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New equation to decipher the relationship between carbon isotopic composition of methane and maturity of gas source rocks

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Abstract

The identification of the origin and source of natural gas is always a difficult and hot issue. Hereinto, the maturity identification is one of the most important scientific problems. Many empirical equations have been established to decipher the relationship between the maturity of gas source rocks and the carbon isotopic composition of natural gas. However, these equations proposed often fail to identify the maturity of the source rocks correctly, which in turn prevents the identification of genetic types and source rocks of the natural gas because the petroliferous sedimentary basins in China are complex and diverse, with multiple sets of source rocks and different thermal history. In this paper, the oil-associated gas from the Permian lacustrine source rocks and the coal-derived gas from the Jurassic source rocks in Junggar and Turpan-Hami basins have been investigated to decipher the relationship between the maturity (vitrinite reflectance) of gas source rocks and the carbon isotopic composition of methane. The equations established are δ13C1=25lgRo−42.5 for oil-associated gas, and δ13C1=25lgRo−37.5 for coal-derived gas. These new equations are suitable for the maturity identification of source rocks in most petroliferous basins, and favorable for the identification of the genetic type and source of natural gas, which is very important to improve the geological theory of natural gas.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank PetroChina for permission to publish this paper. Thanks are expressed to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and questions. Thanks also to Dr. Yueqian ZHANG, Dr. Yiqin JIANG and senior engineer Jiande LIAO who have provided a large amount of geological and geochemical data. This work was supported by the Scientific Research and Technology Development Project of PetroChina (Grant No. 2019A-0209).

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  1. PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Beijing, 100083, China

    Jianping Chen, Yunyan Ni, Fengrong Liao & Limiao Yao

  2. PetroChina Xinjiang Oilfield Company, Karamay, 834000, China

    Xulong Wang, Baoli Xiang, Wenjun He & Erting Li

  3. College of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing, 102249, China

    Jianfa Chen

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Chen, J., Wang, X., Chen, J. et al. New equation to decipher the relationship between carbon isotopic composition of methane and maturity of gas source rocks. Sci. China Earth Sci. 64, 470–493 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9692-1

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