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Origins and differences in condensate gas reservoirs between east and west of Tazhong uplift in the Ordovician Tarim Basin, NW China

  • Natural Gas and Coal Geology
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Abstract

The Ordovician of the Tazhong area in the Tarim Basin has suffered multi-cyclic hydrocarbon charging, making Tazhong a typical condensate gas district. In this paper, production and test data were gathered and a detailed comparison was conducted on the geology and the fluid distribution and characteristics between the eastern and western Tazhong area. Eastern and western regions exhibit significant differences in tectonic structure, fluid distribution, and physical-chemical properties of oil and gas. Compared with the eastern region, the western part has a greater development of discordogenic gas associated with strike-slip faults which, combined with the Tazhong No. 1 fault zone, control the fluid distribution. The eastern region is mainly controlled by the Tazhong No. 1 fault zone. Fluid have markedly homogeneous properties in the east, but are heterogeneous in the west. The origins of oil and gas are different between the east and the west. In the east, hydrocarbons are mainly from Ordovician source rocks and natural gas is mostly derived from kerogen pyrolysis. In the west, the hydrocarbons mainly originated from Cambrian source rocks, and the gas was mostly generated by crude oil cracking. In sum, the east region is dominated by primary condensate gas reservoirs, and the western region is dominated by secondary condensate gas reservoirs. Because of the different geological settings and fluid physical properties, differences in the condensate gas reservoirs in the eastern and the western Tazhong area have been analyzed, and appropriate formation mechanisms for condensate gas origins are established.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by a Chinese National 973 Program (Nos. 2011CB201100-03, 2006CB202302) and Chinese National Oil and Gas Program (Nos. 2011ZX05005-004-HZ06, 2011ZX05009-002-402). We thank the Exploration and Development Institute of PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Company for providing the necessary data, and also thank PGRL of RIPED and the State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources of China University of Geosciences (Beijing) for sample extraction, separation, GC, GC-MS and isotope analyses. The reviewers are gratefully acknowledged for their constructive comments and English polish that substantially improved the quality of this paper. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12583-015-0582-3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yinglu Pan, Bingsong Yu & Baotao Zhang

  2. Geological Exploration Institute of Shandong Zhengyuan, China Metallurgical Geology Bureau, Jinan, 250101, China

    Baotao Zhang

  3. Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina, Beijing, 100083, China

    Guangyou Zhu

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  1. Yinglu Pan
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  2. Bingsong Yu
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Correspondence to Baotao Zhang.

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Yinglu Pan: http://orcid-org/0000-0002-5773-1897

Baotao Zhang: http://orcid-org/0000-0001-6386-8059

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Pan, Y., Yu, B., Zhang, B. et al. Origins and differences in condensate gas reservoirs between east and west of Tazhong uplift in the Ordovician Tarim Basin, NW China. J. Earth Sci. 28, 367–380 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-015-0582-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-015-0582-3

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