Application of Discriminant Analysis for Studying the Source Rock Potential of Probable Formations in the Lorestan Basin, Iran

Abstract

Understanding the performance and role of each formation in a petroleum play is crucial for the efficient and precise exploration and exploitation of trapped hydrocarbons in a sedimentary basin. The Lorestan basin is one of the most important hydrocarbon basins of Iran, and it includes various oil-prone potential source rocks and reservoir rocks. Previous geochemical studies of the basin were not accurate and there remain various uncertainties about the potential of the probable source rocks of the basin. In the present research, the geochemical characteristics of four probable source rocks of the Lorestan basin are studied using Rock-Eval pyrolysis and discriminant analysis. In achieving this goal, several discriminant functions are defined to evaluate the discriminant factor for the division of samples into two groups. The function with the highest discriminant factor was selected for the classification of probable source rocks into two groups: weak and strong. Among the studied formations, Garau and Pabdeh had the richest and poorest source rocks of the Lorestan basin, respectively. The comparison of the obtained results with the previous literature shows that the proposed model is more reliable for the recognition of the richness of source rock in the area.