Compositional variability of crude oils and source kerogen in the Silurian carbonate-evaporite sequences of the eastern Michigan Basin, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Biomarker analyses were conducted on a suite of oil and rock samples from the Middle Silurian Guelph-Salina interval in southern Ontario. The oils occurring in the Guelph reef reservoirs have a distinct biomarker composition (e.g. high concentrations of acyclic isoprenoids with phytane greater than pristane, abundant gammacerane, prominent C₃₄ and C₃₅ homohopanes) which not only indicates a single oil family, but also suggests a carbonate source rock deposited in a hypersaline, strongly reducing environment.