Late Jurassic Madbi shale samples from Al-Qarn-01 well in the NW Say’un-
Masila Basin, Eastern Yemen are analyzed using conventional geochemical
data such as total organic carbon (TOC) content and Rock-Eval pyrolysis.
The results in this study are used to evaluate the gas resource potentiality
in the basin. The analyzed shales have high TOC content between 1.00%
and 3.12%, and their HIs range from 77 to 177mg HC/g TOC. These values
indicate that the investigated Madbi shale intervals contain Type III kerogen
and are considered to be very good gas-source rocks. Furthermore,
the relatively high Rock-Eval pyrolysis Tmax (447–459
C) and PI (0.09–0.44)
values indicate mainly peak to late mature oil window.