Geochemical Evaluation of the Source of Mystery Oil Spill Impacted at Imo-River, Niger Delta, Nigeria
⃰Ekpo, Idongesit E.; Osuji, Leo C.; Akpan, Friday Okon

Abstract
Sediment samples contaminated with mystery oil spills at the Imo-River (South East, Nigeria) were collected and analyzed for biomarkers as well as Vanadium and Nickel metal contents using GC-FID and AAS respectively. Similar analyses where also carried out for three crude oil samples from three oil wells labelled A, B, and C. These wells are located near the study area. Geochemical evaluation on the data taken from the analyses revealed that samples from the study area have; the range of pristane and phythane ratios of 2.50-3.77, carbon preference index (CPI) of 1.15, range of Vanadium to Nickel ratio (V/Ni) of 0.035 - 0.103 and a positive rank correlation value with Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPHs) of 0.30 with crude oil samples from well C. The information obtained from data gathered via analyses of samples from the study area proved positive correlation with crude oil source C.

Full Text: PDF