Quantitative Prediction of Favorable Targets for Hydrocarbon Accumulation in the Yuanba Area of the Sichuan Basin, China

Abstract

Predicting favorable areas for hydrocarbon accumulation and then discovering more oil and gas resources are the pursued goals for petroleum explorers and companies. The Yuanba area has been known to global researchers since the Yuanba gas field was discovered in 2007, and the formation and distribution of its gas reservoirs have also attracted extensive attention from academics. However, the complex geological conditions in the Yuanba area pose a challenge to the study of gas reservoir prediction. According to the analysis of a large number of gas reservoir data in the Yuanba area, we believe that the formation of natural gas reservoirs in the Yuanba area is primarily controlled by four “functional elements”: source kitchen (S), depositional facies (D), regional cap rock (C), and low interfacial potential (P). Their orderly combination in time and space determines the stratum and range of gas reservoir distribution. This paper provides a detailed introduction to how the four functional elements control hydrocarbon accumulation and quantitatively characterize them. Finally, a model of functional element combination (I_CDPS) that can quantitatively characterize the hydrocarbon accumulation probability is established. According to this model, we predicted the most favorable and favorable target areas for natural gas accumulation in the Late Permian Changxing Formation of the Yuanba area. The results are of great significance in guiding petroleum exploration in the Yuanba area.