Generation of isotopically and compositionally distinct water during thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) in carbonate reservoirs: Triassic Feixianguan Formation, Sichuan Basin, China

Thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR), the reaction of petroleum with anhydrite in reservoirs resulting in the growth of calcite and the accumulation of H2S, has been documented in the Feixianguan Formation dolomite reservoir in the Sichuan Basin, China. Fluid inclusion salinity and homogenization temperature data have shown that TSR results in a decrease in salinity from a pre-TSR value of 25 wt.% down to 5 wt.% as a result of water created as a byproduct of progressive TSR. We have studied the isotopic character of the water that resulted from TSR in the Feixianguan Formation by analyzing the oxygen isotopes of TSR calcite and determining the oxygen isotopes of the water in equilibrium with the TSR calcite at the temperatures determined by aqueous fluid inclusion analysis. We have compared these TSR-waters to water that would have been in equilibrium with the bulk rock, also at the temperatures determined by aqueous fluid inclusion analysis. We have found that the TSR-waters are relatively depleted in oxygen isotopes (by up to 8‰ compared to what would be expected at equilibrium between the bulk rock and water) since this type of water was specifically derived from anhydrite. The generation of relatively large volumes of low salinity, low δ18O water associated with advanced TSR in the Feixianguan Formation has also been reported in the Permian Khuff Formation in Abu Dhabi and from sour Devonian fields in the Western Canada Basin. This suggests that TSR-derived water may be a common phenomenon, the effects of which on mesogenetic secondary porosity and reservoir quality have previously been underappreciated.