Geochemical characterization of aromatic hydrocarbons in crude oils from the Tarim,Qaidam and Turpan Basins,NW China

Based on the systematic study of aromatic hydrocarbons in over 100 crude oil samples collected from the Tabei and Tazhong uplifts in the Tarim Basin,the western depression area in the Qaidam Basin and the Tabei depression in the Turpan Basin,the geochemical characteristics of the marine（Tarim Basin）,saline lacustrine（Qaidam Basin）,and swamp（Turpan Basin） oils were investigated.The marine oils from the Tarim basin are characterized by relatively low abundance of diaromatic hydrocarbons such as biphenyl and naphthalene,and relatively high abundance of triaromatic hydrocarbons including phenanthrene,dibenzothiophene and fluorene.In contrast,the swamp oils from the Turpan Basin are dominated by the highest relative abundance of diaromatic hydrocarbons and the lowest relative abundance of triaromatic hydrocarbons in all the oil samples in this study.The relative abundance of diaromatic and triaromatic hydrocarbons in the saline lacustrine oils from Qaidam Basin is between that in Tarim oils and Turpan oils.Aromatic parameters based on the isomer distributions of dimethylnaphthalenes（DMN）,trimethylnaphthalenes（TMN）,tetramethylnaphthalenes（TeMN） and methylphenanthrenes（MP）,i.e.,1,2,5-trimethylnaphthalene（TMN）/1,3,6-TMN ratio,1,2,7-TMN/1,3,7TMN ratio,（2,6-＋2,7-）-dimethylnaphthalenes（DMN）/1,6-DMN ratio,1,3,7-TMN/（1,2,5-＋1,3,7-）TMN,1,3,6,7-TeMN/（1,3,6,7-＋1,2,5,6-＋1,2,3,5-）-TeMN ratio and MP index,may reflect the diversity of organic source input,thermal maturity and depositional environments.In addition,the dibenzothiophenes（DBTs）/fluorenes（Fs） and dibenzofurans（DBFs）/Fs ratios were found to the very useful and effective in determining genetic types of crude oils for the marine,saline lacustrine,and swamp depositional environments,and for oil-oil correlations.

Compositional and geochemical characteristics of light hydrocarbons for typical marine oils and typical coal-generated oils in China

Different types of crude oils have different light hydrocarbon compositional and geochemical character-istics. Based on the light hydrocarbon data from two kinds of oils,i.e.,coal-generated oils and marine oils in China,light hydrocarbons in marine oils in the Tazhong area are generally relatively enriched in n-heptane,and coal-generated oils from the Turpan Basin are enriched in methylcyclohexane . The K1 values,reported by Mango (1987),range from 0.97 to 1.19 in marine oils,basically consistent with what was reported by Mango on light hy-drocarbons in terms of the majority of the crude oil data. But the K1 values of coal-generated oils are particularly high (1.35-1.66) and far greater than those of marine oils; heptane values in marine oils,ranging from 32.3% to 45.4%,and isoheptane values,ranging from 1.9 to 3.7,are respectively higher than those of coal-generated oils,in-dicating that the oils are in the high-maturity stage. In addition,expulsion temperatures of coal-generated oils from the Turpan Basin are obviously lower than those of marine oils from the Tazhong area.