A comparative study of salient petroleum features of the Proterozoic–Lower Paleozoic succession in major petroliferous basins in the world

Abstract

The Proterozoic–Lower Paleozoic marine facies successions are developed in more than 20 basins with low exploration degree in the world. Some large-scale carbonate oil and gas fields have been found in the oldest succession in the Tarim Basin, Ordos Basin, Sichuan Basin, Permian Basin, Williston Basin, Michigan Basin, East Siberia Basin, and the Oman Basin. In order to reveal the hydrocarbon enrichment roles in the oldest succession, basin formation and evolution, hydrocarbon accumulation elements, and processes in the eight major basins are studied comparatively. The Williston Basin and Michigan Basin remained as stable cratonic basins after formation in the early Paleozoic, while the others developed into superimposed basins undergone multistage tectonic movements. The eight basins were mainly carbonate deposits in the Proterozoic–early Paleozoic having different sizes, frequent uplift, and subsidence leading to several regional unconformities. The main source rock is shale with total organic carbon content of generally greater than 1% and type I/II organic matters. Various types of reservoirs, such as karst reservoir, dolomite reservoir, reef-beach body reservoirs are developed. The reservoir spaces are mainly intergranular pore, intercrystalline pore, dissolved pore, and fracture. The reservoirs are highly heterogeneous with physical property changing greatly and consist mainly of gypsum-salt and shale cap rocks. The trap types can be divided into structural, stratigraphic, lithological, and complex types. The oil and gas reservoir types are classified according to trap types where the structural reservoirs are mostly developed. Many sets of source rocks are developed in these basins and experienced multistage hydrocarbon generation and expulsion processes. In different basins, the hydrocarbon accumulation processes are different and can be classified into two types, one is the process through multistage hydrocarbon accumulation with multistage adjustment and the other is the process through early hydrocarbon accumulation and late preservation.