“…Detailed petrographic observations and XRD analyses indicate that the black shales are predominantly composed of clay minerals (essentially illite-smectite), calcite, Kfeldspar, quartz and minor celestite, apatite, and sulfides (Souza Neto et al, 2013;Nascimento Jr et al, 2016). The rocks are organic matter rich (TOC > 10 to 29 %; Souza et al, 2013;Castro et al, 2017), with both liquid chromatography data ((saturated + aromatic)/(polar) hydrocarbon ratios from 0.12 to 0.88; Lúcio et al, 2016a) and pyrolysis data indicating the shales to be hydrocarbon immature (T max < 435° C and PI < 0.1; Castro et al, 2017) but endowed with a large gas potential (S 2 < 200 mg/g; Castro et al, 2017). Pristane/Phytane ratios of < 1 (Silva et al, 2014;Castro et al, 2017) and V/(V + Ni) ratios between 0.6 and 0.8 (Lúcio et al, 2016b) of the shales propose deposition under reducing conditions.…”