Abstract
Most of the liquid hydrocarbon accumulations of Italy are sourced from Upper Triassic formations. These organic-rich units are known from both subsurface data and numerous surface sections across Italy. This chapter integrates the regional stratigraphy, sedimentology and organic geochemistry of these successions in an evaluation of their importance as petroleum source rocks. In Lombardy (northern Italy) important light oil and condensate accumulations were sourced by both Norian basinal carbonates and “Rhaetic” clay-rich successions. In other regions of Italy Upper Triassic source rocks are, by contrast, wholly carbonate and were deposited in both comparatively deep-water basins and shallow-water intra-platform anoxic lagoons. In the latter lagoonal settings, oil-prone stromatolitic “algal coals” often accumulated. Since the thermodynamic history of these source rocks has been varied and strongly affects their role in prospective fairways, the chapter also briefly deals with maturity zonation and thermal evolution of the successions.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Stefani, M.M., Burchell, M.T. (1993). A Review of the Upper Triassic Source Rocks of Italy. In: Spencer, A.M. (eds) Generation, Accumulation and Production of Europe’s Hydrocarbons III. Special Publication of the European Association of Petroleum Geoscientists, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77859-9_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77859-9_14
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