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The occurrence and distribution of hydrocarbons exert fundamental control on the mobility and “sweet spot” identification of shale oil systems. Here, we report both quantitative and visual qualitative analyses of shale oil occurrence assisted by petrophysical and geochemical approaches. Oil-bearing shales were extracted using a ternary azeotropic solvent extraction system and then were characterized for pore structure, fractal characteristics, and chemical compositions. The results found that soluble organic matter is mainly controlled by clay minerals because of the strong interaction between the interparticle pores of clays and the extracted hydrocarbons. After solvent extraction, the pore volume, specific surface area, and heterogeneity of shales are all significantly enhanced. The light and heavy hydrocarbons of the extracted soluble organic matter reside in pores with different scales. The light hydrocarbons (aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons) are mainly stored in fine mesopores with pore diameters less than 20 nm, while the heavy hydrocarbons (resins and asphaltenes) reside in macropores. New evidence from field emission scanning electron microscopy images shows that native hydrocarbons are expulsed from kerogen–clay aggregates and provide rare in situ information about the microscopic distribution of moveable hydrocarbons in shale oil systems. This study improves the understanding of the occurrence of hydrocarbons in shale oil.

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The abundance of organic matter in shales, which has a direct effect on the hydrocarbon generation potential of shales, is an important organic geochemical parameter for evaluating shale gas reservoirs. The total organic carbon content (TOC content) in shale is controlled by the abundance of original sedimentary organic matter. Therefore, it is very important to study the mechanism of organic matter enrichment in shale. In this paper, the Lower Cambrian marine shales from the Lower Yangtze region are selected as the research subject, most of which originate from a typical area well called Well JXY1. The degree of pyritization (DOP) is used to characterize the redox environment of the water body, while the P/Al ratio is used to analyze the biological productivity of paleoseawater. The paleosalinity of seawater is calculated via carbon and oxygen isotope analysis. In addition, the early Cambrian hydrothermal activities were studied by using core description; Si, Al, Fe, and Mn elemental analysis; and oxygen isotope calculations. The results show that during the early Cambrian Wangyinpu sedimentary period, the seawater was an anaerobic water body with H2S, and the oxygen concentration was approximately 0 mL/L. In the middle stages of the Wangyinpu sedimentary period, the water body had the strongest reducibility and the highest biological productivity. Moreover, the paleoocean in this period between the Yangtze plate and the Cathaysian plate was greatly affected by hydrothermal activities, with temperatures ranging from 90°C to 120°C. Active hydrothermal activities promoted high biological productivity and an anaerobic environment, both of which were conducive to the preservation and enrichment of organic matter, resulting in extremely high TOC content in the Wangyinpu shales (from 6.5% to approximately 16%).