* Department of Petroleum Geology, China University of Geosciences, 29 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, P. R. China.
The Chaiwopu Sub-basin is a minor extension of the Junggar Basin, NW China, and covers an area of about 2,500 sq. km. It is bounded to the east and north by the Bogda Shan and to the south by the Tian Shan ("Shan" meaning "mountains" in Chinese). Four wells have been drilled in the sub-basin; condensate and gas have been produced in non-commercial quantities at one of the wells (Well C), but the other three wells were dry. In this paper, I investigate the nature and origin of the petroleum at Well C.
Three of the four wells in the Chaiwopu Sub-basin penetrated the Upper Permian Lucaogou Formation. Previous studies in the Junggar Basin have established that laminated lacustrine mudstones assigned to this formation comprise a very thick (up to 2.5 km) high quality source rock. However, the analysis of cores from wells in the sub-basin shows that the Lucaogou Formation is composed here of shallow lacustrine, fluvial and alluvial deposits which have very low petroleum generation potential. Overlying sediments (Upper Permian, Triassic and younger strata) likewise have little source potential.
Around 1,000 m of Upper Permian laminated oil shales crop out at Dalongkou and Tianchi on the northern side of the Bogda Shan. On the southern side of the Bogda Shan, however, only 30 m of Upper Permian oil shales occur at Guodikong. Shales and oil seeps from several locations were analysed using standard organic-geochemical techniques.
The physical properties of the petroleum present at Well C, and its carbon isotope and biomarker characteristics, suggest that it has migrated over long distances from its source rock, although an alternative explanation for its origin is not precluded. Burial history modelling indicates that hydrocarbon generation and migration may have occurred before the uplift of the Bogda Shan in the Late Jurassic -- Early Cretaceous, the orogenic episode which resulted in the differentiation of the Chaiwopu Sub-basin from the Junggar Basin.