Fundamental geological elements for the occurrence of Chinese marine oil and gas accumulations

The Paleozoic strata in the Tarim Basin, Sichuan Basin and Ordos Basin are the major targets for marine petroleum exploration, with developed high quality hydrocarbon, mainly argillite. The deep burial of these source rocks suggests that they mainly develop gas instead of oil. But different maturities of organic matter may lead to different hydrocarbon facies. Through thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR), the hydrocarbon in the carbonate rocks may undergo a process of pyrolytic cracking and be catalyzed into gases. The marine reservoirs mainly consist of carbonate and clastic rocks, and the former is controlled by sedimentary facies, dolomitization, solution, TSR and cracking. The multiphase tectonic cycling develops multiple source-reservoir-cap combinations and diversified types of traps and reservoirs, featuring multiphase reservoir formation, mainly late-phase formation or consolidation. Palaeo-uplifts play a controlling role in hydrocarbon accumulation. Differences in major source rocks in the three basins lead to different locations of oil-gas accumulation layers, different types and patterns of reservoirs and different features of reservoir formation.