Abstract
Regular steranes occur ubiquitously in petroleum and hydrocarbon source rocks as an important composition part of biological markers. Abnormal regular sterane distribution occurring in hydrocarbon source rocks and crude oils has been widely reported in recent years, but their origin and genetic mechanism are unclear. This research gives an overview of regular steranes in sediments and crude oils, and states its possible development directions in the future. Based on systematic research on compound-specific carbon isotope compositions of regular steranes in sediments and crude oils using separation, enrichment, and purification of regular steranes in sediments and crude oils, combined with organic petrological, micropaleontological, and sedimentary geochemical characteristics of hydrocarbon source rocks with abnormal distribution of regular steranes, the occurrence, variation and main controlling factors of these compounds will be discussed, thus further uncovering their genetic mechanism and probing into their application on assessment of organic matter source, depositional environment and thermal maturity, as well as oil and source correlation. It not only enriches and improves the approaches and theories on biomarker study, but also will be the breakthrough for the new theory and application in oil and gas exploration.
Highlights
As an important component of biological markers, steranes
Abnormal regular sterane distribution occurring in hydrocarbon source rocks and crude oils has been widely reported in recent years, but their origin and genetic mechanism are unclear
Zhang hydro phenanthrene), regular steranes, distribute in hydrocarbon source rocks and crude oils, referring to a class of tetracylic compound with an alkyl side chain, in which an anglur methyl exists both in A/B ring and C/D rings
Summary
Based on the study of relative abundance and composition of C27, C28 and C29 sterols in various organisms and modern sediments in Mexico Bay, Huang and Meinshein (1979, 1981) [5] [6] suggested that algae was the predominant primary producer of C27-sterols, while C29-sterols were more typically associated with terrestrial land plants On this basis, they proposed the distribution of C27, C28 and C29 sterols could be used to differentiate the organic matter source. Based on the previous literatures and researches, this paper systematically summarizes the researches status of abnormal regular sterane distributions to discuss the development directions of abnormal regular streane distributions in the future, which may provide some new information for a better understanding of origins and genetic mechanisms of regular steranes with abnormal distributions in the future This is one of the most interesting scientific issues in organic geochemistry field, and a breakthrough for the new theories and applications in oil and gas exploration
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