Shale
Gas
Potential and
Gas
Characteristics in Mesozoic Mohe Basin, Northernmost China
Abstract
The Mohe basin, located in northeast China, has well developed thick dark mudstones and shales in Middle Jurassic lacustrine Mohe Formation, which showing good accumation conditions of shale
gas
. However, The Basin is still in low
shale
gas
exploration degree and no exploration breakthrough has been made. In this study, hundreds of source rocks and
gas
sample from the drilled cores in the Basin were analyzed. The following results were obtained. The source rock samples contain high TOC contents (average 5.3%) and the organic matter of the source rocks is mainly composed of
gas
-prone Type II-III kerogen. The Tmax values (average 472℃) and Ro values (average 2.3%) reveal high maturity, which are favorable for
gas
generating. The desorption
gas
from the cores in the shallow part (<1200m) is dominated by biogas. Mixed
gas
mainly exists at the depth of 1200-2300m and the pyrolysis
gas
shall occur in deeper formations. The analysis results suggest that the Mohe Basin is qualified to have thermogenic
shale
gas
generation potential and the shallow area may have the presence of microbial
shale
gas
. The Mk-4 area, one of the wells of this study is supposed to be the most potential
shale
gas
generation area in the basin for the biggest source rock thickness, the most appropriate maturity and the most beneficial preservation environment. The targets of future exploration should be focused on the block with deep burying and favourable preservation to explore
shale
gas
.
AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90333©2018 AAPG Middle East Region, Shale
Gas
Evolution Symposium, Manama, Bahrain, December 11-13, 2018