Oil Generation from Marine and Lacustrine Environments

Abstract

There has been a debate for a long time between Western and Asian academics about whether oil can be found in freshwater sediments. After decades of exploration, Chinese petroleum geologists not only found oils in the Mesozoic–Cenozoic lacustrine sedimentary basins, but also established several giant oil fields with over hundred million tons of reserve, such as Daqing and Shengli. The achievements justified their persistence on the perception of lacustrine oil generation. However, there are still some issues that have not been solved yet such as the differences between marine and lacustrine originated oils, mechanisms and theories of marine and lacustrine oil generation even though it is widely accepted that both marine and lacustrine sediments can generate oil.