Geochemical characteristics and geological significance of shale gas from the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation in Sichuan Basin, China *

The shale of the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation has become a key target for shale gas exploration and development in China recently. The origin of carbon and hydrogen isotopic reversal in shale gas is discussed in this paper based on the analysis of the chemical components and stable isotope composition of natural gas in the Carboniferous Huanglong Formation sourced from Longmaxi Formation and Longmaxi shale gas. The shale gas was mainly composed of hydrocarbon gas in which the content of CH 4 was in the range of 95.52% e 99.59%, C 2 H 6 0.23% e 0.72%, and C 3 H 8 0.0% e 0.03%. The drying coefficient (C l /C l e 5 ) was more than 0.99, indicating typical dry gas. The values of d 13 C 1 , d 13 C 2 and d 13 C 3 ranged from (cid:1) 37.3 ‰ to (cid:1) 26.7 ‰ , (cid:1) 42.8 ‰ to (cid:1) 31.6 ‰ , and (cid:1) 43.5 ‰ to (cid:1) 33.1 ‰ , respectively. The carbon isotope values indicated that the hydrocarbon gas was an oil-type gas. However, the reversal of carbon and hydrogen isotopes of hydrocarbon gases in shale gas occurred, i.e., d 13 C 1 > d 13 C 2 , d D 1 > d D 2 . The geochemical characteristic of high thermal maturity and carbon isotope reversal in the Longmaxi shale gas was similar to those of the Fayetteville shale gas in U.S. The Longmaxi shale gas is a mixture of gases from decomposition of kerogen at high thermal maturity and cracking of soluble organic matter retained within the shale, suggesting there is an abundance of shale gas to support high productivity.Copyright Academy Branch of Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and PetroChina. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).