Deep petroleum occurrences in the Lower Kura Depression, South Caspian Basin, Azerbaijan: An organic geochemical and basin modeling study

High sedimentation rates (as much as 2500 m/Ma) during Pliocene-Pleistocene, with a resultant undercompacted section as thick as 10,000 m, and lower than normal geothermal gradients are the main characteristics which have created all the means for generation and preservation of oil at deep layers in the Lower Kura Depression. Oils collected from eight different oil fields for analyses seem to have originated from a common source rock which probably is clastic, deposited in relatively subanoxic to suboxic transitional marine environment receiving low to moderate input of terrestrial organic matter. Oils from shallow (< 3000 m) and cold (< 70-80°C) reservoirs have been altered to various extent by bacterial activity. A computer-aided basin modeling study has been carried out to outline the spatial variation of the oil window and thus help in further identification of possible source rocks for the reservoired oil in the Lower Kura Depression. Results suggest that the potential hydrocarbon source horizons of the Miocene and Pliocene Red Bed Series of the so called Productive Succession are, even at depocenter areas, immature with respect to oil generation, and thus, are very unlikely to have been source rocks for the reservoired oils. However, the Oligocene-Lower Miocene Maykop rocks are marginally mature to mature depending on locality and the Eocene and older rocks are mature with respect to oil generation at all representative field locations. Oil generation commenced at the end of Pliocene and continues at present at depths between 6000 and 12,000 m. An unusually deep (> 10,000 m) oil window in the depocenter areas has been caused by the depressed isotherms due to extremely high sedimentation rates (up to 3000 m/Ma) for the last two million years. The main phase of oil generation is taking place at depths greater than what most of the wells in the study area have reached.