Petrogenic Events as The Dominant Source of Petroleum Pollution in Sediment Cores Of Industrial Environment in The Northwest of the Persian Gulf

Given the entrance of oil to the northwest of the Persian Gulf from the oilfields in this ecosystem, an investigation was carried out in 2017 to evaluate the historical records of hydrocarbons, source identification, and chemical fingerprinting. To these purposes, sediment core samples were collected from the northwest of the Persian Gulf. Then, compounds (n-alkanes, PAHs, hopane, and sterane) were extracted with a Soxhlet system and two step column chromatography and were analyzed by a GC-MS instrument in a laboratory. Also, oil samples from five oilfields in the study area were analyzed for the chemical fingerprinting goal. Overall, the results showed petrogenetic sources in recent years in the Persian Gulf. Common petrogenic hydrocarbon source was strongly suggested in all layers by the presence of unresolved compounds resolved (UCM), lower molecular weight/higher molecular weight (LMW/HMW) and carbon preference index (CPI) ratios of 1. The typical profile of petrogenic PAHs with various PAH ratios and multivariate analysis showed that PAHs were mainly derived from petrogenic sources. Simultaneous use of n-Alkanes and PAHs in source identification can be effective in precisely specifying hydrocarbon sources in complicated mixtures ecosystems. Furthermore, multivariate analysis and chemical fingerprinting of nalkanes, PAHs, hopanes, and sterane confirmed that the Hendijan crude oil can be a source of the sediment pollution in the study site.