Gas formation mechanism of marine carbonate source rocks in China

Abstract

By breaking through the conventional ideology on the study of gas-formation mechanism of source rocks which focused on merely the characteristics of source rocks themselves, and based on the development and distribution characteristics of marine carbonate source rocks in the medium-to-bottom parts of the Chinese superimposed sedimentary basins as well as various processes in the course of gas generation and reservoir forming, the complex hydrocarbon-generating model of carbonates is established. Such a model concerns not only the “three-stage” gas formation characteristics of carbonates, but also the gas generation process due to a thermal cracking of oil and the re-generation process of gas from heated secondary organic matters during the gas-generation and reservoir-forming course. The high-quality hydrocarbon generating matter of marine carbonate source rocks determined a high gas-oil ratio and tended to form paleo-oil-reservoirs, representing an enrichment process of organic matters. The thermal cracking of oil in palaeo-oil-reservoirs is an important means for the effective formation of gas reservoirs. The secondary organic matters in carbonate reservoirs may regenerate gas after a secondary deep burial, thus becoming an effective gas source.