Pyrolysis experiment and hydrocarbon generation potential of the Bayingebi 2 Formation in the Hari Sag, Yingen-Ejiqi Basin, China

The Bayingebi 2 Formation of the Hari Sag is a typical self-generating and self-preserving reservoir, and the exploration degree of this reservoir is low. Mainly from the unclear understanding of hydrocarbon generation kinetics model, its hydrocarbon generation potential and resources cannot be accurately evaluated. The hydrocarbon generation history is an important index used to evaluate reservoirs and can be determined by software BasinMod 1D based on Tissot’s hydrocarbon generation kinetics models. The results show that the maximum oil and gas generated mass of the bottom of the Bayingebi 2 Formation are 288.71 and 12.11 mg/g TOC, respectively, while the exploration obtained a high-production gas and oil flow. To enhance the geochemical source rock characterization and predict hydrocarbon phases and generation accurately, we improved the traditional method. One sample from the Hari Sag was selected for a kerogen pyrolysis experiment, and the software KINETICS 2000 was used to establish the hydrocarbon generation kinetics model in the Hari sag. The hydrocarbon generation history was redetermined, and the results show that the translation rate of the bottom of Bayingebi 2 Formation was 84.36%, with maximum oil and gas generated mass of 214.91 mg/g TOC and 83.85 mg/g TOC, respectively. Compared with the traditional method, the results obtained by our improved method match the actual exploration situation better, which shows that the establishment of hydrocarbon generation kinetic models through pyrolysis experiments is crucial to accurately evaluate the hydrocarbon generation potential of the reservoir, and shows that the Hari sag has good oil and gas potential.