Development characteristics and petroleum geological significance of Permian pyroclastic flow volcanic rocks in Western Sichuan Basin, SW China

Abstract

By examining field outcrops, drilling cores and seismic data, it is concluded that the Middle and Late Permian “Emeishan basalts” in Western Sichuan Basin were developed in two large eruption cycles, and the two sets of igneous rocks are in unconformable contact. The lower cycle is dominated by overflow volcanic rocks; while the upper cycle made up of pyroclastic flow volcanic breccia and pyroclastic lava is typical explosive facies accumulation. With high-quality micro-dissolution pores and ultra-fine dissolution pores, the upper cycle is a set of high-quality porous reservoir. Based on strong heterogeneity and great differences of pyroclastic flow subfacies from surrounding rocks in lithology and physical properties, the volcanic facies and volcanic edifices in Western Sichuan were effectively predicted and characterized by using seismic attribute analysis method and instantaneous amplitude and instantaneous frequency coherence analysis. The pyroclastic flow volcanic rocks are widely distributed in the Jianyang area. Centering around wells YT1, TF2 and TF8, the volcanic rocks in Jianyang area had 3 edifice groups and an area of about 500 km2 which is the most favorable area for oil and gas exploration in volcanic rocks.