Petroleum in the Junggar basin, northwestern China

Abstract

The Junggar basin occupies a large triangular area of some 130 000 km 2 in northwestern China. Situated between the Altay Shan (Altay Range) on the northeast and the Tian Shan (Tian Range) on the southwest, and between lesser ranges around the remainder of its periphery, the Junggar basin is completely intermontane. Its history as a basin began in the Permian, and continued as various uplifts and downwarps evolved. Through the Paleozoic the characteristics of the Junggar basin area were largely geosynclinal and marine. Its post-Permian development took place exclusively in continental regimes. Inhabitants of the Junggar basin have known and utilized its numerous oil and asphalt seeps and its spectacular spreads of asphalt for more than 2000 years, especially in the Karamay-Urho thrust belt near the northwestern rim. The first discovery of oil in the modern sense came at Dushanzi, one of the steeply folded anticlines of theÜrümqi foredeep near the southern rim. The first shallow oil in the Karamay-Urho thrust belt came in 1937, followed by commercial production in the Karamay field in 1955. Output continued to be modest until wells were drilled through local thrusts and reverse faults in the early 1980s. By 1985, cumulative production of the Karamay group of fields had reached 42,000,000 t (metric tonnes) (306,000,000 bbl), with a calculated minimum ultimate recovery of 280,000,000 t (2 billion bbl). Principal production comes from Permian and Triassic strata in continental facies. Apart from marine Mid and Upper Carboniferous strata, source rocks occur mainly in fine-grained lacustrine detrital beds of the Permian, the Triassic, the Jurassic and the Tertiary. Several uplifts and downwarps elsewhere in the Junggar basin remain to be drilled comprehensively. Results from such drilling may enhance the very important position that the Junggar already has attained in the hierarchy of China's onshore basins.