A Fractured Gas Reservoir in a Composite （气藏在复合骨折）.pdf

A Fractured Gas Reservoir in a Composite Foreland Basin, Sichuan Province, China Jürgen Kraus* Mortal Oil Ltd, Calgary, Alberta T21 OM1 CANADA jkraus@ and Thomas Lau Massif Energy Ltd., Calgary, Alberta T3H 2W2, CANADA massif@shaw.ca The northwestern Sichuan basin hosts significant gas resources in the Upper Triassic Xujiahe (‘Xu’) formation. Initial exploration had focused on a simple structural closure model that yielded many gas leads but failed to adequately define the entrapment. Understanding the tectonic history and modelling fractures are requirements for the optimal placement of exploration and delineation wells. The Sichuan basin has a protracted, two-stage tectono-sedimentary history: early marine, extensional, and later terrestrial, compressive. It originated on the Neoproterozoic western passive margin of the South China block, which collided with both the North China block and Tibet during the Upper Triassic Indosinian orogeny, resulting in the closure of the Paleotethys. Until the India–Eurasia collision during the Eocene Himalayan orogeny, Tibet’s eastern flank was extruding episodically along the Longmenshan (Dragon’s gate mountains). The weight of the basinward, SE-propagating nappes led to flexural foredeep development and their erosional debris constitutes its flysch infill. The northeasterly-trending Longmenshan had been considered a conventional fold-thrust belt. However, its small width (20-50 km) and minor crustal shortening can hardly explain its large vertical uplift at the margin of the earth’s highest relief. The uplift mechanis