Geology and Exploration of Oil and Gas in the Ordos Basin

The Ordos basin is rich in oil and gas resources. The structures in the basin are generally rather gentle. Most of the oil and gas pools already found are belong to the types of lithologic, lithostratigraphic and paleo-geomorphic with thin reservoirs. The geology of oil and gas and the generation and distribution of oil and gas resources in the Ordos basin is analyzed in detail in the paper. It is also pointed out in the paper that what direction should be taken in oil and gas exploration in the basin, and that the important role of the seismic prospecting technologies in the discovery of large oil and gas fields in the basin could not be replaced.     

Comprehensive Interpretation Technique for Geophysical Data and Its Applications

Addressed in this paper was the comprehensive interpretation of all kinds of data and its applications in oil/gas exploration. Real examples were used to illustrate the importance of the comprehensive interpretation of gravity/magnetic/electric/seismic data as well as the results.     

Application of Integrated Geophysical technology and Its Effects in the Qaidam Basin

Experience gained in many years proved that oil explorations were very difficult to complete with seismic methods only in seismic-unfeasible areas. The expected results in these places could only be obtained with the integrated geophysical surveys, the combination of gravity, electric, magnetic,geochemistry and seismic methods. The high-precision gravity,magnetic and electric techniques used in seismic-unfeasible areas in Qaidam Basin had achieved many astonishing results,which demonstrated a feasible way for oil exploration in Qaidam Basin and offered a basis for data interpretation in complex areas where seismic data was not able to acquire.     

Seismic Acquisition on the Buried-Hill Faulted Zone of the Jiyang Sag

The pattern of the subtle traps, in which oil and gas accumulated, in the buried-hill faulted zone in the Jiyang sag is very complicated, and very hard to prospect. The paper analyses the main difficulties in exploring the complicated buried-hill faulted zone of the area from a point of geology.The typical pattern of the buried-hill zone in the Jiyang sag is studied using the forward modeling.Target-orient layout design and full 3-D seismic technology, which are useful for oil and gas exploration on the zone, are put forward. Taking the exploration for oil and gas traps on the zone as an example, certain technologies and the effect of their applications about the design for target acquisition,acquisition on a wide-azimuth, point sources and point receivers are discussed.     

Effects of Integrated Exploration in Hydrocarbon-Prospective Areas of South China

The complicated topography, morphology and geology are characteristic of South China, where the frequently covered waters and igneous bodies and widely exposed carbonates are difficult to seismic survey. This paper describes the effect of combining exploration of gravitational, magnetic and electric methods in the complicated hydrocarbon areas in South China by some case histories. Many year‘‘s exploration practices in the exploring areas of more than 20 show that the non-seismic integrated (gravity/magnetic/electric) geophysical prospecting can play an important role not only in regional assessment, basin optimization and early basin evaluation,but also in finding objective of low resistance in areas of exposed carbonate with high resistance, contouring local structure, outlining igneous body and reef, and differentiating rock facies of basement. The results of the non-seismic integrated geophysical survey have pointed out the direction for deploying next prospecting in the specific areas of South China and the valuable experiences have been accumulated to carry out hydrocarbon-hunting in the future.     

Discovering New Oilfield within 18 Months Using Integrated Geophysical Technology

The Yanqi basin is small and located at the northeastern corner of the Tarim basin. Before April 1993, the Yanqi basin was only surveyed with surface geology and seldom known among the explorers. After that, the gravitational, magnetic and MT prospecting were carried out and found some interesting local structures, which might be oil-and-gas-bearing. A few seismic lines were utilized to confirm them. An exploratory well was drilled in the summer of 1994 and discovered oil flow with industrial value in Oct., the same year. The petroleum exploration obtained breakthrough in the Yanqi basin in only 18 months.     

on-Seismic Surveying on Steep High Structural Zones： An Example of Hetianhe Gas Field

Mashan is a typical area, complex on the surface,steep of the formations and complicated with the structures. It is very difficult to carry out seismic surveying. The preliminary result of the seismic prospecting indicated that only monoclines exist in the area. Drilling discovered Hetianhe gas field. After integrating non-seismic (gravity, magnetic and electromagnetic) prospecting, it was revealed that there exist two rows of structural highs, which were proved by the later seismic surveying. The paper analyzed all the data in the area and recognized that the integrated prospecting to be carried out in a complicated area is effective and necessary.     

Current Status and Future Development of Integrated Geophysical Technology in China

The gap between China‘‘s integrated geophysical technology and the world‘‘s advanced technologies has been significantly narrowed as the result of developments in the last decade.The new technology has played a very important role in oil and gas exploration in China, especially for the purposes of targeting seismically opaque zones, decreasing exploration risk, and improving exploration efficiency in the western territories and complex areas in China. The current status and future development of non-seismic integrated geophysical teams in China is discussed.     

Natural gas origins of large and medium-scale gas fields in China sedimentary basins

China sedimentary basins present abundant natural gas resource thanks to its unique geological settings.Marine highly-matured hydrocarbon source rocks,widespread coal-measure strata and low temperature Quaternary saline strata,etc.,indicate the wide foreground of China natural gas resources. Up to now,most of the petroliferous basins have been discovered to have wholesale natural gas accumulation from Precambrian,Paleozoic,Mesozoic to Cenozoic in the east,the central,the west and the coast of China.These large and medium-scale gas reservoirs are mainly composed of hydrocarbon gas with big dry coefficient,tiny non-hydrocarbon,wide carbon isotope distribution and varying origin types,the hydrocarbon gas includes coal-formed gas,oil-formed gas,biogenic gas and inorganic gas, etc.Coal-formed gas is the main type of China natural gas resources,in particular several explored large-scale gas fields(>100 billion cubic meter)of Kela 2,Sulige and Daniudi,etc.,they all belong to coal-formed gas fields or the gas fields consisting mostly of coal-formed gas.Oil-formed gas is also abundant in China marine basins,for example marine natural gas of Sichuan Basin generated from crude oil cracking gas.Primary and secondary biogenic gas fields were discovered respectively in the Qaidam Basin and Western Slope of Songliao Basin.In addition,inorganic gases are mainly distributed in the eastern China,in particular the Songliao Basin with abundant carbon dioxide accumulation,indicating that the eastern China present large exploration potential of inorganic gas.     

The deep structures and oil-gas prospect evaluation in the Qiangtang Basin, Tibet

The Qiantang Basin is now one of the topics of general interest in petroleum exploration in China. This paper reports a comprehensive study of geophysical and geological survey data recently obtained in this area and, combined with INDEPTH-3 deep survey results, comes to the following conclusions： 1） The hydrocarbon source formations, reservoirs, and overlying strata and their association within the basin are quite good, local structures are developed, and, therefore, the region is favorable for forming and preserving oil and gas accumulations. Faults are not a fatal problem. The future main target strata are the middle-deep structural strata composed of Upper-Triassic and middle Jurassic rocks; 2） A new classification has been made for second-order tectonic sequences inside the basin to disavow the central Qingtang uplift. It is noted that the main structures at the surface are orientated NW-SE and the crustal structure can be described as three depressions, three risees, and one deep depression, of which the prospective zone with the most potential is the inner main subsided belt and its two sides; 3） Comparatively intensive interaction between the crust and mantle and volcanic and thermal activities in the northern basin play a very important role in petroleum evaluation. The southern deeper sedimentation and less thermal activity make this area a more perfect zone for oil exploration; 4） Currently, the most important objective is determining the physical properties of the deep strata, the status of oil and gas accumulations, the source of the hydrocarbons, and the relationship between the upper and lower structures; and 5） The Lunpola Tertiary basin may be favorable for oil accumulations because petroleum may migrate from marine strata on two sides.     

Geochemical features and genesis of the natural gas and bitumen in paleo-oil reservoirs of Nanpanjiang Basin, China

Bitumen from the Nanpanjiang Basin occurs mainly in the Middle Devonian and Upper Permian reef limestone paleo-oil reservoirs and reserves primarily in holes and fractures and secondarily in minor matrix pores and bio-cavities. N2 is the main component of the natural gas and is often associated with pyrobitumen in paleo-oil reservoirs. The present study shows that the bitumen in paleo-oil reservoirs was sourced from the Middle Devonian argillaceous source rock and belongs to pyrobitumen by crude oil cracking under high temperature and pressure. But the natural gas with high content of N2 is neither an oil-cracked gas nor a coal-formed gas generated from the Upper Permian Longtan Formation source rock, instead it is a kerogen-cracked gas generated at the late stage from the Middle Devonian argilla- ceous source rock. The crude oil in paleo-oil reservoirs completely cracked into pyrobitumen and methane gas by the agency of hugely thick Triassic deposits. After that, the abnormal high pressure of methane gas reservoirs was completely destroyed due to the erosion of 2000--4500-m-thick Triassic strata. But the kerogen-cracked gas with normal pressure was preserved under the relatively sealed condition and became the main body of the gas shows.     

Offshore Multi-Wave Seismic Exploration in Bohai

In Oilfield A, of south Bohai, the large area (20km^2) of gas in the shallow layer of the main structure makes a “gas cloud“ effect in the seismic section. It makes the seismic migration imaging of the deeper aim layer inconsistent with the actual features of a geologic structure. But, the converted waves,PS waves, containing effective information of incident compressed (P) waves, can create converted S waves. The S wave is affected little by the shallow layer screen, allowing better imaging of the deeper layer. So, 4C seismic acquisition was carried out on the structure. Through geologic reconnaissance on the site, shallow layer drilling analysis and multicomponent seismic experiments, the offshore acquisition flows are designed. Choosing appropriate processing flows for converted waves and paying attention to the key tache of processing, a high quality 2D converted wave section was obtained. By identifying the character of the seismic wave correctly, making use of the full wave logging, producing synthetic converted wave seismogram, and identifying horizon, we can carry out structure interpretation and reserve evaluation of the oilfield.     

Geological structure of the yellow sea area from regional gravity and magnetic interpretation

Regional gravity and aeromagnetic data covering the area of 32°- 38° N, 118°-127° E at the scale of 1：1,000,000 are coordinated and integrated in a synthetic study of the South China Yellow Sea and adjacent areas. Depth to magnetic crystalline basement and its structure are determined by magnetic anomaly inversion. Depth to and thickness of the Paleozoic rock are also revealed by gravity anomaly inversion with constrains of the basement and known seismic information from several profiles. Structure units, main faults, basin boundaries, and sub-suppressions are outlined on the basis of gravity data interpretation.     

The movement age of hidden fault and analysis on width of its effect zone from shallow seismic sounding and drilling data

Introduction Artificial seismic sounding is a geophysical exploration technique developed in prospectingfor oil and gas and other mineral resources and consists of reflection wave and refraction waveexploration methods. With rapid development of computer techniques and sounding instruments,the reflection wave method became a high-resolution imagery technique for underground struc-tures and is widespreadly used in detection of underground caves and in engineering exploration.In previous se…     

Characteristics of petroleum accumulation in syncline of the Songliao basin and discussion on its accumulation mechanism

The relation between oil and water in reservoirs with low and ultra-low permeability is very complicated. Gravitational separation of oil and water is not obvious. Normal reservoirs are located in depression and structural high spot, oil and water transitions are located in their middle. Stagnation is the key fact of oil-forming reservoir in the axis of a syncline based on the research of oil, gas and water migration manner, dynamics and non-Darcy flow in the Songliao basin. In low and ultra-low permeable reservoir, gas and water migrate easily through pore throats because their molecules are generally smaller than the pore throats; but the minimum diameter of oil droplets is larger than pore throats and they must be deformed to go through. Thus, gas and water migrate in advance of oil, and oil droplets remain behind. Pressure differential and the buoyancy force in a syncline reservoir are a main fluid driving force; and capillary force is the main resistance to flow. When the dynamics force is less than resistance, oil is immobile. When the buoyancy force is less than the capillary force, a gravitational separation of oil and water does not occur. The reservoir in the mature source rock of a syncline area with the low and ul- tra-low permeability belongs to an unconventional petroleum reservoir.     

The Analysis of Seismic Data Structure and Oil and Gas Prediction

In this paper, a new concept called numerical structure of seismic data is introduced and the difference between numerical structure and numerical value of seismic data is explained. Our study shows that the numerical seismic structure is closely related to oil and gas-bearing reservoir,so it is very useful for a geologist or a geophysicist to precisely interpret the oil-bearing layers from the seismic data. This technology can be applied to any exploration or production stage. The new method has been tested on a series of exploratory or development wells and proved to be reliable in China. Hydrocarbon-detection with this new method for 39 exploration wells on 25 structures indicates a success ratio of over 80 percent. The new method of hydrocarbon prediction can be applied for: (1) depositional environment of reservoirs with marine facies, delta, or non-marine facies (including fluvial facies, lacustrine facies); (2) sedimentary rocks of reservoirs that are non-marine clastic rocks and carbonate rock; and (3) burial depths range from 300 m to 7000 m, and the minimum thickness of these reservoirs is over 8 m (main frequency is about 50 Hz).     

The most homogeneous dip-scanning method using edgepreserving smoothing for seismic noise attenuation

Highlighting and analyzing the geological features of faults and fractures in seismic data is particularly important for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation since they are often essential for finding and delineating reservoirs. We apply edge-preserving smoothing （EPS） to seismic processing and propose a most homogeneous dip-scanning method. The method preserves the geological features, eliminate random noise efficiently, obtain dip information, and improve the accuracy of identifying the oil and gas traps.     

2D Seismic Data Processing for Straight Lines in the Loess Plateaus in Fuxian of Shanbei

The crooked seismic lines along valleys were irregular previously in Fuxian of Shanbei,showing an irregular branch in plane, and hard to complete close grids. Therefore, it‘s difficult to conduct reservoir inversion of 2D seismic data. In 2001, Zhongyuan Oilfield Company carried out the study on field acquisition methods and seismic processing technology in Fuxian. Straight lines were passing through plateaus and formed seismic grids by using flexible geometry with variable linear bins.Data processing involved model-inversion based refraction static correction, surface consistent amplitude compensation, deconvolution, and pre-stack noise attenuation. As the result, seismic data with a high fidelity was provided for the subsequent reservoir predictions, small-amplitude structure interpretation and integrative geologic study. Because all lines were jointed to form grids, comprehensive interpretation of reservoir inversion could be finally implemented by using the pseudo logging method to control lines without wells.     

Formation mechanism and geochemical characteristics of shallow natural gas in heavy oil province,China

Shallow gas reservoirs are distributed widely in Chinese heavy oil-bearing basins.At present,shallow gas resources have opened up giant potentials.The previous researches indicate the intimate genetic relationship between shallow gas and heavy oil.Shallow gas resources are generated from crude oil degraded by anaerobic microscopic organism,it belongs to biogenic gas family of secondary genesis, namely heavy oil degraded gas.Shallow gas resources are usually distributed in the upward position or the vicinity of heavy oil reservoirs.They are mainly of dry gas,which are composed of methane and only tiny C2 heavy hydrocarbon and relatively higher contents of nitrogen gas.Generally,methane isotopes are light,whose values are between biogenic gas and thermal cracking gas.Ethane isotopes are heavy,which mixed possibly with thermogenic gas.Carbon dioxide bear the characteristics of very heavy carbon isotope,so carbon isotopic fractionation effects are very obvious on the process of microscopic organism degradation crude oil.The heavy oil degraded gas formation,a very complex geological,geochemical and microbiological geochemical process,is the result of a series of reactions of organic matter-microbes and water-hydrocarbon,which is controlled by many factors.     

Discovery of “Enveloping Surface of Oil and Gas Overpressure Migration” in the Songliao Basin and its bearings on hydrocarbon migration and accumulation mechanisms

The Fuyang oil layer of the Songliao Basin is a tight and low-permeability sandstone pay zone formed in the fluvial-shallow water delta environment.In the formation are mainly lithologic reservoir and tight reservoir.The lacustrine-mudstone of K2qn1 is a good source rock and also acts as a good regional cap rock.The Fuyang oil layer is a typical upper-source and lower-reservoir pattern distributed in a large area.Based on a large number of exploration and development data, a macroscopic enveloping surface is found developed in the Fuyang oil layer, which is below K2qn1.The effective reservoirs within the enveloping surface are commonly saturated with oil, and below the enveloping surface are mainly water layers.The distance from the enveloping surface to the bottom of the source rock is usually 100-350 m and at most 550 m.Through the research of the distribution patterns and the physical properties of the sandbodies above or beneath the source rock, it is concluded that: 1) the enveloping surface is the boundary of the overpressure hydrocarbon migration; 2) the spacial distribution of the pressure release beds controls the direction and the distance of the overpressure hydrocarbon migration; 3) tight oil reservoirs and lenticular oil reservoirs are mainly formed inside the envelope surface, whereas, conventional reservoirs are formed outside the envelope surface as a result of the buoyancy hydrocarbon migration.The discovery of the "overpressure hydrocarbon migration enveloping surface" and the concepts of overpressure hydrocarbon migration and buoyancy hydrocarbon migration not only challenge the old notion that "hydrocarbon migrates along the faults and is distributed along fault belts" in the Fuyang oil layer of the Songliao Basin, give a new explanation to the long-distance-oil-downwards migration (hundreds of meters) and expand the exploration potential of the Fuyang oil layer, and provide a rational guidance to the exploration of syncline plays, but also better categorize tight oil/gas and conventional reservoirs in all of the key elements related to hydrocarbon migration, accumulation, reservoir characteristics and oil and gas spatial distribution.