Biodegradation and oil mixing in Silurian sandstone reservoirs of the Tarim Basin, one of the largest composite basins in China, were investigated by analyzing the molecular characteristics and stable carbon isotopic signatures of low-molecular-weight (LMW) saturated hydrocarbons and high-molecular-weight (HMW) asphaltenes. Detection of 25-norhopanes and 17-nortricyclic terpanes in most Silurian tar sands from the Tabei Uplift in the Tarim Basin suggests a much greater degree of biodegradation here than in the Tazhong Uplift. This explains the relatively more abundant tricyclic terpanes, gammacerane, pregnane and diasteranes in tar sands from the Tabei Uplift than in those from the Tazhong Uplift. Hence, care must be taken when assigning oil source correlations using biomarkers in tar sands because of the biodegradation and mixing of oils derived from multiple sources in such an old composite basin. Asphaltenes in the tar sands seem to be part of the oil charge before biodegradation, depending on the relative anti-biodegradation characteristics of asphaltenes, the similarity in carbon isotopic signatures for asphaltenes and their pyrolysates, and the consistent product distribution for flash pyrolysis and for regular steranes in asphaltene pyrolysates, regardless of whether the tar sands were charged with fresh oil. According to the relative distributions of regular steranes and the relatively abundant 1,2,3,4-tetramethylbenzene significantly enriched in 13C, the oil sources for asphaltenes in the tar sands might be related to lower Paleozoic marine source rocks formed in euxinic conditions. Nevertheless, the relatively low abundance of gammacerane and C28 regular steranes observed in asphaltene pyrolysates and residual hydrocarbons, within limited samples investigated in this work, made a direct correlation of oils originally charged into Silurian tar sands with those Cambrian source rocks, reported so far, seem not to be possible. Comparison of carbon isotopic signatures of n-alkanes in asphaltene pyrolysates with those of LMW saturated hydrocarbons is helpful in determining if the abundant n-alkanes in tar sands are derived from fresh oil charges after biodegradation. The limited carbon isotopic data for n-alkanes in LMW saturated hydrocarbons from the tar sands can be used to classify oils charged after biodegradation in the composite basin into four distinct groups. 相似文献
Frontier exploration in the Kuqa Depression, western China, has identified the continuous tight-sand gas accumulation in the Lower Cretaceous and Lower Jurassic as a major unconventional gas pool. However, assessment of the shale gas resource in the Kuqa Depression is new. The shale succession in the Middle–Upper Triassic comprises the Taliqike Formation (T3t), the Huangshanjie Formation (T3h) and the middle–upper Karamay Formation (T2–3k), with an average accumulated thickness of 260 m. The high-quality shale is dominated by type III kerogen with high maturity and an average original total organic carbon (TOC) of about 2.68 wt%. An improved hydrocarbon generation and expulsion model was applied to this self-contained source–reservoir system to reveal the gas generation and expulsion (intensity, efficiency and volume) characteristics of Middle–Upper Triassic source rocks. The maximum volume of shale gas in the source rocks was obtained by determining the difference between generation and expulsion volumes. The results indicate that source rocks reached the hydrocarbon expulsion threshold of 1.1% VR and the hydrocarbon generation and expulsion reached their peak at 1.0% VR and 1.28% VR, with the maximum rate of 56 mg HC/0.1% TOC and 62.8 mg HC/0.1% TOC, respectively. The volumes of gas generation and expulsion from Middle–Upper Triassic source rocks were 12.02 × 1012 m3 and 5.98 × 1012 m3, respectively, with the residual volume of 6.04 × 1012 m3, giving an average gas expulsion efficiency of 44.38% and retention efficiency of 55.62%. Based on the gas generation and expulsion characteristics, the predicted shale gas potential volume is 6.04 × 1012 m3, indicating a significant shale gas resource in the Middle–Upper Triassic in the eastern Kuqa Depression. 相似文献
This study aims at investigating hydrocarbon generation potential and biological organic source for the Tertiary coal-bearing source rocks of Pinghu Formation (middle-upper Eocene) in Xihu depression, East China Sea shelf basin. Another goal is to differentiate coal and mudstone with respect to their geochemical properties. The coal-bearing sequence has a variable organofacies and is mainly gas-prone. The coals and carbonaceous mudstones, in comparison with mudstones, have a higher liquid hydrocarbon generation potential, as reflected by evidently higher HI values (averaging 286 mg HC/g C) and H/C atomic ratios (round 0.9). The molecular composition in the coal-bearing sequence is commonly characterized by unusually abundant diterpenoid alkanes, dominant C29 sterane over C27 and C28 homologues and high amount of terrigenous-related aromatic biomarkers such as retene, cadalene and 1, 7-dimethylphenanthrene, indicating a predominantly terrigenous organic source. The source rocks show high Pr/Ph ratios ranging mostly from 3.5 to 8.5 and low MDBTs/MDBFs ratios (<1.0), indicating deposition in an oxic swamp-lacustrine environment. The coals and carbonaceous mudstones could be differentiated from the grey mudstones by facies-dependent biomarker parameters such as relative sterane concentration and gammacerane index and carbon isotope composition. Isotope and biomarker analysis indicate the genetic correlation between the Pinghu source rocks and the oils found in Xihu depression. Moreover, most oils seem to be derived from the coal as well as carbonaceous mudstone. 相似文献
In the processes of discrimination between oil-cracked gases and kerogen-cracked gases, Behar and Pinzgofer et al.’s results were adopted in the former researches, in which the ratio of C2/C3 is basically a constant while the ratio of C1/C2 gradually increases in the course of primary cracking of kerogen. Otherwise in the course of secondary cracking of oil, the ratio of C2/C3 increases rapidly while C1/C2 keeps relatively stable. Our study on analogue experiment shows that, whether it is oil or kerogen, in its process of gas generating by cracking, the ratios of C2/C3, C1/C2 or C1/C3 will all be increased with the growth of thermal conditions. In comparison, the ratio of C2/C3, which is affected by genetic type to some comparatively less extent, mainly responds to the maturity of gases, while the value of C2/C3 is about 2, and that of C2/iC4 is about 10, and the corresponding value of Ro is about 1.5%–1.6%. The influence of gas source on C2/C3 is less than that of gas maturity, otherwise C1/C2 (or C1/C3) is obviously affected by cracking matrices. The ratios of C1/C2, C1/C3 of oil-cracked gases are less than that of kerogen-cracked gases, under the condition that the ratios of C2/C3 are similar in value, so are the value of dryness indexes. There exists wide diffidence between this view and the former discrimination method in theory. The analysis of the spot sample indicates that we can apply the above basic view to dealing efficiently with the problem of the discrimination between oil-cracked gas and kerogen-cracked gas.