Occurrence of organic matter-rich deposits (Middle Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous) from Qalikuh locality, Zagros Basin, South–West of Iran: A possible oil shale resource

•The occurrence of oil shale in Qalikuh locality, Iran was investigated.•Organic matter richness and petroleum genetic potential of sediments were evaluated.•Kerogen type and thermal maturity were determined.•Oil yield, API gravity and kinematic viscosity of the produced oils were measured.•The Qalikuh oil shales were compared with some of the known world resources.

Organic-rich deposits of Qalikuh locality, Zagros Basin, Southwest of Iran are unconventional hydrocarbon resources considered as an oil shale, which is hosted within a carbonate succession with the age range of Middle Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous. Leco carbon, Rock–Eval VI and modified Fischer Assay analysis were performed on some outcrop samples of these resources to investigate the occurrence of oil shale. In the studied samples, mean total organic carbon (TOC) is 17.3 wt.% and the average of petroleum genetic potential (S1 + S2) is 98 kg HC/t rock. Furthermore, TOC has direct relationship with petroleum genetic potential. Hydrogen index (HI)–Tmax diagram indicates that the organic matter corresponds to Type II kerogen of probable marine origin with high quality of oil generation. According to Rock–Eval data, and bitumen reflectance (BRr), the samples are thermally early mature. Based on the studied samples, oil yield of the Qalikuh oil shales ranges from 6.1 to 7.9 wt.%. Mean oil–gas ratio is 2.7 and mean oil yield is 56.7 l/t rock. According to the observations, the production value of Qalikuh oil shale is more or less similar in the entire studied regions. Whereas the total production is below the expected values, the produced oil is considerably lighter (higher API) than that of most other known oil shales.