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Molecular fossils and sources of Cambrian heavy oil of Well Tadong-2 in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China

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Abstract

Research on the molecular fossil characteristics of heavy oil from Well Tadong-2 is of great importance to constrain the source of marine crude oils in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China. The authors synthetically applied the isotope mass spectrograph, chromatography and chromatography-mass spectrography to the studies of molecular fossil characteristics of heavy oil from Well Tadong-2 in the Tarim Basin, and the results obtained revealed that heavy oil from Well Tadong-2 is characterized by high gammacerane, high C28 sterane, low rearranged sterane and high C27-triaromatic steroid, these characteristics are similar to those of Cambrian-Lower Ordovician source rocks, demonstrating that Cambrian crude oils came from Cambrian-Lower Ordovician source rocks; condensed compounds (fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, bow, benzo fluoranthene, benzopyrene) of high abundance were detected in heavy oil from Well Tadong-2, and the carbon isotopic values of whole oil are evidently heavy, all the above characteristics revealed that hydrocarbons in the crude oils became densified in response to thermal alteration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Exploration Technologies for Oil and Gas Resources, Department of Geochemistry, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, 434023, China

    Youjun Tang

  2. Faculty of Natural Resources & Information Technology, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China

    Youjun Tang & Ling Zan

Authors
  1. Youjun Tang
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  2. Ling Zan
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Correspondence to Youjun Tang.

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Tang, Y., Zan, L. Molecular fossils and sources of Cambrian heavy oil of Well Tadong-2 in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China. Chin. J. Geochem. 28, 314–319 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-009-0314-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-009-0314-4

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