Abstract: Petroliferous Prospects of the Kekexiling Basin on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Using GIS

LIU ZHIFEI, Chengdu University of Technology, Institute of Sedimentary Geology, Chengdu, Peoples Republic of China

The Kekexiling basin with an area of 19,000 km{2} and an average elevation of over 4,800-5,000 meters lies in the center of the Qinghai Tibetan plateau, which was supposed to have an amount of 37.2 billion barrels of petroleum reserves. Some good reservoirs were found in the terrestrial clastics, a few of them developing oil coats and oil immersions, through the field investigation of the tectonics and sedimentology during July-August, 1997.

The Kekexiling basin, the Mesozoic-Cenozoic fault-depression basin, is composed of the terrestrial clastics of the Late Cretaceous Fenghuoshan Group and the early Tertiary Yaxicuo Group, and the calcareous sandstone of the late Tertiary Wudaoliang Group. The total sediments are about 8,000 m thick. The lacustrine sandstone of the lower Fenghuoshan Group and the Yaxicuo Group, where a little oil coat was found, could be the oil-and-gas bearing positions. Lying in the middle of the global principal zone of enrichment, the Tethys tectonic domain, the Kekexiling basin is expected to have excellent petroliferous prospects.

GIS (Geographic Information System) offers spatial data management and analysis tools that can assist the project in storing, editing, analyzing, and displaying the geological and petroliferous data. Besides GIS, many geological methods, such as geochemistry, isotopic, infiltration, poriness and pore throat, enclosure, and reservoir, should be taken into included in the petroliferous analysis.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90931©1998 AAPG Foundation Grants-in-Aid