Tectonic evolution of the Huangling dome and its control effect on shale gas preservation in the north margin of the Yangtze Block, South China

Significant breakthroughs of shale gas exploration have been made in Lower Cambrian and Sinian shale in the north margin of the Yangtze Block,South China.The drill wells with industrial gas flow located in the southern margin of the Huangling dome.Base on the geological survey,2D seismic,geochronological and drill wells data,the tectonic evolution history of Huangling dome was studied,and its control effect on the preservation condition of shale gas was discussed.The result shows that the Huangling dome might undergo four tectonic stages:(1)About 800 Ma,granite intrusion in the Huangling dome basement,primarily of granites replaced metamorphism rocks;(2)800-200 Ma,no significant tectonic movement with slowly buried history;(3)From 200 Ma,multi-phase uplift and the sedimentary rocks was eroded in the core of the Huangling dome.Shale gas in the Cambrian and Sinian strata was well preserved in the margin of the Huangling dome as the following reasons:(1)The Sinian shale was buried about 7.8 km indepth during Middle Jurassic,source rocks have a suitable thermal maturity for shale gas;(2)The rigid basement of the Huangling dome was mainly composed by homogeneity granite,without intensive deformation.As the main challenges of the widely distributed Lower Cambrian and Sinian shale are highmaturity and intensive deformation,a geological unit with a dome probably is a favorable zone for the old age shale gas.Therefore,it indicates that the adjacent zone of the Xuefengshan,Shennongjia and Hannan are the geological units with a dome and probably have potentials for the exploration of shale in the Lower Cambrian and Sinian.

Reservoir characteristics and controlling factor of shale gas in Lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation, South China

Large-scale exploration and development of shale gas in Lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation of South China has been carried out in recent years,but the result is not good,only except some drilling wells in Jingyan-Qianwei area of Sichuan Basin and Yichang of Hubei obtain some commercial gas flows.In order to clarify reasons for failure of shale gas exploration and development in Niutitang Formation around Sichuan Basin and to provide reservoir geological parameters for subsequent efficient exploration and development,taking a case of shale gas reservoirs in Lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation in northeast Chongqing around Sichuan Basin,some experimental methods,such as analysis of organic carbon pyrolysis,determination of equivalent vitrinite reflectance,focused ion beam scanning electron microscope(FIB-SEM)and other are adopted in this study.The results show that the average TOC of shale samples in Niutitang Formation in northeast Chongqing is 3.1%,the equivalent vitrinite reflectance ranges from 3.0%to 4.0%,and the degree of thermal evolution reaches the post-matureemetamorphic stage.Due to excessively high degree of the thermal evolution,organic pores in shale samples are not developed in Lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation in the study area,instead,micro-nano pores dominated by intergranular pores and intragranular pores are developed in the shale.The degree of the thermal evolution controls the sustaining gas generation of kerogen and retained liquid hydrocarbons in the shale,it also controls the development of organic pores of the shale.The evolution of organic pores and hydrocarbon generation in the shale of Niutitang Formation in northeast Chongqing around Sichuan Basin do not match best with each other,that is,during development period of a large number of organic pores,thermal evolution degree of reservoirs is further enhanced because the strata are not uplifted in time,therefore,the quantity of organic pores is decreased sharply,the shale gas would be escaped due to the absence of organic pores as effective storage space after the shale gas generation.Therefore,the efficient exploration and development of the shale gas in Lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation in South China should be focused on the shale development area where the shale is characterized by moderate thermal evolution degree(2.0%<R_(o)<3.0%)and shallow buried depth,that is,the shale distribution area with paleo-uplift or paleo-buried hill.