Water-free oil reservoirs: origin and morphology

• Main Author: Tatyana A. Kireeva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Georesursy Ltd. 2020-12-01
• Series: Georesursy
• Subjects: oil deposits; crystalline rocks; reservoir; hydrothermal process; bottom water; secondary minerals
• Online Access: https://geors.ru/archive/article/1058/

The features of the morphology and composition of secondary minerals in the reservoir zones of the White Tiger (Bach Ho) deposit (shelf of South Vietnam) and deposits in clay rocks of the Bazhenov formation of the Salym area of Western Siberia are considered. It is shown that the common for these fields is the formation of a reservoir as a result of the leaching effect of high-temperature fluids. The genesis of the reservoir is determined by a complex of secondary minerals, obviously of hydrothermal origin, partially filling caverns and cracks in the rock: native silver – zincous copper – barite – anhydrite – kaolinite – laumontite (White Tiger oilfield) and sulphates of iron, aluminum, sodium and calcium – iron-aluminum alum, alunite, jarosite, mirabilite, melanterite, gypsum (deposit in the rocks of the Bazhenov formation of the Salym area). Diagnostics of secondary minerals was established based on the results of microprobe studies of undisturbed samples and analysis of the composition of water extracts from crushed core samples.The species composition of secondary minerals indicates a high temperature of the affected solutions, which varied from 600 to 200°C in the case of the White Tiger oilfield, and in the range of 350–450°C, in the case of rocks of the Bazhenov formation. Hydrothermal alteration of crystalline rocks with the formation of secondary clay minerals (kaolinite, montmorillonite, hydromica), zeolites and minerals-sulfates, which are crystalline hydrates, occurs with the absorption of huge amounts of water by the rock (up to 4∙108 tons of water per 1 km3 of altered rock). This may be related to the waterlessness (lack of bottom water) of oilfields, the reservoir of which has a hydrothermal origin. It is possible that oil deposits in crystalline rocks with high oil-saturated zones have associated waters of hydrothermal rather than sedimentogenic origin, but they occur at considerable depths and are not penetrated by drilling. This possibility is evidenced by the discovery of hydrothermal water in the basement of the White Tiger reservoir at a depth of 4493 m, which, in terms of chemical composition and mineralization, is close to the waters of sodium chloride hydrotherms of Kamchatka.