Aromatic compounds in crude oils and source rocks and their application to oil–source rock correlations in the Tarim basin, NW China

Abstract

Ten series of aromatic hydrocarbons (biphenyls; naphthalenes; phenanthrenes; anthracenes; retenes; chrysenes; benzoanthracenes; dibenzofurans; fluorenes; and dibenzothiophenes) isolated from Cambrian and Ordovician marine carbonate source rocks in Tabei and Tazhong areas of the Tarim Basin, and Triassic and Jurassic lacustrine mudstones and swamp coals in the Kuche depression have been characterized by GC-MS. The same series of aromatic compounds have been isolated and characterized from crude oils of the Tabei and Tazhong uplift. Results presented in this paper describe the distribution of these aromatic compounds in crude oils and source rocks from the three different kinds of sedimentary environments. Similarities in distributions of the fluorenes and the dibenzothiophenes in the aromatic fractions suggest the Tabei uplift oils are derived predominantly from the Lower Ordovician marine source rocks of Tabei Lunnan area (on the south of Luntai) and the oils from Tazhong uplift are mainly derived from Upper Cambrian, Lower Ordovician, and Middle–Upper Ordovician marine source rocks of Tazhong area.