Petroleum Potential of the Tibetan Plateau, China

Tianguang Xu and Xinhua Huang
IHS, Houston, TX

The India-Asia collision during the Cenozoic not only created the Tibetan plateau but also led to significant deformation and development of a series of Cenozoic foreland basins in northwestern China, of which the Qaidam and Jiuquan basins in the northern margin of the plateau and Tarim and Junggar basins outside the plateau have been the major oil and gas producers in China. In contrast, sedimentary basins in Tibet are poorly understood.

In Tibet, about 29 marine Mesozoic and nonmarine Cenozoic sedimentary basins have been recognized, among which commercial oil has been found in the Lunpola Basin and oil seepages and oil shales have been reported in several basins including the Byang Thang, Coqen, Qamdo, and Biru. Geological, geophysical, and geochemical data suggests that the Byang Thang and Lunpola basins have the most hydrocarbon potential, followed by Coqen and Gamba-Tingri basins. The Qamdo and Biru basins, however, have less hydrocarbon potential.

The Byang Thang Basin, with an area of 183,000 sq km, is located in northern Tibet. The sedimentary cover of the basin consists of marine sediments of Devonian-Cretaceous and nonmarine sediments of Tertiary-Quaternary, with a total thickness of more than 30,000 m. Geochemical analysis indicates that source rocks are dominated by Triassic and Jurassic marine carbonates and shales with a dominant Type II kerogen. Geological and geochemical modeling estimates the total hydrocarbon resources at 38.65 BBOE. The Lunpola Basin, with an area of 3,500 sq km, is characterized by Tertiary source rocks, and the basin was estimated to hold hydrocarbon resources of 350 MMbo.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas