AAPG Bulletin, V. 83 (1999), No. 6 (June 1999), P. 1004-1014.

Relationship Between Tertiary Volcanic Rocks and Hydrocarbons in the Liaohe Basin, People's Republic of China¹

Zhenyan Chen,² Huo Yan,² Junsheng Li,² Ge Zhang,² Zhanwen Zhang,² and Baozhu Liu³
 

©Copyright 1999.  The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.  All Rights Reserved
 

¹Manuscript received February 6, 1996; revised manuscript received November 27, 1996; final acceptance December 15, 1998.
²The Exploration and Development Research Institute of Liaohe Oilfield, Panjin 124010, People's Republic of China.
³Institute of Marine Geology, MGMR, Qingdao 266071, People's Republic of China.

ABSTRACT

The Liaohe basin is a Tertiary rift developed on a paleohigh, characterized by widespread volcanic rocks and active fault subsidence. Source rocks consist of mudstone of Paleogene age, and reservoir rocks consist of volcanic rocks, sandstones of Tertiary age, and buried hills of Mesozoic-Paleozoic age. Traps are a combination of structural and stratigraphic, with drape features being dominant. Cap or seal rocks consist of volcanic rocks and mudstones of Paleogene age. Source maturation and migration timing are closely linked to the volcanic episodes. The higher geothermal gradient provided by magmatic activity resulted in early maturation of source rocks. These hydrocarbons are locally reservoired in volcanic rocks. These favorable hydrocarbon-play parameters make the Liaohe basin an attractive hydrocarbon province.