Search Results (5)

This study focuses on the PS8 well in the Penglai Gas Field (Sichuan Basin), a newly identified key exploration area, where high-yield gas testing has been achieved from the Ediacaran Fourth Member of the Dengying Formation. Comprehensive analyses of drilling cores, cuttings, thin sections, analytical data, well logging, and production testing data were conducted to investigate the main characteristics of the gas reservoir and the factors controlling the formation model of the reservoir. The results reveal that the reservoir rocks in the Fourth Member of the Dengying Formation are primarily algal-clotted dolomite, algal-laminated dolomite, and arenaceous dolomite. The reservoir porosity is dominated by secondary pores, such as algal-bonded framework pores, intergranular dissolved pores, and intercrystalline dissolved pores, which contribute to the overall low porosity and extremely low permeability. The gas reservoir is classified as a unified structural–lithological reservoir, with the upper sub-member of the Fourth Member serving as a completely gas-bearing unit. This unit is characterized as an ultra-deep, dry gas reservoir with medium sulfur and medium CO₂ contents. The development of this gas reservoir follows a “laterally generated and laterally stored, upper generation and lower storage” reservoir formation model. Regional unconformities and fracture systems developed during the Tongwan II Episode tectonic movement provide efficient pathways for hydrocarbon migration and accumulation. The high-quality source rocks in the lower Cambrian Qiongzhusi Formation serve as both the direct cap rock and lateral seal of the gas reservoir, creating an optimal source–reservoir spatial configuration. This study provides valuable insights into the giant gas reservoir of the Dengying Formation, which can aid in optimizing exploration activities in the Sichuan Basin. Full article

With the targets of petroleum exploration transferred to the deep and ancient strata, abundant oil and gas resources have been found in Lower Paleozoic and older strata in central and western China. Due to complex evolutionary processes including multiple episodes of hydrocarbon accumulation and ubiquitously accompanied by secondary alterations, significant uncertainties remain concerning the generation time and accumulation processes of these revealed petroleum sources. In this paper, relative pure Re and Os elements existing in the asphaltene fractions of Lower Cambrian solid bitumen collected from the Guangyuan area, western Sichuan Basin, SW China and Middle–Lower Ordovician heavy oils in the Aiding area of the Tahe oilfield in the Tarim Basin, NW China were successfully obtained by sample pretreatments, and Re–Os isotopic analysis was subsequently carried out for the dating of these. The Re–Os isotopic composition indicates a generation time of Guangyuan bitumen to between 572 Ma and 559 Ma, corresponding to the late Sinian period of the Neoproterozoic era. By the means of Re–Os isochron aging, initial ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os ratios, and carbon isotopic compositions, the Lower Cambrian bitumen is supposed to originate from source rocks of the Doushantuo Formation in the Sinian strata and subsequently migrated into the reservoirs of the Dengying Formation. This previously reserved petroleum was transformed into its present bitumen state by the destruction of reservoirs caused by tectonic uplift. The Re–Os dating results of Middle–Lower Ordovician heavy oil of Tarim Basin suggest that it was formed between 450 Ma to 436 Ma, corresponding to the Late Ordovician–Early Silurian system, and the generated petroleum likely migrate into the Middle–Lower Ordovician karst reservoirs to form early oil reservoirs. With tectonic uplift, these oil reservoirs were degraded and reformed to the heavy-oil reservoirs of today. Full article

In order to explore the rules between gravity anomalies and oil-gas distribution characteristics in central and western Sichuan Basin, we divided the tectonic unit in central and western Sichuan basin on the base of the analysis of gravity anomaly characteristics, and studied the correlation between the oil–gas distribution and the local gravity anomaly in the study area. The results show that the variation in the range of the Bouguer gravity field in the interior of the basin is relatively small, and the southern part shows a clear gravity high zone, with gradual gravity gradient zones all around the basin periphery. The abnormal value of the residual gravity field in the basin is an obvious high–value gravity belt in the north and west, and the interior is arranged alternately with local high gravity and low gravity in the north–east direction. The tectonic units of the central and western Sichuan Basin can be divided into five regions, based on the characteristics of the Bouguer gravity field, namely, the Central Sichuan uplift zone, the West Sichuan depressional zone, the East Sichuan high steep zone, the South Sichuan low steep zone, and the North Sichuan low slow zone. Combined with geological data and Bouguer gravity anomaly processing results, the distribution of oil and gas fields in the central and western Sichuan Basin is certain correlated with the local gravity high zone and the transition zone between the local gravity high zone and the local gravity low zone. They are the major areas of oil and gas. Full article

The microbial dolomite of the Ediacaran Dengying Fm., Sichuan Basin, SW China is endowed with abundant oil and gas resources. A complex diagenetic history greatly complicates the development of such microbial dolomite reservoirs, and has severely restrained hydrocarbon exploration. This study focused on key field profiles in Eastern Sichuan and aimed to decipher the origin and evolution of dolomites, using novel techniques, including elemental mapping, laser ablation U-Pb dating as well as carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope analyses. Additionally, we compared the diagenesis and reservoir development model for the Dengying microbial dolomites of the Central Sichuan to other areas, with the aim to provide practical guidance for oil and gas exploration across the entire Sichuan Basin. Our results have shown that the Ediacaran microbial dolomite in Eastern Sichuan experienced four stages of diagenetic modification–specifically: (1) syn-sedimentary dolomitization; (2) penecontemporaneous cementation of fibrous dolomite cement; (3) bladed dolomite and brown-dark very fine crystalline dolomite cementation during the Ordovician; and (4) fine crystalline dolomite and medium-coarse crystalline dolomite cementation during the Silurian-Devonian. Petrology and geochemistry data imply that each diagenetic phase of dolomitization was mainly sourced from marine-dominated fluids. The influence of tectonically related fluids was rarely noted. Significantly, U-Pb ages of these dolomites reveal that the history of dolomite infill to pores within the Eastern Sichuan Basin clearly post-dated that in the Central Sichuan region, resulting in high porosities (6%–11%) that favored hydrocarbon accumulation. This study suggests that the platform margin at the eastern edge of the Xuanhan-Kaijiang paleo-uplift is favorable as the next key exploration target for microbial dolomites in the Sichuan Basin. Full article

The hydrothermal fluid–carbonate rock reaction is frequently regarded to occur in deep-burial diagenesis, and the hydrothermal dissolution is usually distributed and takes place along the faults. Previous studies have suggested that there was hydrothermal fluid activity locally in the Permian Qixia Formation in Sichuan Basin, likely related to the Emeishan basalt eruption. However, the effect of hydrothermal fluids on the carbonate rocks of the Qixia Formation in the central uplift of Sichuan Basin is still unclear. Based on the characteristics and geochemical parameters of the diagenetic minerals, this study aims to reveal the diagenetic alteration related to the hydrothermal fluid–rock reaction in the Qixia Formation and reestablish the diagenetic evolution by using the timing of diagenetic mineral precipitation. The methods include petrographic observation; trace and rare earth element (REE) analysis; C, O and Sr isotope measurement; fluid inclusion temperature measurement and cathodoluminescence analysis. According to the petrographic characteristics, the dolostones are mainly of crystalline structure, namely fine-medium crystalline dolostone, meso-coarse crystalline dolostone, and coarse crystalline dolostone, with the cathodoluminescence color becoming brighter in that order. The limestones from the Qixia Formation are of the bioclastic limestone type, with no cathodoluminescence color. Compared with dolostones, limestones have higher Sr content, lower Mn content, and heavier oxygen isotopes. With the crystalline size of dolostone becoming coarser, the oxygen isotopes of dolostones tend to become lighter. The meso-coarse crystalline dolostone has the highest Mn content and negative carbon isotope. Both limestones and dolostones have an obvious positive Eu anomaly in the Qixia Formation. However, the REE patterns of fine-medium crystalline dolostones are very different from those of meso-coarse crystalline dolostones. It is credible that there were two periods of hydrothermal fluid charging, with different chemical compositions. The first period of hydrothermal fluids could laterally migrate along the sequence boundary. Fine-medium crystalline dolostones were almost completely distributed below the sequence boundary and were dolomitized during the shallow burial period. As products of the hydrothermal fluid–dolostone reaction, the saddle-shaped dolomites in the meso-coarse crystalline dolostones were the evidence of the second period of hydrothermal fluids. As a result, the dolomitization model was established according to the timing of diagenetic mineral precipitation, which can improve that the geological understanding of the effect of hydrothermal fluid activities on the carbonate rocks in the Qixia Formation. Full article