How to quantitatively evaluate the maturity of crude oils is still an open question. Mango discovered a remarkable compositional invariance of four isoheptane ratios in crude oils, and proposed a steady-state catalytic model for the origin of light hydrocarbons. According to this model, 2,4/2,3 dimethylpentane ratio is a pure temperature parameter. Bement, Mango et al. established the functional equation between the two parameters-light hydrocarbon temperature and burial temperature and applied it to the calculation of hydrocarbon-generating temperature, which provided a new choice for the study of oil maturity. In this paper, the Mango's parameters for hydrocarbons from the Tazhong area were calculated, the average K1 value is 1.06, which is in good consistency with the Mango's proposal that the K1 value is relatively stable. Calculated with the functional formula of hydrocarbon-generating temperature, the hydrocarbon-generating temperatures are with the range of 120-129℃, and the converted vitrinite reflectance (Ro) varies from 0.88% to 0.90%. This is well consistent with the maturity characteristics of neohopanes. The results have verified the reliability of this method.
The source of marine crude oils from Tarim Basin is still disputed.However,research on the reservoir bitumens may provide a piece of new evidence to elucidate oil source.Geochemical characteristics of reservoir bitumens from different strata from Well Zhong 1 in the Katake Uplift were discussed here in detail.Pr/Ph ratios of reservoir bitumen from Well Zhong 1 range from 1.14 to 1.39,CPI ratios from 1.01 to 1.08,which indicates no odd-even predominance of normal alkanes,with OEP ratios ranging from 0.98 to 1.05.The contents of gammacerane and C28 sterane of reservoir bitumen from Well Zhong 1 are low,while dibenzothiophene series are abundant.Ster-ane isomerization maturity parameter and Ts/(Ts+Tm) ratio indicate that the reservoir bitumen from Well Zhong1 is mature to highly mature.Based on the differences in biomarker distribution,it is concluded that reservoir bitumen from Well Zhong 1,of which molecular parameters are contrary to those in Cambrian oil from Well Tadong 2,origi-nated from the Upper Ordovician source rocks.
Research on the molecular fossil characteristics of heavy oil from Well Tadong-2 is of great importance to constrain the source of marine crude oils in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China. The authors synthetically applied the isotope mass spectrograph, chromatography and chromatography-mass spectrography to the studies of molecular fossil characteristics of heavy oil from Well Tadong-2 in the Tarim Basin, and the results obtained revealed that heavy oil from Well Tadong-2 is characterized by high gammacerane, high C28 sterane, low rearranged sterane and high C27-triaromatic steroid, these characteristics are similar to those of Cambrian-Lower Ordovician source rocks, demonstrating that Cambrian crude oils came from Cambrian-Lower Ordovician source rocks; condensed compounds (fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, bow, benzo fluoranthene, benzopyrene) of high abundance were detected in heavy oil from Well Tadong-2, and the carbon isotopic values of whole oil are evidently heavy, all the above characteristics revealed that hydrocarbons in the crude oils became densified in response to thermal alteration.
