Effect of igneous activity on hydrocarbon source rocks in Jiyang sub-basin, eastern China

A 50 m thick diabase sill was found in the Paleogene black mudstone hydrocarbon source rocks in Xia38 well. Within heating aureola of the sill, optical changes of kerogen and signatures of extractable bitumens in the mudstones were investigated. Under effects of high heating rate associated with sill intrusion, the vitrinite reflectance (Ro) has an increasing tendency with decreasing distance to the sill both below and above the sill. However, only within a zone of about 15 m to the diabase sill, the vitrinite reflectance shows significant increase. Above the sill, the Ro values increase gradually from 0.6% to 1.0%, whereas below the sill, the Ro values increase dramatically from 0.8% to 3.8%. The contrasting Ro increasing patterns are attributed to the different heat transferring conditions, the relatively open system above the sill and the relatively close system below. The more mature signatures below the sill are also demonstrated by the n-alkane distribution, carbon predominance index and odd-to-even carbon number predominance of the extracted bitumens. Below the sill, the proportion of the saturated hydrocarbons in the extracted bitumens increases from 34% to 79% towards the sill contact. The bitumens in the two highest rank samples which are closest to the sill are dominated by saturated or saturated + aromatic hydrocarbons.The %20S, %αββ and %Ts biomarker parameters of the extracted bitumens are 46%, 58% and 54%, respectively, at Ro = 1.5%. At Ro = 2.6% or 3.0%, they reach to 52%, 71%, and 71%, respectively, still under or close to their corresponding equilibrium end-points. These samples of high rank, established on the basis of optical assessment (vitrinite reflectance), have less mature biomarker signatures. The remarkable disparities between optical and biomarker parameters can be ascribed to that the aromatization of kerogen to increase Ro was more favored than the isomerization of biomarker in the rapid heating scenario.