Controls on the quality of Archean metamorphic and Jurassic volcanic reservoir rocks from the Xinglongtai buried hill, western depression of Liaohe basin, China

Abstract

Jinglan Luo received her B.Sc. degree and M.Sc. degree from Northwest University, China, in 1982 and 1986, respectively. She is now a professor of hydrocarbon and mineral resources exploration at Northwest University. She has been focusing her research interests on depositional facies and diagenetic controls on siliciclastic reservoir-quality evolution and volcanic rock-related reservoir characterization since 1989. She has finished 18 research projects on siliclastic depositional systems and facies, reservoir characterization, and 5 volcanic rock-related reservoir characterization research projects, and has published 33 articles in China and abroad.Sadoon Morad obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Baghdad University, Iraq, and his Ph.D. from Uppsala University, Sweden. Presently, he is a clastic petrology professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University. He has worked in the field of clastic diagenesis during the past 27 years. His research interest during the last six years is focusing on linking diagenesis and impact on reservoir quality of sandstones to depositional facies and sequence stratigraphy.The common belief among many petroleum geologists that regions of volcanic and metamorphic rocks are generally to be avoided as potential hydrocarbon reservoirs has greatly slowed the research and exploration efforts on hydrocarbon potential in volcanic and metamorphic rocks. However, many hydrocarbon-bearing basins containing volcanic and metamorphic rocks have been found in convergent margin settings and in rift basins. This article describes the reservoir lithofacies and wire-line logs and elucidates the parameters controlling reservoir-quality evolution of Archean metamorphic and Jurassic volcanic rocks from the Xinglongtai buried hill, western depression of the Liaohe basin, China. Four lithofacies (pyroclastics, lavas, volcaniclastics, and volcaniclastic-epiclastics) have been identified in the Jurassic volcanic reservoir rocks, each having different pore types and variable porosity and permeability values and, thus, different reservoir potentials. Pore types in the volcanic rocks include voids, fractures, fissures, weathering cracks, interstices, and vesicles. The volcanic-rock reservoir evolution is primarily controlled by the burial-thermal diagenesis. Plastic deformation and alteration of the biotite during the eogenetic phase led to the considerable loss of primary pores. Destruction of the primary porosity by compaction was limited by the presence of eogenetic carbonate and zeolite cement formation. Dissolution during the deep-burial mesogenetic phase and during near-surface leaching and erosion in the intervening volcanic eruptions enhanced the permeability and increased reservoir quality.The pore types in the Archean metamorphic reservoir include fractures, dissolution voids, and weathering fissures. Where the Jurassic volcanic rocks or the Paleogene source rocks directly cover the weathered zone, the fissures and fractures have remained open, but where the metamorphic rocks are covered...

Hydrocarbon accumulation mechanism and structure of large-scale volcanic weathering crust of the Carboniferous in northern Xinjiang, China

“…Effective reservoirs cannot form in volcanic rocks of other lithofacies and lithologies [35]. Productivity of the volcanic reservoir is controlled by the original reservoir space [36][37][38]. Compared with the original volcanic rocks, the reservoir properties of the volcanic weathered crust are better, and they are controlled by the structure of the weathered crust, secondary pores, and the micro-fractures.…”

Pore Distribution Characteristics of the Igneous Reservoirs in the Eastern Sag of the Liaohe Depression

“…At present, there are many igneous reservoirs in Songliao, Bohaiwan, Junggar and Sichuan Basins which show great exploration potential [8,9]. In recent years, great progress has been made in the examinations of volcanic reservoirs, including studies regarding the classifications of lithology and lithofacies [10][11][12][13][14], variations in porosity and permeability [15,16], classification of reservoir space types [17][18][19], forming mechanisms [20][21][22][23], reservoir seismic identification [24][25][26][27], reservoir evaluation and prediction [9,12,18,21], and so on.…”

Buried-hill play, Jizhong subbasin, Bohai Bay basin: A review and future propespectivity

“…Tong and Huang (1991) documented the buried-hill discoveries in the Damintun depression of the Liaohe subbasin, which hosts the second largest oil reserves in buried-hill traps just behind the Jizhong subbasin in the Bohai Bay basin. Luo et al (2005) gave a detailed description of the Archean metamorphic and Jurassic volcanic reservoir rocks in the Xinlongtai buried-hill field in the Liaohe subbasin, which is included in the database by GeoScience Limited (2012). The petroleum system in the Bohai Bay basin is comprehensively discussed in Ryder et al (2012).…”