The Silurian reservoir bed-differentiated asphalts in Tarim Basin and modeling experiments on their origin

Abstract

There is a type of asphalt that originated from differentiation from reservoir bed (named reservoir bed-differentiated asphalt) in the Silurian asphaltic sandstones of the Tarim Basin. These asphalts are the result of second-time charging of hydrocarbons into the Silurian reservoir, which were derived from Lower Paleozoic source rocks. Asphalt was differentiated from the reservoir bed in the hydrocarbon gathering area of secondary migration. The differentiation is caused by changes in reservoir physical properties when pearl or chain hydrocarbons migrating through and gathering in the reservoir bed, and light components are lost and heavy ones are involved in the formation of asphalt or heavy oil. There are two kinds of occurrence of these asphalts in the Silurian system of the Tarim Basin. One is the poor heavy oil layer with lower oil saturation in trap and the other is scattered hydrocarbon distributed along the transport layer and unconformity surface. Reservoir bed-differentiated asphalts have two characteristics: total hydrocarbon content is high in extractable organic matter and the ratio of saturated to aromatic hydrocarbon is usually greater than unity. The physically modeling experiment has confirmed these characteristics and the genesis of the reservoir bed-differentiated asphalts.