Origin and Sources of Minerals and Their Impact on the Hydrocarbon Reservoir Quality of the PaleogeneLulehe Formation in the Eboliang Area, Northern Qaidam Basin, China

The Lulehe sandstone in the Eboliang area is a major target for hydrocarbon exploration in the northern Qaidam Basin. Based on an integrated analysis including thin section analysis, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, cathodoluminescence investigation, backscattered electron images, carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis and fluid inclusion analysis, the diagenetic processes mainly include compaction, cementation by carbonate and quartz, formation of authigenic clay minerals (i.e., chlorite, kaolinite, illite-smectite and illite) and dissolution of unstable materials. Compaction is the main factor for the deterioration of reservoir quality; in addition, calcitecement and clay minerals are present, including kaolinite, pore-filling chlorite, illite-smectite and illite, which also account for reservoir quality reduction. Integration of petrographic studies and isotope geochemistry reveals the carbonate cements might have originated from mixed sources of bioclast- and organic-derived CO2 during burial. The quartz cement probably formed by feldspar dissolution, illitization of smectite and kaolinite, as well as pressure solution of quartz grains. Smectite, commonly derived from alteration of volcanic rock fragments, may have been the primary clay mineral precursor of chlorite. In addition, authigenic kaolinite is closely associated with feldspar dissolution, suggesting that alteration of detrital feldspar grains was the most probable source for authigenic kaolinite. With the increase in temperature and consumption of organic acids, the ratio of K+/H+ increases and the stability field of kaolinite is greatly reduced, thereby transforming kaolinite into mixed layer illite/smectite and illite. Within the study area, porosity increases with chlorite content up to approximately 3% volume and then decreases slightly, indicating that chlorite coatings are beneficial at an optimum volume of 3%. A benefit of the dissolution of unstable minerals and feldspar grains is the occurrence of secondary porosity, which may enhance porosity to some extent. However, the solutes cannot be transported over a large scale in the deep burial environment, and simultaneous precipitation of byproducts of feldspar dissolution such as authigenic kaolinite and quartz cement will occur in situ or in adjacent pores, resulting in heterogeneity of the reservoirs.

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Depositional facies, diagenetic clay minerals and reservoir quality of Rotliegend sediments in the Southern Permian Basin (North Sea): a review

Clay Minerals ◽

10.1180/claymin.1982.017.1.06 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 55-67 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

U. Seemann

Keyword(s):

Clay Minerals ◽

North Sea ◽

Effective Porosity ◽

Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽

Reservoir Quality ◽

Burial Diagenesis ◽

Permian Basin ◽

Northern Margin ◽

The North

AbstractThe Southern Permian Basin of the North Sea represents an elongate E-W oriented depo-centre along the northern margin of the Variscan Mountains. During Rotliegend times, three roughly parallel facies belts of a Permian desert developed, these following the outline of the Variscan Mountains. These belts were, from south to north, the wadi facies, the dune and interdune facies, and the sabkha and desert lake facies. The bulk of the gas reservoirs of the Rotliegend occur in the aeolian dune sands. Their recognition, and the study of their geometry, is therefore important in hydrocarbon exploration. Equally important is the understanding of diagenesis, particularly of the diageneticaily-formed clay minerals, because they have an important influence on the reservoir quality of these sands. Clay minerals were introduced to the aeolian sands during or shortly after their deposition in the form of air-borne dust, which later formed thin clay films around the grains. During burial diagenesis, these clay films may have acted as crystallization nuclei for new clay minerals or for the transformation of existing ones. Depending on their crystallographic habit, the clay minerals can seriously affect the effective porosity and permeability of the sands.

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Feldspar Dissolution and Its Influence on Reservoirs: A Case Study of the Lower Triassic Baikouquan Formation in the Northwest Margin of the Junggar Basin, China

Geofluids ◽

10.1155/2018/6536419 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-19 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Meng Xiao ◽

Xuanjun Yuan ◽

Dawei Cheng ◽

Songtao Wu ◽

Zhenglin Cao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Clay Minerals ◽

Physical Property ◽

Junggar Basin ◽

Sedimentary Facies ◽

Lower Triassic ◽

Depositional Environments ◽

Source Rocks ◽

Reservoir Quality ◽

Delta Plain ◽

Feldspar Dissolution

Feldspar dissolution is a common feature in clastic rock reservoirs of petroliferous basins and has an important influence on reservoir quality. However, the effect of feldspar dissolution on reservoir quality varies under different depositional environments and diagenetic systems. The study area in this paper is located in the Baikouquan Formation in the northwestern margin of the Junggar Basin, which is significantly influenced by feldspar dissolution. Based on the analyses of core and thin section observations, QEMSEM, XRD, SEM, CL, fluorescence, and image analysis software combined with logging and physical property data, this study shows that feldspar dissolution in the subaqueous distributary channel of a fan delta plain, which has good original physical properties and low mud contents, significantly improves the properties of the reservoir. The main reasons for this are as follows: (1) the sedimentary facies with good original properties and low mud content is a relatively open system in the burial stage. The acidic fluids needed for feldspar dissolution are mostly derived from organic acids associated with the source rocks and migrate to the good-permeability area of the reservoir; (2) the by-products of feldspar dissolution, such as authigenic clay minerals and authigenic quartz, are transported by pore water in a relatively open diagenetic system and then precipitated in a relatively closed diagenetic system; and (3) the clay minerals produced by feldspar dissolution in different diagenetic environments and diagenetic stages have different effects on the reservoir. When the kaolinite content is less than 3%, the illite content is less than 4%, and the chlorite content is less than 12%, the clay minerals have a positive effect on the porosity. These clay minerals can reduce porosity and block pore throats when their contents are larger than these values.

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Tectonostratigraphic development and hydrocarbon reservoir quality on a convergent margin: East Coast, North Island, New Zealand

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj08073 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 600

Author(s):

Brad Field ◽

Jan Baur ◽

Kyle Bland ◽

Greg Browne ◽

Angela Griffin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Cretaceous ◽

East Coast ◽

Fractured Reservoirs ◽

Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽

Passive Margin ◽

Source Rocks ◽

Reservoir Quality ◽

High Porosity ◽

Hydrocarbon Reservoir ◽

Reservoir Potential

Hydrocarbon exploration on the East Coast of the North Island has not yet yielded significant commercial reserves, even though the elements of a working petroleum system are all present (Field et al, 1997). Exploration has focussed on the shallow, Neogene part of the succession, built up during plate margin convergence over the last ∼24 million years. Convergent margins are generally characterised by low-total organic carbon (TOC) source rocks and poor clastic reservoir quality due to poor sorting and labile grains. However, the obliquely-convergent Hikurangi subduction margin of the East Coast has high TOC source rocks that pre-date the subduction phase, and its reservoir potential, though variable, has several aspects in its favour, namely: deep-water rocks of high porosity and permeability; preservation of pore space by overpressure; the presence of fractured reservoirs and hybrid reservoirs, where low clastic permeability is enhanced by fractures. The East Coast North Island is a Neogene oblique subduction margin, with Neogene shelf and slope basins that developed on Late Cretaceous-Paleogene passive margin marine successions. The main hydrocarbon source rocks are Late Cretaceous and Paleocene and the main reservoir potential is in the Neogene (Field et al, 2005). Miocene mudstones with good seal potential are common, as is significant over-pressuring. Neogene deformation controlled basin development and accommodation space and strongly-influenced lateral facies development and fractured reservoirs. Early to Middle Miocene thrusting was followed by later Neogene extension (e.g. Barnes et al 2002), with a return to thrusting in the Pliocene. Local wells have flow-tested gas shows.

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An integrated life cycle and water footprint assessment of nonfood crops based bioenergy production

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-83061-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jun Li ◽

Fengyin Xiong ◽

Zhuo Chen

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Large Scale ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Arable Land ◽

Integrated Analysis ◽

Actual Performance ◽

Bioenergy Production ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Hybrid Pennisetum

AbstractBiomass gasification, especially distribution to power generation, is considered as a promising way to tackle global energy and environmental challenges. However, previous researches on integrated analysis of the greenhouse gases (GHG) abatement potentials associated with biomass electrification are sparse and few have taken the freshwater utilization into account within a coherent framework, though both energy and water scarcity are lying in the central concerns in China’s environmental policy. This study employs a Life cycle assessment (LCA) model to analyse the actual performance combined with water footprint (WF) assessment methods. The inextricable trade-offs between three representative energy-producing technologies are explored based on three categories of non-food crops (maize, sorghum and hybrid pennisetum) cultivated in marginal arable land. WF results demonstrate that the Hybrid pennisetum system has the largest impact on the water resources whereas the other two technology options exhibit the characteristics of environmental sustainability. The large variances in contribution ratio between the four sub-processes in terms of total impacts are reflected by the LCA results. The Anaerobic Digestion process is found to be the main contributor whereas the Digestate management process is shown to be able to effectively mitigate the negative environmental impacts with an absolute share. Sensitivity analysis is implemented to detect the impacts of loss ratios variation, as silage mass and methane, on final results. The methane loss has the largest influence on the Hybrid pennisetum system, followed by the Maize system. Above all, the Sorghum system demonstrates the best performance amongst the considered assessment categories. Our study builds a pilot reference for further driving large-scale project of bioenergy production and conversion. The synergy of combined WF-LCA method allows us to conduct a comprehensive assessment and to provide insights into environmental and resource management.

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Mineral exploration with 3-D controlled-source electromagnetic method: a synthetic study of Sukhoi Log gold deposit

Geophysical Journal International ◽

10.1093/gji/ggz390 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 219 (3) ◽

pp. 1698-1716 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

M Malovichko ◽

A V Tarasov ◽

N Yavich ◽

M S Zhdanov

Keyword(s):

Finite Difference ◽

Gold Deposit ◽

Large Scale ◽

Mineral Exploration ◽

Mineral Deposit ◽

Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽

Contraction Operator ◽

Inversion Algorithm ◽

Controlled Source ◽

Regularized Inversion

SUMMARY This paper presents a feasibility study of using the controlled-source frequency-domain electromagnetic (CSEM) method in mineral exploration. The method has been widely applied for offshore hydrocarbon exploration; however, nowadays this method is rarely used on land. In order to conduct this study, we have developed a fully parallelized forward modelling finite-difference (FD) code based on the iterative solver with contraction-operator preconditioner. The regularized inversion algorithm uses the Gauss–Newton method to minimize the Tikhonov parametric functional with the Laplacian-type stabilizer. A 3-D parallel inversion code, based on the iterative finite-difference solver with the contraction-operator preconditioner, has been evaluated for the solution of the large-scale inverse problems. Using the computer simulation for a synthetic model of Sukhoi Log gold deposit, we have compared the CSEM method with the conventional direct current sounding and the CSEM survey with a single remote transmitter. Our results suggest that, a properly designed electromagnetic survey together with modern 3-D inversion could provide detailed information about the geoelectrical structure of the mineral deposit.

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Understanding the Flow Dynamics of CO2 Plumes in the Subsurface

10.2118/207539-ms ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Florence Letitia Bebb ◽

Kate Clare Serena Evans ◽

Jagannath Mukherjee ◽

Bilal Saeed ◽

Geovani Christopher

Keyword(s):

Carbon Capture ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Co2 Storage ◽

Flow Dynamics ◽

Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽

Hydrocarbon Reservoir ◽

Exploration And Production ◽

And Migration ◽

Carbon Dioxide Co2 ◽

Hydrocarbon Exploration And Production

Abstract There are several significant differences between the behavior of injected CO2 and reservoired hydrocarbons in the subsurface. These fundamental differences greatly influence the modeling of CO2 plumes. Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is growing in importance in the exploration and production (E&P) regulatory environment with the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) making CCUS a priority. Companies need to prospect for storage sites and evaluate both the short-term risks and long-term fate of stored carbon dioxide (CO2). Understanding the physics governing fluid flow is important to both CO2 storage and hydrocarbon exploration and production. In the last decade, there has been much research into the movement and migration of CO2 in the subsurface. A better understanding of the flow dynamics of CO2 plumes in the subsurface has highlighted a number of significant differences in modeling CO2 storage sites compared with hydrocarbon reservoir simulations. These differences can greatly influence reliability when modeling CO2 storage sites.

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Lithofacies Analysis and Qualitative Minerology of the Sediments of #3 Well in the Greater Ughelli Depobelt, Niger Delta Basin

Journal of Scientific Research ◽

10.3329/jsr.v13i2.49948 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 601-610

Author(s):

K. Itiowe ◽

R. Oghonyon ◽

B. K. Kurah

Keyword(s):

Physical Properties ◽

Clay Minerals ◽

Niger Delta ◽

Reservoir Quality ◽

X Ray Diffraction ◽

X Ray ◽

Sandy Shale ◽

Heterogeneous Nature ◽

Niger Delta Basin ◽

Shaly Sandstone

The sediment of #3 Well of the Greater Ughelli Depobelt are represented by sand and shale intercalation. In this study, lithofacies analysis and X-ray diffraction technique were used to characterize the sediments from the well. The lithofacies analysis was based on the physical properties of the sediments encountered from the ditch cuttings. Five lithofacies types of mainly sandstone, clayey sandstone, shaly sandstone, sandy shale and shale and 53 lithofacies zones were identified from 15 ft to 11295 ft. The result of the X-ray diffraction analysis identified that the following clay minerals – kaolinite, illite/muscovite, sepiolite, chlorite, calcite, dolomite; with kaolinite in greater percentage. The non-clay minerals include quartz, pyrite, anatase, gypsum, plagioclase, microcline, jarosite, barite and fluorite; with quartz having the highest percentage. Therefore, due to the high percentage of kaolinite in #3 well, the pore filing kaolinite may have more effect on the reservoir quality than illite/muscovite, chlorite and sepiolite. By considering the physical properties, homogenous and heterogeneous nature of the #3 Well, it would be concluded that #3 Well has some prospect for petroleum and gas exploration.

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The Accumulation Rules of Budate Burial Hill Hydrocarbon Reservoir of Suderte Oilfield in Hailar Basin

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.733.140 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 733 ◽

pp. 140-143

Author(s):

Jin Hang Cai

Keyword(s):

Source Rock ◽

Large Scale ◽

Metamorphic Rock ◽

Fault System ◽

Migration Ability ◽

Accumulation Pattern ◽

Hydrocarbon Reservoir ◽

Oil Storage ◽

Hailar Basin ◽

Unconformity Surface

Metamorphic rock burial hill reservoir of Beier rift in Hailaer Basin, with large scale reservoir and high output has complex fault system. The fault through going direction roughly is NEE direction, and has wide fault section and lateral quickly changed fault displacement. Metamorphic rock reservoir can be divided into the vertical weathered fracture zone, crack and dissolved pores and caves development belt and tight zone. Accumulation is controlled by hydrocarbon ability of source rock, contacting relationship of source rock and reservoir, oil storage ability of reservoir, and vertical and lateral hydrocarbon migration ability of fault and unconformity surface. And formed top surface weathering crust accumulation pattern which the hydrocarbon migrated laterally along the unconformity surface, and interior reservoir pattern of crack broken zone accumulation which hydrocarbon migrated vertically along fault.

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