benue Trough, NE Nigeria
The Yola Sub-basin represents the lower portion of the bifurcated Upper Benue Trough, whose origi... more The Yola Sub-basin represents the lower portion of the bifurcated Upper Benue Trough, whose origin has been linked to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in the Mesozoic. The sub-basin fill consists predominantly of siliciclastic and carbonate deposits, the ages of which have remained controversial until now. This work employs field observations integrated with palynostratigraphy to refine the stratigraphy of these Upper Cretaceous deposits. We delineate five palynozones, spanning the upper Albian-Cenomanian, middle Cenomanian, upper Cenomanian, Turonian and Coniacian-Santonian. This palynology indicates that rocks previously thought to be Turonian are in fact Cenomanian. Further, the species Florentinia berran, Florentinia khaldunii, and Subtilisphaera senegalensis are all low latitude dinocysts that previously have only been reported from the Tethyan realm. Their presence here, together with the sedimentology, implies that there was an influx of Tethyan waters into the epeiric sea of the Benue Trough in the Cenomanian. The collective sedimentary and palynological evidence indicates that the Cenomanian transgression was well established in the Yola Subbasin, and more broadly in the Upper Benue Trough, connecting Tethys with the Gulf of Guinea.
Canterbury basin covers an approximate area of 40,000 km2, Canterbury basin is largely an offshor... more Canterbury basin covers an approximate area of 40,000 km2, Canterbury basin is largely an offshore basin extending slightly onshore southward across Canterbury plains and to the Southern Alps. This work aimed to correlates seismic sequences boundaries earlier interpreted with sedimentary sequence surfaces observed in cores recovered from the four sites drilled across the shelf by expedition 317. This work utilises well data obtained from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) expedition 317. The expedition which targeted stratigraphic seismic sequences earlier interpreted from the seismic data acquired on the eastern margin of the south island of New Zealand (offshore Canterbury). Three synthetic seismograms were created from well U1351B, U1353C and U1352B which both contain sets of sonic and density logs at variable length, this is to provide a direct means of comparison between the sequence boundaries interpreted on seismic and the depth on cores recovered from holes transecting...
Mineralogy, geochemistry and ore genesis of Kanawa uranium mineralization, Hawal Massif, eastern Nigeria terrane: Implications for uranium prospecting in Nigeria and Cameroon
Geochemical and palaeocurrent analysis was carried out on the sediments of the Kerri-Kerri Format... more Geochemical and palaeocurrent analysis was carried out on the sediments of the Kerri-Kerri Formation in the Gongola Sub-Basin of the Northern Benue Trough, Northeastern Nigeria in order to infer their provenance, tectonic setting and palaeoweathering conditions in the source area. The sediments of the Kerri-Kerri Formation were geochemically classified as litharenite and greywackes. Provenance studies suggested derivation from pre-existing sedimentary rocks with little influence from felsic igneous rocks, while the tectonic discrimination parameters suggest continental rift of passive margin setting. The weathering indices such as chemical index of alteration, plagioclase index of alteration and chemical index of weathering indicate low to moderate intensity of chemical weathering in the source area. Index of compositional variation and SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 indicate that the studied sediments are compositionally mature to immature. The palaeocurrent analysis of the Kerri-Kerri Formation suggested south western direction, which indicate that the sediment were source from the north eastern direction. From the provenance studies, source area weathering, and palaeocurrent direction of the Kerri-Kerri Formation, it can be inferred that most of the sediments are from pre-existing Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Gongola Sub-Basin and have not undergone long transportation.
Depositional variability of an ancient distributive fluvial system: The upper member of the lower cretaceous Bima Formation, Northern Benue Trough, Nigeria
Journal of African Earth Sciences
The upper Bima Formation in the Northern Benue Trough has been interpreted as a distributive fluv... more The upper Bima Formation in the Northern Benue Trough has been interpreted as a distributive fluvial system. Previous stratigraphic studies on the Bima Formation were focussed on localized, qualitative, sedimentary facies analysis without regional context or quantitative information about sand-body scale and architecture. This study quantitatively analysed sand-body thickness variations in the upper member of the Bima Formation across the Northern Benue Trough, documented the spatial variations in channel dimensions. Photo- realistic virtual outcrops were generated for four study sites using data acquired with an unmanned aerial vehicle and processed photogrammetrically. Analysis of the virtual outcrops illustrated spatial variation in the thickness of channel infill components, a downstream decrease in proportion of multi-storey channel belt facies association (from 98% to 5%), an increase in floodplain facies association (from 0% to 13%), an increase in the proportion of isolated channel fill facies association (from 2% to 80%) and a slight decrease in average grainsizes of channel fill sandstones. These observations are interpreted to represent evidence of a distributive fluvial system (DFS) or mega-fan with the proximal part of system at Tula, Ture and Tashan Alaji to the medial part at Hinna having an increase in frequency and thickness of the flood plain facies association and abundance of isolated channel fill facies associations. This study demonstrates the regional facies variability of the upper Bima Formation and has provided a basis for comparison with other ancient distributive fluvial system.
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