Mineralogy and source rock evaluation of the marine Oligo-Miocene sediments in some wells in the Nile Delta and North Sinai, Egypt

• Mineralogy and source rocks evaluation of the Oligo-Miocene sequence in five wells.
• Sediments of Nile Delta area rich in quartz and kaolinite with minor feldspars.
• Kaolinite, quartz, feldspar and calcite are main constituents in North Sinai area.
• The studied formations are thermally immature but have a good petroleum potential.

This paper aims to study the mineralogical composition and determine the petroleum potential of source rocks of the Oligocene-Miocene sequence in the Nile Delta and North Sinai districts. The studied interval in the five wells can be divided into five rock units arranged from the top to base; Qawasim, Sidi Salem, Kareem, Rudeis, and Qantara formations.The bulk rock mineralogy of the samples was investigated using X-Ray Diffraction technique (XRD). The results showed that the sediments of the Nile Delta area are characterized by the abundance of quartz and kaolinite with subordinate amounts of feldspars, calcite, gypsum, dolomite, and muscovite. On the other hand, the data of the bulk rock analysis at the North Sinai wells showed that kaolinite, quartz, feldspar and calcite are the main constituents associated with minor amounts of dolomite, gypsum, mica, zeolite, and ankerite.Based on the organic geochemical investigations (TOC and Rock-Eval pyrolysis analyses), all studied formations in both areas are thermally immature but in the Nile delta area, Qawasim, Sidi Salem and Qantara formations (El-Temsah-2 Well) are organically-rich and have a good petroleum potential (kerogen Type II–oil-prone), while Rudeis Formation is a poor petroleum potential source rock (kerogen Type III–gas-prone). In the North Sinai area, Qantara Formation has a poor petroleum potential (kerogen Type III–gas-prone) and Sidi Salem Formation (Bardawil-1 Well) is a good petroleum potential source rock (kerogen Type II–oil-prone).