Geological features and exploration potential of Permian Tiaohu Formation tight oil, Santanghu Basin, NW China

Based on seismic data, logging, mud logging and lab testing data, the geological features and exploration potential of Permian Tiaohu Formation tight oil were studied in Santanghu Basin, Hami Area, Xinjiang. The tight sedimentary tuff characterized as high porosity and low permeability is developed in the second member of Tiaohu Formation in Santanghu Basin, and its granularity is fine, nano-scale pores and throats account for 88.3%, its permeability is lower than 0.5×10−3 μm2. Because of high brittleness, the reservoir rocks are easy to be fractured, and its oil saturation and crude oil density are high. The oil in tight sedimentary tuff is mainly from the underlying Permian Lucaogou Formation high-quality source rocks with a 100−500 m interval between source rocks and reservoirs. The crude oil generated in source rocks migrated up to the second member of Tiaohu Formation along faults and fractures characterized as other-sourced charging and source-reservoir separating. Tight oil distribution is mainly controlled by Lucaogou Formation source rocks and second member of Tiaohu Formation sedimentary tuff reservoirs. The area of “sweet spots” in the second member of Tiaohu Formation of Malang-Tiaohu Sag is about 203 km2, and the oil resource is predicted to be 2.4×108 t.