Journal of Petroleum Geology, vol. 20(4), October 1997, pp. 475-488
©Copyright 1997. Scientific Press, U.K. All rights reserved.
THE LOWER CRETACEOUS PETROLEUM
SYSTEM IN NE CHINA
Dou Lirong*
NE China is situated on the pre-Mesozoic
folded belt between the Siberian and Sino-Korean Cratons. Beginning in the Late Jurassic,
the oceanic Izanagi Plate was subducted NWwards beneath the Eurasian Plate, resulting in a
change in the structural setting from north-south compression to NW-SE extension leading
to intracontinental rifting. The Early Cretaceous marked a peak in the development of
syn-rift lacustrine basins, and there are about 200 rift depressions in the study area.
Left-lateral strike-slip activity on the NE-SW oriented Tan-Lu Fault, and a change in the
rate and direction of subduction of the Izanagi Plate, ended the syn-rift stage. Thick,
post-rift lacustrine sequences only developed in the Songliao Basin, and today form source
and reservoir rocks at the "giant" Daqing oilfeld.
