Accumulation process and model for the Ordovician buried hill reservoir in the western Lunnan area, the Tarim Basin

Abstract

The Ordovician buried hill reservoir in the western Lunnan area, a type of dissolved fracture and cavernous reservoir, is mainly composed of heavy oil. The oil is the mixture sourcing from the Middle-Lower Cambrian and Middle-Lower Ordovician, with three stages of pool forming process: (1) the destruction and parallel migration/accumulation during the late Caledonian to early Hercynian; (2) the oil and gas accumulation during the late Hercynian characterized by adjustment upward along faults and parallel migration/accumulation; (3) the formation of heavy oil during the latest Hercynian. The Ordovician buried hill reservoir is affected by the diffusion of light oil and gas but had no hydrocarbon charging during the late Yanshan period to Himalayan period, but in this period, formed the association of heavy oil and dissolved gas cracked from crude oil with dry coefficient of 0.91–0.96. The study on accumulation process of the Ordovician buried hill reservoir has important implications for the exploration potential of early oil and gas accumulation in the cratonic area of the Tarim Basin.