Present Geothermal Fields of the Dongpu Sag in the Bohai Bay Basin

The Dongpu sag is located in the south of the Bohai Bay basin, China, and has abundant oil and gas reserves. To date, there has been no systematic documentation of its geothermal fields. This study measured the rock thermal conductivity of 324 cores from 47 wells, and calculated rock thermal conductivity for different formations. The geothermal gradient and terrestrial heat flow were calculated for 192 wells on basis of 892 formation‐testing data from 523 wells. The results show that the Dongpu sag is characterized by a medium‐temperature geothermal field between stable and active tectonic areas, with an average geothermal gradient of 32.0°C/km and terrestrial heat flow of 65.6 mW/m². The geothermal fields in the Dongpu sag is significantly controlled by the Changyuan, Yellow River, and Lanliao basement faults. They developed in the Paleogene and the Dongying movement occurred at the Dongying Formation depositional period. The geothermal fields distribution has a similar characteristic to the tectonic framework of the Dongpu sag, namely two subsags, one uplift, one steep slope and one gentle slope. The oil and gas distribution is closely associated with the present geothermal fields. The work may provide constraints for reconstructing the thermal history and modeling source rock maturation evolution in the Dongpu sag.