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Integrated gravity and magnetic study on patterns of petroleum basin occurrence in the China seas and adjacent areas

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Abstract

The China seas and adjacent areas contain numerous petroleum basins. One of the main challenges for future oil and gas exploration is to identify the inherent patterns of petroleum basin distribution. The formation and evolution of petroleum basins along with the migration and accumulation of oil and gas are often closely related to the tectonic environment. The gravity and magnetic fields with high lateral resolution and wide coverage provide important data for regional tectonic research. Based on the gravity data in the Global Satellite Gravity Anomaly Database (V31.1) and magnetic data from the Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid (2-arc-minute resolution) (V2), this study uses integrated gravity and magnetic field technique to obtain integrated gravity and magnetic field result for the China seas and adjacent areas, and then adopts the normalized vertical derivative of the total horizontal derivative technique to conduct partition. Finally, it identifies the relationship between the partition characteristics and tectonics as well as the patterns of petroleum basin occurrence. The research shows that the partition of gravity and magnetic field integrated result has a good correlation with the Neo-Cathaysian tectonic system and tectonic units. The petroleum basins are characterized according to three blocks arranged from north to south and four zones arranged from east to west. The north–south block structure causes the uneven distribution of oil and gas resources in the mainland area and the differences in the hydrocarbon-bearing strata. Petroleum basins are more abundant in the north than in the south. The ages of the main oil- and gas-bearing strata are “Paleozoic-Mesozoic, Paleozoic-Mesozoic-Cenozoic, and Paleozoic-Mesozoic”, in order from north to south. The difference in the overall type of oil and gas resources in all basins is controlled by the east-west zonation. From east to west, the oil and gas resource type exhibits a wave-like pattern of “oil and gas, gas, oil and gas, gas”. The vertical distribution is characterized by an upper oil (Mesozoic-Cenozoic) and lower gas (Mesozoic-Paleozoic) structure. Within the study area, the Paleozoic marine strata should be the main strata of future natural gas exploration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Gravity and Magnetic Technology, Key Laboratory of Western China’s Mineral Resources and Geological Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Geology Engineering and Geomatics, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Tao He, Wanyin Wang, Xingang Luo, Jing Ma & Yimi Zhang

  2. National Engineering Research Center of Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, Beijing, 100028, China

    Wanyin Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Wanyin Wang

  4. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Research Institute Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100027, China

    Zhizhao Bai

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, A1B 3X5, Canada

    Tao He, Xingang Luo & Yimi Zhang

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  1. Tao He
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  2. Wanyin Wang
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  3. Zhizhao Bai
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  4. Xingang Luo
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Correspondence to Wanyin Wang.

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Foundation item: The Scientific and Technological Project of CNOOC Research Institute Co., Ltd., under contract No. CCL2021RCPS0167KQN.

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He, T., Wang, W., Bai, Z. et al. Integrated gravity and magnetic study on patterns of petroleum basin occurrence in the China seas and adjacent areas. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 42, 201–214 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-022-2139-5

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