Revealing new hydrocarbon potential through Q-compensated prestack depth imaging at Wenchang Field, South China Sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 604-609
Author(s):  
Lin Li ◽  
Lie Li ◽  
Tao Xu ◽  
Min Ouyang ◽  
Yonghao Gai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Depth Image ◽  
Hydrocarbon Potential ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Complex Fault ◽  
Complex Fault System

Wenchang Field in the South China Sea contains a well-developed fault system, resulting in complex subsurface geology. Imaging the complex fault system plays an important role in hydrocarbon exploration in this area since the fault system forms a link between the source rocks and reservoirs. However, it is difficult to obtain a high-quality depth image of the fault system due to the effects of complex velocity and seismic absorption. Inaccurate depth velocities lead to fault shadows and structure distortions at the target zone. Absorption effects further deteriorate seismic imaging as they cause amplitude attenuation, phase distortion, and resolution reduction. We demonstrate how a combination of high-resolution depth velocity modeling and Q imaging work together to resolve these challenges. This workflow provides a step change in image quality of the complex fault system and targeted source rocks at Wenchang Field, significantly enhancing structure interpretation and reservoir delineation. A couple of commercial discoveries have been made, and several other potential hydrocarbon reservoirs have been identified based on the reprocessed data, which reveal new hydrocarbon potential in this region.

scholarly journals Palaeoenvironment and Its Control on the Formation of Miocene Marine Source Rocks in the Qiongdongnan Basin, Northern South China Sea

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenhao Li ◽  
Zhihuan Zhang ◽  
Weiming Wang ◽  
Shuangfang Lu ◽  
Youchuan Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
Continental Margin ◽  
South China ◽  
Northern South China Sea ◽  
Qiongdongnan Basin ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Hydrocarbon Potential ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Marine Source ◽  
Main Factors

The main factors of the developmental environment of marine source rocks in continental margin basins have their specificality. This realization, in return, has led to the recognition that the developmental environment and pattern of marine source rocks, especially for the source rocks in continental margin basins, are still controversial or poorly understood. Through the analysis of the trace elements and maceral data, the developmental environment of Miocene marine source rocks in the Qiongdongnan Basin is reconstructed, and the developmental patterns of the Miocene marine source rocks are established. This paper attempts to reveal the hydrocarbon potential of the Miocene marine source rocks in different environment and speculate the quality of source rocks in bathyal region of the continental slope without exploratory well. Our results highlight the palaeoenvironment and its control on the formation of Miocene marine source rocks in the Qiongdongnan Basin of the northern South China Sea and speculate the hydrocarbon potential of the source rocks in the bathyal region. This study provides a window for better understanding the main factors influencing the marine source rocks in the continental margin basins, including productivity, preservation conditions, and the input of terrestrial organic matter.

scholarly journals Quality, hydrocarbon generation, and expulsion of the Eocene Enping Formation source rocks in the Wenchang Depression, western Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 2169-2198
Author(s):  
Jinheng Li ◽  
Dongxia Chen ◽  
Lu Chang ◽  
Guangjie Xie ◽  
Xuebin Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
River Mouth ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Pearl River ◽  
Pearl River Mouth Basin ◽  
Hydrocarbon Generation ◽  
China Sea

Recently, increasing numbers of oil and gas reservoirs have been discovered in the Wenchang Depression, western Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea, revealing prospects for hydrocarbon exploration. The Enping Formation (E3e) is a key target layer for the development of source rocks. However, previous work has only focused on lacustrine swamp source rocks of E3e in the Wenchang A Sag, without a systematic study of shallow lacustrine source rocks. In this study, the quality of E3e shallow lacustrine source rocks is reevaluated, and the hydrocarbon generation and expulsion characteristics are analyzed using relevant geological data and constructing a conceptual model. The results show that the E3e2 source rocks have greater thickness (50–600 m) and similar organic matter abundance (0.5–2.5%) compared with the E3e1 source rocks (50–500 m and 0.5–2.5%). On the whole, the E3e source rocks were deposited in the continental environment and are dominated by Type II and Type III kerogen. Meanwhile, the E3e source rocks of the Wenchang A Sag are in the stage of mature to over mature, while those of the Wenchang B Sag are in the stage of low mature. Vertically, the hydrocarbon generation potential of the E3e2 source rocks is greater than E3e1. Also, the cumulative hydrocarbon production of steep slope in the Wenchang A Sag is larger than that in the Wenchang B Sag. In addition, the corresponding vitrinite reflectances of hydrocarbon expulsion threshold and peak are 0.72 and 0.96%, respectively. Horizontally, four hydrocarbon generation and expulsion centers were mainly concentrated in different subsags of the Wenchang A and B Sags for E3e. The maximum values of hydrocarbon generation and expulsion intensity for E3e1 are 1500 × 104 t/km2 and 1000 × 104 t/km2, respectively, while those for E3e2 are 1800 × 104 t/km2 and 1200 × 104 t/km2, respectively, with the expulsion efficiency of 75%.

Deepwater reservoir prediction using broadband seismic-driven impedance inversion and seismic sedimentology in the South China Sea

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. SO17-SO29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaneng Luo ◽  
Handong Huang ◽  
Yadi Yang ◽  
Qixin Li ◽  
Sheng Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Seismic Data ◽  
Seismic Velocity ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
The South ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Impedance Inversion

In recent years, many important discoveries have been made in the marine deepwater hydrocarbon exploration in the South China Sea, which indicates the huge exploration potential of this area. However, the seismic prediction of deepwater reservoirs is very challenging because of the complex sedimentation, the ghost problem, and the low exploration level with sparse wells in deepwater areas. Conventional impedance inversion methods interpolate the low frequencies from well-log data with the constraints of interpreted horizons to fill in the frequency gap between the seismic velocity and seismic data and thereby recover the absolute impedance values that may be inaccurate and cause biased inversion results if wells are sparse and geology is complex. The variable-depth streamer seismic data contain the missing low frequencies and provide a new opportunity to remove the need to estimate the low-frequency components from well-log data. Therefore, we first developed a broadband seismic-driven impedance inversion approach using the seismic velocity as initial low-frequency model based on the Bayesian framework. The synthetic data example demonstrates that our broadband impedance inversion approach is of high resolution and it can automatically balance between the inversion resolution and stability. Then, we perform seismic sedimentology stratal slices on the broadband seismic data to analyze the depositional evolution history of the deepwater reservoirs. Finally, we combine the broadband amplitude stratal slices with the impedance inversion results to comprehensively predict the distribution of deepwater reservoirs. Real data application results in the South China Sea verify the feasibility and effectiveness of our method, which can provide a guidance for the future deepwater hydrocarbon exploration in this area.

Characterization of Eocene lacustrine source rocks and their oils in the Beibuwan Basin, offshore South China Sea

AAPG Bulletin ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 101 (09) ◽  
pp. 1395-1423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baojia Huang ◽  
Weilin Zhu ◽  
Hui Tian ◽  
Qiuyue Jin ◽  
Xianming Xiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
China Sea

Partitioning between strike-slip and orthogonal extension in the western South China Sea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pan Luo ◽  
Jianye Ren ◽  
Xi He ◽  
Chao Lei ◽  
Junjie Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
Continental Crust ◽  
South China ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Kinematic Evolution ◽  
Mantle Exhumation

<p>Our study focuses on the Zhongjianna (ZJN) (Phu Kham) Basin, located at the western termination of the South China Sea (SCS) and separated from the Indochina continent by the N-S striking East Vietnam Boundary Fault Zone, which is a large scale strike-slip fault system. The sedimentary infill history of the ZJN basin records the complete evolution and interaction of the Indochina-SCS system and allows the tectonic and kinematic evolution of the basin to be understood.. The discovery of hyper-extended continental crust and mantle exhumation in this basin leads to the question of what is the relative role of large-scale strike-slip and orthogonal faulting in controlling crustal thinning in the ZJN basin.  </p><p>  Our preliminary results confirm the existence of hyperextended continental crust flooring the ZJN basin. Two different types of structures can be identified in this area: extension related deformation in the eastern part and strike-slip related deformation in the western part. The analysis of fault geometries and kinematics linked to timing and subsidence rates suggest that the N-S-orientated strike-slip structures dominated the continental shelf and slope area on the west side of the basin. In the basin, however, most faults strike NE-SW and are parallel to the mid-ocean ridge. Thus, it appears that the ZJN basin resulted from the partitioning between strike-slip and orthogonal extension.</p><p>In our presentation we show the results of our seismic interpretation, strain and subsidence analysis and discuss the interaction between strike-slip and orthogonal extension in setting up the hyper-extended ZJN basin and its implications for the large scale tectonic and geodynamic framework.</p>

Pre-tertiary hydrocarbon potential of the South China sea

Energy ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 1165-1177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri Fontaine ◽  
Maurice Mainguy
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Hydrocarbon Potential ◽  
The South ◽  
China Sea
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