Oil Sands Gathering Conditions and Models in Compressional Basin
ZHAO Qun[1], WANG Hong-yan[1]，[2], LIU Ren-he[1], Yang-Nengyu [1], Mu-Fuyuan [1]
1. Langfang Branch, Reserch Inststute of Petroleum Exploration and Development,
Langfang, Hebei, China;
2. Peking University,
Beijing, China;
ABSTRACT
Most of oil sands resources locate in compressional basin. The oil sands
gathering conditions in typical basins like western Canada basin,
Eastern Venezuela basin and Zhunger basin was analyzed. The rich
organic source rock is the basic condition to giant oil sands reservoir.
Favorable migration and driving force for hydrocarbon affected the oil
sands scale and geographic location. Water washing by meteoric water
and bacterial degradation make hydrocarbon heavier and heavier. The
paleo-delta facies, fluvial facies sands in compressional basin provide
favorable space for oil to deposit. A widespread regional shale cap
restrains hydrocarbon escape and the hydrocarbon fill up the sands. At
last, according to the position of oil sands in compressional basin, oil
sands gathering model in light pitch monocline and oil sands gathering
model in compressional basin edge.
KEY WORDS: Oil sands; Heavy oil; Source rock; abnormal
fault
INTRODUCTION
The exploration and development of oil sands in the world are
accelerating. And the production ratio of oil sands in hydrocarbon
energy is bigger and bigger. According to the data from USGS, there
are about 651 billion barrels bitumen in the world (Jia, 2006). It
distributes mainly in North America, former Soviet Union, Latin
America and Caribbean Sea areas. compressional basin has the absolute
advantage for oil sands to concentrate. Most of oil sands resources
locate in compressional basin. The oil sands gathering basins like
Western Canadaian basin, Eastern Venezuela basin and Jungar basin
are the typical compressional basins (Dusseault, 2001). The Jungar
basin is a importent exploration area for oil sands in China and a typical
compressional basin (Zhang, 2006).
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Typical Oil-Sands-Bearing Compressional Basin
Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin
The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin locates before the Rocky
Mountain. The basin is a compressional basin characterized by
significant thrust fault structure on the southwestern boundary. The
WCSB becomes progressively thinner to the northeast, pinching out
against the Canadian Shield igneous rocks (Flach, 1984). Alberta oil
sands deposited in marine sediment it was controlled by oil sources and
sand distribution. Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River are the three
main reservoirs. Athabasca is the biggest oil sands reservoir in the
world. The oil sands resources are about 23.8 billion tons. And 72.8
million tons oil was produced per annual (Jia, 2002).
Eastern Venezuela Basin
The Eastern Venezuela Basin locates before the Sierra Orientate.It is
similar to the WCSB, but a smaller scale. The distance from the
syncline to the Faja del Orinoco is 200-300km, whereas in Canada the
distance is closer to 500-300km. The deep synclinal basin lies north of
the Faja in front of the Sierra Orientale, a mountain front that has a
tectonic structure based on combination of thrust and strike-slip
faulting (Gutierez, 1977). From the deep syncline axis, approximately
east-west, the basin progressively shallows and pinches out to the south
against the igneous rocks of the Guyana Shield (Dusseault, 2001). It is
600km long and 50 km wide. The oil reserves are 21.6 billion cubic
meters (Gutierez, 1977).
Northwestern Edge of Jungar Basin
The northwestern edge of Jungar Basin is between the western orogenic
zone and the Jungar block, which is 250km long and 20km wide (Wei,
2007). The Manasi Lake source rock is several kilo meters from the
reservoir. The edge near the mountain was compressed intensively and
there are many reverse thrust. The the oil in oil sands are 0.51 billion
tons bellow the depth of 100m and 0.92 billion tons bewteen the depth
of 100m to 500m (Jia, 2002).
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Oil Sands Gathering Conditions
Favorable Organic Rich Source Rock
Abundant organic rich source rock is the basic condition to form a giant
oil sands reservoir. Geochemistry evidence (Deroo, McCrossan et al)
show that the organic rich Cretaceous shale is main source rock of
Alverta oil sands. And it TOC is 1%～2% (Barson, 2001) .Heavy and
oil sands in Venezuela came from early Cretaceous marine source rock,
including La Luna strata and Guayuta formation (Walther, 1986).
The main source rocks in the northwest of Jungar basin are the Permian
Fengcheng formation, the Lower Wuerhe formation and Jiamuhe
formation (Wang, 1995; Zhang, 2006) The Jiamuhe source rock
became mature in Middle-Late Triassic. The Fengcheng formation
became mature in Late Triassic. And the Wuerhe formation became
mature in Early Craraceous.
The hydrocarbon migration pathway and driving mechanism
The hydrocarbon migration pathway and driving mechanism affect the
distribution and scale of oil sands reservoir. The unconformity, fault
and sand body are the common main migration pathway.
Unconformity, karstic surface and fluvial sands are the main migration
pathway in Alberta. The hydrocarbon moved up-dip through
hydrodynamic transport at a time when the oil viscosity was much
lower than at present, and when the entire basin was more deeply
buried (Plint, 2001). A major conduit for northeast directed fluid
migration was the pre-Cretaceous unconformity, a complex karstic
surface that has had a major effect on basin hydrodynamics. The
hydrocarbon migrated at least 360km from source rock to Athabasca
and at least 80km to Peace River (Fig.1). The oil drove by gradient
caused by compressing before Rocky Mountain from source rock to
reservoirs (Anfort, 2001).
The hydrocarbon migration pathway driving mechanism in the eastern
Venezuelan Basin is similar to the Western Canada basin (Demaison,
1977). The hydrocarbon migration pathway is the early Oligocene
unconformity surface in the south wing of the basin. When the source
rock was buried deeper, it generated hydrocarbon. The hydrocarbon
derived by pressure gradient migrated 100～190km from source rock to
Orinoco heavy oil belt (Dusseault, 2001)(Fig.2).
The oil sands in northwest edge of Zhunger basin locating in the
compressing side makes the hydrocarbon migration pathway is more
complex than that of the Alberta and Orinoco. Multiphase tectonic
activity formed several unconformity surfaces for hydrocarbon migrate.
And these are the lateral pathways for hydrocarbon moving. The
compressing before Zaer Mountain formed many abnormal faults. The
abnormal fault is the vertical pathways for hydrocarbon moving
(Fig.3).These source rocks generated hydrocarbon time after time and
mixed while tectonic acted. The Jiamuhe source rock became mature
inMiddle-Late Triassic. The hydrocarbon came into Carboniferous and
Permian reservoirs along the unconformities and faults, and then some
paleo-reservoir. In Late Triassic， affected by Indo-Chinese epoch
tectonic activity these paleo-reservoir were destroyed and the Jiamuhe
hydrocarbon mixed with Fengcheng hydrocarbon. The mixed
hydrocarbon migrated to the shallower position of the basin along the
unconformities and abnormal faults. The Jiamuhe formation source
rock begins to generate gas abundantly in early Cretaceous caused by
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Yanshan tectonic activity (Wang, 2006). The gas drove the oil to move.
When the basin rose to the shallower, the light component volatilized
and then the hydrocarbon changed to tar.
Degradation and Densification
When the hydrocarbon was generated from source rock, it migrated
from the deeper to the shallower. The light-weight HC materials was
lost by water washing when the hydrocarbon migrated and the massive
biodegradation at shallow depths led the oil to high viscosity and heavy
density.
In Alberta, HC materials were lost after long distant migration. The
viscosity and density changed to higher and heavier at shallower
position of the basin, caused by biodegradation. Geochemical
investigations have shown that degradation of entrapped oil is most
advanced at the edge of the basin and decreases basin. One example is
the very heavy 8oAPI tar of the Athabasca deposit and the other is the
Bellshill Lake26oAPI producible oil, some two hundred fifty miles to
the southwest (Deroo et al 1974) (Fig.4).
The heavy oil in Orinoco came from marine shale in the north. The HC
materials were separated. And the biodegradation make the
hydrocarbon viscosity and density higher and heavier. With
biodegradation the desmethane triterpane or phenanthrenes increase.
Some super heavy oil concentrated under the depth of 1066m in the
north of Orinoco, south of Greater Oficina, Temblador and Jobo. Some
heavy oil concentrated in the depth of 914m-1524m. Some heavy oil
concentrated in Quiriquire, Manresa and Orocuat fields in the north of
the eastern Venezuelan Basin and in Quanoco in the northeast of the
basin. Petroporphyrin isn’t affect by biodegradation, but these
molecules were broken down in Guanoco. So it’s confer that oxidation
was more important than biodegradation (Cassa, 1989).
Biodegradation was the main reason for hydrocarbon to become heavy
oil or tar in the northeastern edge of Jungar basin. Biodegradation make
the saturation hydrocarbon and aroma hydrocarbon break down and the
NSO compounds, bitumen, sulfur and metal content increase. In the
Hongshanzui oil sands, the gonane mass chromatogram data shows that
the monoaromatic steroid and triaromatic steroid are maintained well
when hydrocarbon degradated lightly, the monoaromatic steroid and
triaromatic steroid are lost absolutely when hydrocarbon degradated
heavily. The heavy oil density is 0.91-0.93g/cm3 in Jungar oil sands.
The hydrocarbon accumulating conditions
The sands distribution and scale near the migration pathway controlled
the oil sands distribution and scale. A regional cap restrained the
hydrocarbon to continue oxidation. The delta, offshore and fluvial
sands in compressional basin are propitious to oil sands accumulating.
The accumulating conditions in WCSB
There are two kinds of reservoir in Alberta. One is Cretaceous oil sands,
and the other is Palaeozoic Devonian heavy oil in Carbonate.Lower
Crataceous Mannville McMurray formation and Clearwater formation
controlled the oil sands accumulation. McMurray formation is
deposited in delta environment and the sands are the main tar reservoir.
The Clearwater formation is marine transgression shale. In Athabasca,
the McMurray formation is divided into three subformations. The lower
formation is very thin (5-10m) upward-fining fluvial channel sands,
commonly stacked; coal and carbonaceous shale common, especially at
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 top of member; probably contains remnants of pre-Apian age. The
middle formation is thick (20-30m) upward-fining channel sands
common; off-channel facies consist of burrowed shale and interbedded
sand/shale, devoid of rooted zones or coal. The upper formation is
upward-coarsening offshore marine bars in north and west; glauconitic
at top. Lacustrine / brackish bay / backswamp deposits; small upward-
coarsening units common (Flach, 1984) (Fig.6). The Clearwater marine
shale overlies the Mcmurray and is a very perfect cap (Langenber,
2003). The regional sands distributions overlying the unconformity
make it a perfect reservoir. All these reasons make the Alberta oil sands
accumulating.
The accumulating conditions in Orinoco Petroleum belt
Most of the oil discovered in the Orinoco Petroleum Belt is attributed to
the Oficina Formation, Lower Miocene, along the eastern part of the
basin. Oficina formation is major reservoir composed of north and
south extending accretion delta sands deposited in tide and wave
environment (Dusseault, 2001). The Oficina Unit 1 sand is the most
important reservoir formed in dereliction environment (Jia, 2006)
(Fig.7). The Oficina Unit 2 composed of marine shale is the favorable
cap for heavy and oil sands (Gutierrez, 1977). The accumulating
condition in Orinoco Petroleum belt is similar to that of Alberta, but
there is no karstified carbonate (Dusseault, 2001).
The accumulating conditions in Northeast edge of Jungar basin
The heavy oil and oil sands locating in the compressed side and the
reservoir depositing in the continental environment make the oil
accumulating conditions different with that in Alberta and Orinoco.
Multi-tectonic movement in Jurassic and Cretaceous deposited several
combinations of reservoir and cap. When the reservoir was closed,
heavy oil or tar would deposit in sand bed near the unconformity.
The oil sands in the northwest edge of Jungar basin mainly deposited in
Cretaceous Tugulu formation and Jurassic Qigu formation. Take
Fengcheng oil sands for example. The Jurassic middle and late Qigu
formation is fluvial depositions and deposited in fluvial environment
composed of braided stream, piont bat and flood facies. The source of
the deposit came from the Halaalate Mountain. The deposit in the
southeast part of the area is the thickest in which deposited in point bat
environment and it became thinker to the northeast and southwest
which deposited in river course and flood plain environment.
Cretaceous Tugulu formation deposited in piedmont environment
composed of fluvial, lake and flood facies.
The bibbley rock in the lower part of the Cretaceous with high
permeability is the main path way for heavy to move laterally. But the
sands were not fully filled by oil. The oil content in the same strata is
also different. The oil sands reservoir locates in the compressional side.
The abnormal faults blocked the oil to move. The kinetic energy and
potential energy were consumed in the course of moving. The oil
moved vertically and filled in the upper sands body in some areas with
high permeability if there were enough oil.
Conclusion
Abundant oil generated form source rock, favorable sands body,
unconformity and watercourse, biodegradation and a regional cap
controlled oil sands distribution and scale. The compressional basin is
favor to create a giant oil sands reservoir. According to the location,
there are two model reservoirs. One is the oil sands gathering model in
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small dip monocline, and the other is the Oil sands gathering model in
compressional basin edge.
Oil sands gathering model in small dip monocline
A paleo-delta system comprising rich source beds and very far reaching,
efficiently interfingered carrier sands. A widespread regional cap,
usually a marine shale which restrains vertical fluid escape from the
underling paleo-delta and channels fluid movements laterally to the
edges of the basin. Up-tilting of the homoclincal slope is probably a
favorable feature in enhancing fluid migration but often creates
breaching. Subsequent bacterial degradation and water washing by
meteoric water turn medium gravity crudes into heavy sour bars
(Demaison, 1977).
Oil sands gathering model in compressional basin edge
Reservoir and cap combinations were created in multi-tectonic
activation. Hydrocarbon migrated up-dip along the unconformities and
fluvial sands . Heavy oil and oil sands deposited when the migrating
hydrocarbon was closed by abnormal fault. Bacterial degradation and
water washing make the hydrocarbon tar.
Compressional basin is a kind of most favorable basin for oil sands to
deposit. The nearly featureless homoclinal slop with updip stratigraphic
convergence is possible for giant oil sands to accumulate. The
compressed wing of the compressional basin is also the most favorable
oil sands accumulating position.
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 Fig.1 Lower Cretaceous heavy oil sands of Western Canada（Jardine，1974）.

Fig.2 Profile map of Eastern Venezuela Basin （Roaclifer，1986）

Fig.3 Profile map of the northwest edge of Jungar basin

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 Fig.4 Chromatograph analytical curves of Cretaceous hydrocarbon in Alberta (Bailey et al, 1973)

Fig.5 The distribution of triaromatic steroid and monoaromatic steroid in oil of the Northwestern Edge of Jungar Basin

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 Fig.6 The sedimentation model of McMurray（Flach, 1984）

Fig.7 Prograding delta regime distribution of Unit 1（Latreille et al, 1983）

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