Petroleum geology features and research developments of hydrocarbon accumulation in deep petroliferous basins

Abstract

As petroleum exploration advances and as most of the oil–gas reservoirs in shallow layers have been explored, petroleum exploration starts to move toward deep basins, which has become an inevitable choice. In this paper, the petroleum geology features and research progress on oil–gas reservoirs in deep petroliferous basins across the world are characterized by using the latest results of worldwide deep petroleum exploration. Research has demonstrated that the deep petroleum shows ten major geological features. (1) While oil–gas reservoirs have been discovered in many different types of deep petroliferous basins, most have been discovered in low heat flux deep basins. (2) Many types of petroliferous traps are developed in deep basins, and tight oil–gas reservoirs in deep basin traps are arousing increasing attention. (3) Deep petroleum normally has more natural gas than liquid oil, and the natural gas ratio increases with the burial depth. (4) The residual organic matter in deep source rocks reduces but the hydrocarbon expulsion rate and efficiency increase with the burial depth. (5) There are many types of rocks in deep hydrocarbon reservoirs, and most are clastic rocks and carbonates. (6) The age of deep hydrocarbon reservoirs is widely different, but those recently discovered are predominantly Paleogene and Upper Paleozoic. (7) The porosity and permeability of deep hydrocarbon reservoirs differ widely, but they vary in a regular way with lithology and burial depth. (8) The temperatures of deep oil–gas reservoirs are widely different, but they typically vary with the burial depth and basin geothermal gradient. (9) The pressures of deep oil–gas reservoirs differ significantly, but they typically vary with burial depth, genesis, and evolution period. (10) Deep oil–gas reservoirs may exist with or without a cap, and those without a cap are typically of unconventional genesis. Over the past decade, six major steps have been made in the understanding of deep hydrocarbon reservoir formation. (1) Deep petroleum in petroliferous basins has multiple sources and many different genetic mechanisms. (2) There are high-porosity, high-permeability reservoirs in deep basins, the formation of which is associated with tectonic events and subsurface fluid movement. (3) Capillary pressure differences inside and outside the target reservoir are the principal driving force of hydrocarbon enrichment in deep basins. (4) There are three dynamic boundaries for deep oil–gas reservoirs; a buoyancy-controlled threshold, hydrocarbon accumulation limits, and the upper limit of hydrocarbon generation. (5) The formation and distribution of deep hydrocarbon reservoirs are controlled by free, limited, and bound fluid dynamic fields. And (6) tight conventional, tight deep, tight superimposed, and related reconstructed hydrocarbon reservoirs formed in deep-limited fluid dynamic fields have great resource potential and vast scope for exploration. Compared with middle–shallow strata, the petroleum geology and accumulation in deep basins are more complex, which overlap the feature of basin evolution in different stages. We recommend that further study should pay more attention to four aspects: (1) identification of deep petroleum sources and evaluation of their relative contributions; (2) preservation conditions and genetic mechanisms of deep high-quality reservoirs with high permeability and high porosity; (3) facies feature and transformation of deep petroleum and their potential distribution; and (4) economic feasibility evaluation of deep tight petroleum exploration and development.