1.1 State of the art and study aims ................................................................................................................ 11

1.2 Conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon production ................................................................... 12

1.3 Shale gas in Europe ................................................................................................................................ 16

2.1 Geological setting ................................................................................................................................... 22

2.2 Petroleum Habitat ................................................................................................................................... 24

4.1 Publication I: Oil/Gas-Source Rock Correlations in the Dniepr-Donets Basin (Ukraine): New insights into the Petroleum System ................................................................................................................................ 35

4.2 Publication II: Shale Gas / Shale Oil Potential of Upper Visean Black Shales in the Dniepr-Donets Basin (Ukraine) ................................................................................................................................................ 37

4.3 Publication III: SEM and FIB-SEM investigations on potential gas shales in the Dniepr-Donets Basin (Ukraine): Pore space evolution in organic matter during thermal maturation .............................................. 39

4.4 List of conference contributions related to this thesis ............................................................................. 41

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Published in:

Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015), 720 – 742

doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2015.07.002

4.1 Source rocks ............................................................................................................................................ 73

4.2 Oil and condensate samples .................................................................................................................... 87

4.3 Thermal history and timing of hydrocarbon generation ......................................................................... 93

5.1 Facies related biomarker and isotope ratios of source rock extracts ..................................................... 95

5.2 Oil families and oil-source correlation ................................................................................................... 97

5.3 Gas formation and alteration ................................................................................................................ 100

5.4 Hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation in different parts of the DDB ......................... 103

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