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The newly discovered Yanchang gas field in the Ordos Basin, central China

  • Natural Gas and Coal Geology
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Abstract

The Yanchang gas field is located in the Ordos Basin of central China to the southeast of the Yishan Slope, covers an exploration area of 2.6×104 km2 and has approximately 3.5×1011 m3 of gas reserves. The gas field is dominated by lithologic gas reservoirs but also has a few structural gas reservoirs. Sand bodies were deposited in the Carboniferous Benxi Formation around offshore barrier islands and in distributary channel fillings in the delta front of the P1 s 2 and P1 s 1 divisions of the Permian Shanxi Formation. The P2 h 8 division of the Shihezi Formation contains the main reservoirs. The depths of the reservoirs are between 1 970 and 3 500 m. The Yanchang gas field can be classified as a typical tight sandstone gas reservoir filed because its porosity is lower than 10% and permeability lower than 1 mD. The discovery and development of the Yanchang gas field has led to a great increase in total natural gas reserves in the Ordos Basin. Its exploration has improved methods of locating large gas fields in deep-water depositional environments in the south part of the basin.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Li Yun, Xiao Tiequan, Jiang Lei, Wang Zhenchuan, Bai Ning, Tian Chuanchuan and Miss Du Yujie, for their helpful discussions in the relevant research. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12583-015-0661-5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oil and Gas Exploration Company, Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co., LTD, Yan’an, 716000, China

    Hairen Gao & Weili Wang

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  1. Hairen Gao
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  2. Weili Wang
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Correspondence to Weili Wang.

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Hairen Gao: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5545-2782

Weili Wang: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3435-3846

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Gao, H., Wang, W. The newly discovered Yanchang gas field in the Ordos Basin, central China. J. Earth Sci. 28, 347–357 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-015-0661-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-015-0661-5

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