Further Recognition of Petroleum Exploration Potential of Marine Carbonates in Western Tarim Basin

A series of significant discoveries in marine carbonate rocks show great petroleum exploration potential in the Tarim Basin. However, the oil and gas fields discovered in the carbonate rocks are mainly distributed around the Manjiaer Sag in the eastern Tarim Basin. Some explorations occurred and no oil or gas field was discovered around the Awati Sag in the western Tarim Basin. Information from wells and outcrops reveals that there are excellent oil and gas source rock conditions around the Awati Sag. Transformed reef-shoal reservoirs could be formed in the Ordovician carbonate rocks with paleo-geographic background and hydrothermal conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to make a systematical study and overall evaluation of the potential of the periphery of the Awati Sag in terms of source rock evolution, resource potential, high-grade reservoir formation and distribution, and main factors controlling hydrocarbon migration and accumulation.

Philosophy of Petroleum Exploration Promoting the Petroleum Geoscience and Exploration Technology

From the mid-1800s to the present, the philosophy of oil and gas exploration has had three major breakthroughs. The first breakthrough—from oil seepage to the anticlinal theory; The second breakthrough—from the anticlinal theory to the trap theory; The third breakthrough—from the trap theory to the petroleum system. The philosophy of oil finding promotes the petroleum geosciences and exploration technology.

Neural Network Applications in Petroleum Exploration Based on Statistical Space Mapping

In this paper, we propose the statistical space mapping thought and classify the seismic body space throughlithology space clustering combining to the actual application background of petroleum exploration. A new method ofstratum petroleum recognition based on neural network was set up through the foundation of the data mapping relationbetween log and seismic body. It can break a new path for recognition petroleum using both log and seismic data. Andthis method has been validated in the practical data analysis in Liaohe oil field.

Geological structures and potential petroleum exploration areas in the southwestern Sichuan fold-thrust belt, SW China

Based on the latest geological,seismic,drilling and outcrop data,we studied the geological structure,tectonic evolution history and deformation process of the southwestern Sichuan fold-thrust belt to find out the potential hydrocarbon exploration areas in deep layers.During key tectonic periods,the southwestern Sichuan fold-thrust belt developed some characteristic strata and structural deformation features,including the Pre-Sinian multi-row N-S strike rifts,step-shaped platform-margin structures of Sinian Dengying Formation,the western paleo-uplift in the early stage of Late Paleozoic,the Late Paleozoic–Middle Triassic carbonate platform,foreland slope and forebulge during Late Triassic to Cretaceous,and Cenozoic multi-strike rejuvenated fold-thrusting structures.The fold-thrust belt vertically shows a double-layer structural deformation controlled by the salt layer in the Middle Triassic Leikoupo Formation and the base detachment layer at present.The upper deformation layer develops the NE-SW strike thrusts propagating toward basin in long distance,while the deeper deformation layer had near north-south strike basement-involved folds,which deformed the detachment and thrusting structures formed earlier in the upper layer,with the deformation strength high in south part and weak in north part.The southern part of the fold-thrust belt is characterized by basement-involved fold-thrusts formed late,while the central-northern part is dominated by thin-skin thrusts in the shallow layer.The Wuzhongshan anticlinal belt near piedmont is characterized by over-thrust structure above the salt detachment,where the upper over-thrusting nappe consists of a complicated fold core and front limb of a fault-bend fold,while the deep layer has stable subtle in-situ structures.Favorable exploration strata and areas have been identified both in the upper and deeper deformation layers separated by regional salt detachment,wherein multiple anticlinal structures are targets for exploration.Other potential exploration strata and areas in southwestern Sichuan fold-thrust belt include the deep Sinian and Permian in the Wuzhongshan structure,pre-Sinian rifting sequences and related structures,platform-margin belt of Sinian Dengying Formation,and Indosinian paleo-uplift in the east of the Longquanshan structure.

SINOCHEM PETROLEUM EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION CO.,LTD.

Sinochem Petroleum Exploration&Production Co.,Ltd.(Sinochem E&P),established in 2002,is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sinochem Corporation(Sinochem).As a key stateowned enterprise,Sinochem has been named to the list of Fortune Global 500for 18 consecutive years,ranking the257th in 2008.

Significant Achievements Made in Petroleum Exploration in Bohai

MajorresultshavebeenachievedinpetroleumexplorationinBobalbothforjointventureoperationandforself-operationin1999.Twooilandgasreservoirshavebeendiscoveredthisyearwithoilandgasreservesofover300milliontons.1999markstheyearwiththelargestreservesdiscoveryi...

A Step to Speed up Petroleum Exploration and Development in Tarim Basin

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Construction and application of an ontology-based domain-specific knowledge graph for petroleum exploration and development

The massive amount and multi-sourced,multi-structured data in the upstream petroleum industry impose great challenge on data integration and smart application.Knowledge graph,as an emerging technology,can potentially provide a way to tackle the challenges associated with oil and gas big data.This paper proposes an engineering-based method that can improve upon traditional natural language processing to construct the domain knowledge graph based on a petroleum exploration and development ontology.The exploration and development knowledge graph is constructed by assembling Sinopec’s multi-sourced heterogeneous database,and millions of nodes.The two applications based on the constructed knowledge graph are developed and validated for effectiveness and advantages in providing better knowledge services for the oil and gas industry.

Lithofacies palaeogeography as a guide to petroleum exploration

Lithofacies palaeogeography as a guide to petroleum exploration is a very important topic.By using the following five exploration examples,this paper discusses the guide of lithofacies palaeogeography or of sedimentary facies to petroleum exploration.These examples include the dolostone of the Lower Ordovician Majiagou Formation 5 in the Ordos area,the Donghe Sandstone of the Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous in the Tarim Basin,the reef of the Upper Permian Changxing Formation in the Sichuan Basin,the oolitic bank of the Lower Triassic Feixianguan Formation in the Sichuan Basin,and the lacustrine delta sediments and gravity flow sediments of the Middle and Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin.

Quantitative Estimation of Experts’Judgments on Petroleum Exploration

A new method in making judgment matrix is proposed based on a basic value of “importance” and a relative measure level of “importance”. Factors affecting petroleum exploration are analyzed and Experts’ judgment matrix on a geologic formation is given. Expected value of each factor is computed and the volume of recoverable oil is estimated.

Qinghai Petroleum Administration Has Set Its Near-Term Exploration Target

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Petroleum geology features and research developments of hydrocarbon accumulation in deep petroliferous basins

As petroleum exploration advances and as most of the oil-gas reservoirs in shallow layers have been explored, petroleum exploration starts to move toward deep basins, which has become an inevitable choice. In this paper, the petroleum geology features and research progress on oil-gas reservoirs in deep petroliferous basins across the world are characterized by using the latest results of worldwide deep petroleum exploration. Research has demonstrated that the deep petroleum shows ten major geological features. （1） While oil-gas reservoirs have been discovered in many different types of deep petroliferous basins, most have been discovered in low heat flux deep basins. （2） Many types of petroliferous traps are developed in deep basins, and tight oil-gas reservoirs in deep basin traps are arousing increasing attention. （3） Deep petroleum normally has more natural gas than liquid oil, and the natural gas ratio increases with the burial depth. （4） The residual organic matter in deep source rocks reduces but the hydrocarbon expulsion rate and efficiency increase with the burial depth. （5） There are many types of rocks in deep hydrocarbon reservoirs, and most are clastic rocks and carbonates. （6） The age of deep hydrocarbon reservoirs is widely different, but those recently discovered are pre- dominantly Paleogene and Upper Paleozoic. （7） The porosity and permeability of deep hydrocarbon reservoirs differ widely, but they vary in a regular way with lithology and burial depth. （8） The temperatures of deep oil-gas reservoirs are widely different, but they typically vary with the burial depth and basin geothermal gradient. （9） The pressures of deep oil-gas reservoirs differ significantly, but they typically vary with burial depth, genesis, and evolu- tion period. （10） Deep oil-gas reservoirs may exist with or without a cap, and those without a cap are typically of unconventional genesis. Over the past decade, six major steps have been made in the understanding of deep hydrocarbon reservoir formation. （1） Deep petroleum in petroliferous basins has multiple sources and many dif- ferent genetic mechanisms. （2） There are high-porosity, high-permeability reservoirs in deep basins, the formation of which is associated with tectonic events and subsurface fluid movement. （3） Capillary pressure differences inside and outside the target reservoir are the principal driving force of hydrocarbon enrichment in deep basins. （4） There are three dynamic boundaries for deep oil-gas reservoirs; a buoyancy-controlled threshold, hydrocarbon accumulation limits, and the upper limit of hydrocarbon generation. （5） The formation and distribution of deep hydrocarbon res- ervoirs are controlled by free, limited, and bound fluid dynamic fields. And （6） tight conventional, tight deep, tight superimposed, and related reconstructed hydrocarbon reservoirs formed in deep-limited fluid dynamic fields have great resource potential and vast scope for exploration. Compared with middle-shallow strata, the petroleum geology and accumulation in deep basins are more complex, which overlap the feature of basin evolution in different stages. We recommend that further study should pay more attention to four aspects： （1） identification of deep petroleum sources and evaluation of their relative contributions; （2） preservation conditions and genetic mechanisms of deep high-quality reservoirs with high permeability and high porosity; （3） facies feature and transformation of deep petroleum and their potential distribution; and （4） economic feasibility evaluation of deep tight petroleum exploration and development.

Application of Wavelet Analysis toInterference Elimination for Geochemical Hydrocarbon Exploration

Interference in the data of geochemical hydrocarbon exploration is a large obstacle for anomaly recognition. The multiresolution analysis of wavelet analysis can extract the information at different scales so as to provide a powerful tool for information analysis and processing. Based on the analysis of the geometric nature of hydrocarbon anomalies and background, Mallat wavelet and symmetric border treatment are selected and data pre-processing (logarithm-normalization) is established. This approach provide good results in Shandong and Inner Mongolia, China. It is demonstrated that this approach overcome the disadvantage of backgound variation in the window (interference in window), used in moving average, frame filtering and spatial and scaling modeling methods.

A Study of the Method for the Recognition of Anomalies in Geochemical Hydrocarbon Exploration

The greatest difficulties in recognizing geochemical hydrocarbon anomalies are: (1) how to objectively and accurately separate anomalies from background; (2) how to distinguish hydrocarbon pool related apical anomalies from lateral anomalies controlled by faults; and (3) how to eliminate interferences. These uncertainties are serious obstacles for the wide acceptance and use of geochemical techniques in hydrocarbon exploration. In this paper, the features of hydrocarbon anomalies were analyzed based on the micro migration mechanisms. In most cases, there are two anomalous populations or point groups, which are produced by two distinct mechanisms: (1) a population that directly reflects oil and gas fields, and (2) one that is related to structures such as faults. Statistical studies show that background anomalous populations and the boundaries between them can be described by the population means, prior probabilities, which are the proportions of population sizes, and covariance matrices, when background and anomalous populations have normal distributions. When this normality condition is met, a series of formulas can be derived. The method is designed on the basis of these allows: (1) univariate anomaly recognition, (2) elimination of interferences, (3) multivariate anomaly recognition, and (4) multivariate anomaly combination which depicts a more representative picture of morphology of the anomalous target than individual anomalies. The univariate and multivariate anomaly recognition can not only separate anomalies from background objectively, but also simultaneously distinguish the two types of anomalies objectively. This method was applied to the hydrocarbon data in Yangshuiwu region, Hebei Province. The interferences from regional variation of background were eliminated, and the interpretation uncertainty was reduced greatly as the anomalous populations were separated. The method was also used in Daxing region within the confines of Beijing City, and Aershan and Jiergalangtu regions in Inner Mongolia.

Discovery of lacustrine shale deposits in the Yanshan Orogenic Belt,China: Implications for hydrocarbon exploration

The mechanism of formation of lacustrine deposits within stable orogenic belts and their potential for shale oil and gas exploration are frontier themes of challenge in the fields of sedimentology and petroleum exploration. Orogenic belts witness strong tectonic activities and normally cannot host stable lacustrine basins and deep shale formations. Therefore, basins in orogenic belts are considered to have no potential to form shale hydrocarbon reservoirs. Here we investigate the Luanping Basin located in the Yanshan orogenic belt where previous studies regarded rivers and fan deltas as the major main Mesozoic deposits. Based on detailed field exploration and scientific drilling, we report the finding of a large number of lacustrine shale continental deep-water deposits in the Mesozoic strata. Our finding of the occurrence of active shale oil and gas also in this basin also subvert the previous perceptions.We report SHRIMP zircon U-Pb age that define the bottom boundary of the target interval as 127.6 ± 1.7 Ma belonging to the early Cretaceous strata. Tectonics and climate are considered to be the main factors that controlled the deep-water sedimentation during this period. The drill cores revealed evidence of shale gas and the TOC of shale is 0.33%–3.60%, with an average value of 1.39% and Ro is 0.84%–1.21%, with an average value of 1.002%. The brittleness index of shale is between 52.7% and 100%. After vertical well fracturing, the daily gas production is more than 1000 m^(3). Our findings show that the basin has considerable potential for shale oil and gas. The geological resources of the shale gas in the Xiguayuan Fm. are estimated as 1110.12 × 10^(8) m^(3), with shale oil geological resources of 3340.152 × 10^(4) t. Our findings indicate that the Yanshan orogenic belt has potential exploration prospect. This work not only redefines the Luanping Basin as a rift deep-water Mesozoic Lake Basin, but also rules out the previous notion that the basin is dominated by shallow water sediments. The discovery of shale oil and gas also provides an important reference for subsequent petroleum exploration and development in this basin. Our study shows that shale oil and gas reservoirs can be found in the lacustrine basins of orogenic belts which were strongly influenced by volcanism. These results have significant implications for the sedimentology and oil exploration in the Qinling and Xingmeng Orogenic Belts of China, as well as those in other terranes of the world including the New England Orogenic Belt in Australia.

Exploration Strategies for Complex Fault Block Reservoirs in the Subei Basin

The geological background of the Subei basin is that of small relief subsidence, low geothermal gradient, multi-sedimentary hiatuses, intense reconstruction of the basin, frequent magmatic activity, and a unique combination of source rock and reservoir. This geological background resulted in characteristics such as many small fault blocks, multiple oil-bearing formations, scattered oil distribution, mini- to small-sized reservoirs, and difficulties in exploration. Aimed at such characteristics, an effective exploration strategy was adopted, and the oil reserves, production and economic benefits of the Jiangsu oilfield were significantly increased. This exploration strategy included understanding the hydrocarbon generation mechanism of source rocks, progressive evaluation of oil resources, comprehensive research on the faulted systems, the distribution of oil reservoirs and their controlling factors. The techniques used included integration of acquisition, processing and interpretation with 3-D seismics as the core technology, trap description and evaluation, directional drilling and cluster drilling, integration of cuttings logging, gas chromatographic logging and geochemical logging, and integration of early reservoir description and progressive exploration and development. This strategy could be guidance for other complex fault blocks.