Major factors controlling the formation of middle and large marine carbonate stratigraphic fields

Marine carbonate oil and gas fields have become an important exploration area in China and even across the world. Their formation, distribution and enrichment are special owing to the complexity of the deposition, diagenesis and accumulation, which is caused by the multiplicity of the carbonate depositional environments and facies, huge extensions of formation time and burial depth, complication of diagenetic evolution, heterogeneity as well as the development of pores, caves and fractures affected by various factors. Oil and gas accumulations in carbonate rocks are not strictly controlled by the second-order structure belt. Most of them, under certain structural settings, are controlled by sedimentary diagenesis and its favorable facies. The hydrocarbon reservoir type is predominantly stratigraphic. Based on the worldwide researches of carbonate fields, the paper concludes that 7 main factors control the formation and distribution of middle-large marine carbonate stratigraphic fields.