Distribution of Oil and Gas Fields in China Offshore Basins

Zaisheng Gong and Yang Jiaming

China offshore basins have been explored for more than ten years by ourselves, corporation, and cooperation with foreign oil companies. Large sums of seismic data have been acquired, and several hundreds of wells have been drilled. The present daily production in these basins is 250,000 barrels of oil and 350 MMCF of gas. The activity of exploration and development in these basins maker it possible for us to have some knowledge about the distribution of oil and gas fields.

The origin, classification, feature, and general petroleum geology in these oil-bearing basins have been studied according to the tectonic-thermal regime types of these basins. Hydrocarbon is heterogeneously distributed in each depression in the basins. High abundance of hydrocarbon resources are only distributed in few depressions with high richness of hydrocarbon generation. The origin and distribution of these "rich" depressions have been described. Different types of basins have their unique oil-pool-generating models. That the accumulation of hydrocarbon is controlled by "rich" oil-pool forming systems is illustrated with the typical cases of discovered oil and gas fields. At last, the potential hydrocarbon resources, direction, and field for exploration have been pointed out in these offshore basins.

The distribution of oil and gas has been described with detailed and abundant data, so that more than twenty figures and more than ten tables are contained in the paper.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #91019©1996 AAPG Convention and Exhibition 19-22 May 1996, San Diego, California