Discriminating Lacustrine and Marine Organic Matter Depositional Paleoenvironments of Brazilian Crude Oils Using Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography–Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry and Supervised Classification Chemometric Approaches

Abstract

The knowledge about the organic matter predominant depositional paleoenvironment in which crude oils gave rise is essential for the extensive understanding of their corresponding geochemical features. This task is laborious and conventionally performed through the extensive search for classical biomarkers contained in specific saturate, aromatic, resin, and asphaltene (SARA) fractions of the crude oils. In this work, the well-established analytical technique comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC × GC–QMS) was used to analyze the first two fractions (maltenes) of crude oils, performing the chromatographic data treatment with chemometrics to evaluate the lacustrine or marine predominant origin of the organic matter depositional paleoenvironment of the crude oils. In this approach, the extraction of the target information contained in the GC × GC–QMS data for discriminating between crude oils derived from lacustrine or marine organic matter environments was evaluat...