石油地质学发展:反思和展望

人们很早就知道石油和天然气是一种具流动性的有机矿产,其有机性质提示人们它生成在什么地方,而流动性则向人们说明如何去寻找它们。但总结人类对油气分布规律认识的石油地质学却没有循着油气的这两种特性发展,而是走向了另一条与人类认识规律相符合的道路。人们对油气的认识先从它现在存在的地方开始,如早期在油气苗附近钻井找油；后来发现油气常沿一定构造线分布,特别是背斜说出现后,发现油气常存在于背斜之中,或者存在于某一种构造省中,如含油气省；再后来,人们才从含油气省中识别出了沉积盆地,认识到作为有机物质的烃类,只有沉积盆地才是最适合它们生成的地方。这是人类认识的一次大飞跃,但油气的流动性在其成藏过程中起着何种作用,从中可以建立何种原理,并如何利用它以寻找油气,却一直未找到合适途径。因而,勘探工作进入盆地只是说明找到了油气生成的地方,而如何找油,还须进一步探讨。

DEVELOPMENTS IN PETROLEUM GEOLOGY: REVIEW AND LOOK AHEAD

Long ago’ people had known that oil and gas are fluid and organic minerals.The organic nature of oil and gas hints us where they might be,and the fluidity tells us how to search for them.The petroleum geology which records the human knowledge on the role of oil and gas distribution,however,had not developed around these two properties but along another way which was in keeping with the process of human cognition.People primarily knew the oil and gas starting from where they are now,for example,the earliest wells for oil or gas always drilled close by oil or gas seepage,and then,people found that oil and gas always distributed along a certain linear structure,or especially occurred in anticline structures as the anticlinal theory of petroleum accumulation was proposed;or within a tectoic province,known as petroliferous province.Aferwards there was a great leap in the process of human cognition when pepole differentiated the sedimentary basin from other tectonic unit in the petroliferous province,thus knowing that the basin is the only place suiting the formation of hydrocarbon.But the problems that what role would the fluidity of oil and gas play in pool formation,and what kind of principle would they follow,and how to utilize it for exploration still remain unsolved.Therefore,turning oil and gas exploration to basin merely shows that people have found the place where the oil and gas are being,but how to discover them is still remains discussing.