Research project
Statoil: Eagleford geochemistry
- Start date: 1 October 2017
- End date: 30 September 2019
- Funder: Statoil
- Primary investigator: 01004873
- External primary investigator:
Melanie Mertesdorf
This PhD project is being conducted by Melanie Mertesdorf (supervised by Tom Wagner at the Lyell Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh) and aims to understand the complex interplay between reactive iron input, sulphur availability, and the burial of organic carbon in the Mid-Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale in the southwestern USA. Part of the project is funded by Statoil, as they are increasingly interested to understand how depositional conditions, in particular the input of reactive iron phases, can impact the degree to which deposited organic matter is being sulphurised (and thus made more resistant against degradation, leading to richer hydrocarbon source rocks). Christian März supervises Melanie in her attempts to extract different forms of iron and sulphur from her samples using wet-chemical extraction methods. For more details, see https://www.hw.ac.uk/schools/energy-geoscience-infrastructure-society/research/iles/research-students.htm.