Two-Stage Differential Hydrocarbon Enrichment Mode of Maokou Formation in Southeastern Sichuan Basin, Southwestern China

Sichuan Basin is one of the most potential areas for natural gas exploration and development in China. The Maokou Formation in the basin is one of the important gas-bearing layers in southeastern Sichuan. In recent years, several exploration wells have obtained industrial gas flow in the first member of the Middle Permian Maokou Formation (hereinafter referred to as the Permian Mao-1 member of Maokou Formation), revealing that it may become a new field of oil and gas exploration in Sichuan Basin. Drilling and field survey results show that the shale of Maokou Formation in southeastern Sichuan contains eyeball-shaped limestone. Early studies suggest that the Permian Mao-1 member of Maokou Formation in Sichuan Basin is a set of high-quality carbonate source rocks, but ignoring its oil and gas exploration potential as an unconventional shale reservoir similar to the shale. The enrichment regularity of unconventional natural gas has not been studied from the perspective of source-internal accumulation. And there is a lack of analysis of oil and gas enrichment mode. In this study, we took the Permian Mao-1 member of Maokou Formation in southeastern Sichuan as the target layer. Through macroscopic outcrop observation and geochemical analysis and based on unconventional oil and gas enrichment theory, we carried out a study on natural gas enrichment mode of eyeball-shaped limestone of the Permian Mao-1 member of Maokou Formation in Sichuan Basin. The results show that the hydrocarbon enrichment pattern of the Maokou Formation in southeastern Sichuan is different from the accumulation and occurrence process of common unconventional shale gas reservoirs and conventional carbonate reservoirs. It is a special new hydrocarbon accumulation mode between the above two. According to the difference in the charging time of the hydrocarbon, the background of the reservoiring dynamics, and the occurrence state of oil and gas, we divide the two-stage differential enrichment mode of oil and gas, that is, early intralayer near-source enrichment and late interlayer pressure relief adjustment.

Automated summary

The Maokou Formation in the Sichuan Basin has the potential to become a new field for oil and gas exploration. The Eyeball-shaped limestone in the Maokou Formation has a different hydrocarbon enrichment pattern compared to conventional unconventional shale gas reservoirs and conventional carbonate reservoirs.