Hydrocarbon generation and expulsion process in the deepwater area of the Qiongdongnan Basin of China: insights from artificial thermal maturation experiments

A series of natural gas fields have been discovered in the deepwater area of the Qiongdongnan Basin (QDNB) of China. However, the natural gas generation process and mechanism still exist controversy. Hence, two semi-open systematic pyrolysis experiments were conducted on a modified apparatus to study the natural gas generation process and mechanism in the deepwater area of the QDNB in this study, including pressured experiments and non-pressure experiments. In the pressured experiments, a stress pressure ranges from 37.6 to 188.2 MPa and fluid pressure ranges from 14.4 to 96.0 MPa based on the thermal evolution model of the QDNB. In non-pressured experiments, only fluid pressure from 2.0 to 5.0 MPa for a hydrous condition was compared with pressured experiments. The experiment results indicate that the pressured experiments could decrease the generated yields, expulsion efficiencies and expulsion process of the liquid hydrocarbons. Moreover, the suppression effect appears to be stronger under high evolution than that of low-maturity stage. Additionally, liptinite preservation exists during the liquid hydrocarbons and natural gas generation at temperature over 420 °C, whereas the liquid hydrocarbon is cracking to gas at temperature over 500 °C as a function of lithostatic stress, fluid pressure, temperature and time. Hence, pressure plays an important role in influencing expulsion efficiencies and expulsion process of the liquid hydrocarbons and natural gas generation in the high maturity stage.