Comments on empirical conversion of solid bitumen reflectance for thermal maturity evaluation

Recent studies raised doubts about the reliability of the correlation function between solid bitumen and vitrinite reflectance in diagenesis to catagenesis stages. Addressing this issue, data was surveyed from recent and classical studies following strict criteria. This compilation comprised an expressive sampling in the vitrinite reflectance range of 0.19 to 5.79% and was used to generate a new correlation function. This function was compared to previous ones and against data from recent studies. The results confirm that the reflectance of solid bitumen with homogeneous texture can be used as a thermal maturity index. Furthermore, the results also bring new insights on the identification of vitrinite-like solid bitumen when the petrographic criteria are ineffective.