Drilled core samples of the Araromi Formation in the eastern Dahomey basin penetrated by Araromi and Gbekebo exploratory wells were investigated to establish the source rocks potentials in the onshore area of the basin. The sediments are of Maastrichtian age deposited in the shallow marine environment with varying thicknesses. Rock-Eval data of forty seven (40) shales give Total Organic Carbon (TOC) range of 0.50-4.78 wt%, Hydrogen Index (HI) value range of 1 - 327mgHC/gTOC, Tmax values from 398 °C-437 °C and Source Potential (SP) values range from 0.01 - 14.56kgHC/ton of rock. The maceral compositions of the shales are liptinite (av. 26.0%), abundance vitrinite (av. 38.1%) and inertinite (av. 35.9 %) with vitrinite reflectance (VRo) ranging from 0.51 - 0.68 %Ro. Hydrocarbons and biomarkers results reveal a bimodal n-alkane envelope between (nC16 and nC18) and (nC27 and nC29) suggesting organic matter of mixed origin of algae and higher plant generally in the two well. The Significant contribution of marine algae in the deeper part of Gbekebo well was observed by the presence of C30 24-n-propyl cholestane (%C30 sterane range from 0.45 to as high as 5.23%). Integration of the Rock-Eval, organic petrology and biomarkers data reveal that the kerogen constituents of the source rocks in Araromi well are mainly Type II/III, III and IV with a high amount of inertinite constituents suggesting they have been reworked. Type II and II/III kerogen derived from marine algae are better preserved in the deeper part of Gbekebo well located more southerly in the basin than in the Araromi well. The source rocks are generally immature to marginally mature and hydrocarbon exploration effort should be targeted towards Gbekebo well area where we have more promising potential source rocks capable of generating more hydrocarbons essentially at a deeper depth.
Keywords: Geochemistry; Geology.