Mesozoic Hydrocarbon Source Rock Studies of North Tarim, South Junggar, and Turpan Basins, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwestern China
Marc S. Hendrix, Z. Xiao, Y. Liang, S. A. Graham, A. R. Carroll, J. Chu, C. McKnight
Ongoing outcrop and accompanying pyrolysis studies of Mesozoic strata of the
north Tarim, south Junggar, and Turpan retroarc foreland basins, northwestern
China, have demonstrated the existence of potential oil-prone and gas-prone
petroleum source rocks. Lithologies include Jurassic coals from all three basins
and Triassic coals from Tarim. Jurassic coals collected from the Mesozoic
depocenters of the Junggar and Tarim basins are oil prone, yielding S2S2+3
values that range from 0.80 to 0.99 and average 0.96, hydrogen index (HI) values
that range from 117.9 to 213.4 and average 150.8, and oxygen index (OI) values
that range from 1.1 to 31.6 and average 7.67. In contrast, Triassic coals of
Tarim and Jurassic coals of Turpan contain more conventional type III gas-prone
kerogens and yield S2/S2+3 values ranging from 0.04 to
0.52 and averaging 0.22, HI values ranging from 3.2 to 130.2 with a mean of
33.6, and OI values ranging from 30.9 to 223.7 and averaging 115.9. Coals of all
three basins are slightly immature to mature with respect to oil generation, as
indicated by T
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91022©1989 AAPG Annual Convention, April 23-26, 1989, San Antonio, Texas.