Geochemical Journal, Vol. 43, pp.

293 to 304, 2009

Geochemical characteristics and genesis of crude oils from Gasikule oilfield

in Western Qaidam Basin, China
YI DUAN,* JIANGONG WANG, BAOXIANG WU, C HAOYANG ZHENG, WENXIU YU and GUODONG ZHENG
Key Laboratory of Gas Geochemistry, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
382 West Donggang Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
(Received July 26, 2007; Accepted February 26, 2009)
The Gasikule oilfield, including a deep layer E31 and a shallow layer N21 pool, is the largest one in the Qaidam Basin
and its crude oil output accounts for 80% of total oil output in the basin. In order to understand the genetic mechanism of
crude oils from this oilfield, crude oils from both E31 and N21 pools in the Gasikule oilfield were collected and analyzed
using gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The geochemical characteristics of biomarkers in
the crude oils were synthetically studied. The biomarker compositions indicate that the crude oils were derived from
strong anoxic and saline-hypersaline lacustrine environment with a dominance of algal organic matter. It was also observed that the ancient salinity of the sedimentary environments of the source rocks for the N21 crude oils was slightly
higher than that for the E31 crude oils. The E 31 crude oils were derived mostly from bacteria whereas the N 21 crude oils
originated mostly from plankton. The maturity parameters of biomarkers reflect that the crude oils were low mature. The
maturity of the E31 crude oils was slightly higher than that of the N21 crude oils. These results, together with research of
crude oil formation, show that the N2 and E 31 crude oils were yielded from free biological lipids, extractable organic
matters and kerogen in the Tertiary source rocks deposited under an anoxic and saline-hypersaline environment at the
stage of low maturity.
Keywords: Qaidam basin, Gasikule oilfield, E 31 and N 21 pools, crude oils, origin

The Qaidam Basin is an important Cenozoic

petroliferous basin in western China, in which some
twelve oilfields so far have been discovered including the
Gasikule oilfield as the largest one with a deep layer E31
and a shallow layer N21 pool. The crude oil outputs account for 80% of the total oil output in the basin. The
Gasikule oilfield is located at a latency uplifting from
the bedrock. The E31 pool structure is a integrate latency
anticline with a short axes extending from north to south,
with two reverse faults (No. III and No. XI) and two normal faults (No. 146 and No. 46) distributed in its rim (Fig.
3a). The N21 pool exhibits a tectonic characteristic that
the southern oil pool on the south of number II fault is an
integrate anticline with a long axes extending from north
to south and the northern oil pool is a structural nose with
an axes extending from the east to west. The E31 reservoir rocks comprise fine-grained sandstones with the porosity and permeability of 10~25% and 10~50 103 m2,
respectively. The N21 reservoir rocks are middle-grained
sandstones with the porosity and permeability of 15~28%
and more than 10 103 m2, respectively (Qinghai Petroleum Administration, unpublished data). Traps of the
two oil pools are controlled by the structure and lithology. However, the mechanism of hydrocarbons accumulation for this oilfield has not been well known. In this
paper, the crude oils from 15 oil wells in the Gasikule

INTRODUCTION
Qaidam Basin, located in the northeastern corner of
the Tibetan plateau in northwest China, is a Tertiary sedimentary basin of an interior saline lake (Fig. 1). During
the Cenozoic Era, the climate of the Qaidam Basin area
was dry and water supply was quite limited to the lake,
resulting in the formation and development of saline and
hypersaline lakes (Huang et al., 1993). The dry
palaeoclimate and the high salinity of water had a profound effect on the abundance, nature and preservation
of organic matters in the sediments. Lacustrine mudstones,
marls and calcareous mudstones of the Oligocene and
lower Pliocene Series deposited in a deep lacustrine environment were widespread in the western Qaidam Basin, which have been considered as the effective source
rocks for the western Qaidam Basin (Ritts et al., 1999;
Philp et al., 1991; Huang et al., 1991; Hanson et al., 2001;
Fig. 2). These source rocks have an average TOC content
of about 0.56%, type II kerogen of low maturity (Qinghai
Petroleum Administration, unpublished data). On the other
hand, oil and gas reservoirs occur from the Oligocene to
Pliocene Series in the western Qaidam Basin (Fig. 2).
*Corresponding author (e-mail: duany@lzb.ac.cn)
Copyright 2009 by The Geochemical Society of Japan.

293

oilfield were analyzed using gas chromatography and gas

chromatography-mass spectrometry. The geochemical
characteristics of biomarkers in the crude oils were synthetically studied and the genetic mechanism of crude oils
was discussed in detail.
S AMPLES AND METHODS
The crude oil samples were collected from the

Fig. 1. Studied area showing the location of the Gasikule oilfield. I, Gasi fault block; II, Mangya sag.

Gasikule oilfield in the Western Qaidam Basin (Figs. 1

and 3). Most of them were obtained from these oil wells
exploited in recent years without any geochemical analysis of oils previously. The existence of abundant n-alkanes
(Fig. 4) and the lack of C-10 demethylated hopanes
(Seifert and Moldowan, 1978; Trendel et al., 1990) in all
the samples studied show the crude oils with less and
without any biodegradation.
The asphaltenes were removed from the oils by precipitation with n-hexane followed by filtration. The
deasphalted crude oils were further fractioned by column
chromatography on silica gel and Al 2O3. The saturated
hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbons were obtained by elution with n-hexane, benzene
and ethanol, respectively. The saturated hydrocarbons
were analyzed with a 6890N GC/5973N mass
spectrometry (GC-MS) equipped with a HP-5 capillary
column (30 m 0.32 mm i.d., 0.25 m film thickness).
The GC oven temperatures are programmed from 80 to
300C at 4C min1, and then maintained at this temperature for 30 min. Helium was used as carrier gas. MS conditions were EI ionization at 70 eV with an ion source
temperature at 250C. The GC-MS system was operated
in the full scan mode and scanned from m/z 20 to m/z
750.
The stable carbon isotope compositions of crude oils
and rocks (from which inorganic carbon was removed)
were determined after the combustion of samples in quartz

Fig. 2. Tertiary stratigraphy, deposition systems, potential source rocks and reservoir intervals, and source rock parameters of
the western Qaidam Basin. MP, Mean C29 sterane 20S/(20R + 20S) ratio; Ro, Vitrinite reflectance in the Oligocene source rocks
of Lucan 1 well. E3 further divided into two subsections from bottom to top (E31 to E32).
294 Y. Duan et al.

tubes. The tubes were opened in a vacuum line (2 103

torr) and the water was removed by trapping at 70C.
The produced CO2 was collected in a sampling ampoule
at 196C and transferred directly to the inlet system of a
Finnigan MAT 252 mass spectrometer for carbon isotope
ratio determination. Carbon isotope values are expressed
relative to PDB carbonate (0).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Bulk characteristics of crude oils
The gravities of the crude oils from the Gasikule oilfield are from 0.8364 to 0.8442 g/cm3 for the E31 oil pool
and 0.8462 to 0.8540 g/cm3 for the N 21 pool, with a mean
of 0.8394 and 0.8499 g/cm3, respectively (Table 1). These
values are lower than those of the crude oils from most
of other low mature oilfields throughout China
(0.8500~0.9400 g/cm 3; Wang et al., 1995). One possible
explanation of this phenomenon is that the crude oils from
the two pools are without biodegradation and from source
rocks deposited under anoxic and saline-hypersaline environment. The viscosities of the crude oils range from
10.49 to 18.87 mPas for the E31 oil pool and from 11.09
to 18.40 mPas for the N21 one, averaging at 15.10 and
14.10 mPas, respectively. These data show that the two
oil pools have similar density and viscosity. However, the
salinity and sulfur contents in the crude oils from the E31
oil pool are obviously lower than those from the N21 oil
pool. As the crude oils from the two oil pools are low
matured as discussed in the following text, they contain
relatively low concentration of saturated hydrocarbon and
high concentration of non hydrocarbon plus bitumen.

Fig. 3. The E31 (a) and N 21 (b) pool structures showing the
sampling locations.

Property and formation environment of crude oil parent

material
The n-alkane chromatograms of the crude oils from
the E31 and N 21 oil pools are very similar and show nalkane distributions in the range of C11~C39 with the maximum around C17 to C22. The nC21/nC21+ ratios are more
than one (Table 2, Fig. 4). Generally, algae and bacteria
contain dominant short chain n-alkanes (Han and Calvin,
1969). Therefore, the distributions of n-alkanes suggest
the crude oils originated principally from algal and bacterial organic matters (Han and Calvin, 1969; Volkman et
al., 1983; Duan, 2000; Duan and Ma, 2001). The steranes
in the crude oils from the two oil pools are dominated by
C27 and the composition of steranes shows C27 > C29 >
C28 (Table 3; Figs. 4 and 5), indicating the crude oils are
mainly derived from plankton (Moldowan et al., 1985).
The crude oils contain 4-methyl steranes and the ratio of
4-methyl steranes/regular steranes ranges from 0.08 to
0.25 for the E31 pool and 0.10 to 0.31 for the N21 oil pool,
indicating that this ratio do not differ significantly between the two oil pools. 4-methyl steranes are usually
considered to be derived from dinoflagellates (Robinson
et al., 1984), even though they may also exist in bacteria
(Philp et al., 1991). The presence of abundant 4-methyl
steranes indicates an important contribution from
dinoflagellates to the crude oils. The relative abundances
of bicyclic terpanes and alkylcyclohexanes exist in small
amounts and do not significantly differ in the crude oils
from the two oil pools. The bicyclic terpane/hopane ratios range from 0.01 to 0.21 for the E31 crude oils and
from 0.03 to 0.20 for the N21 crude oils (Table 4, Fig. 4).
The alkylcyclohexane/hopane ratios in the E31 and N 21
crude oils are in the range of 3.79~9.92 and 2.75~8.09,
respectively. These ratios in the studied samples are lower
than those (20.71~63.55) in the northern Qaidam oils
derived from the Jurassic source rocks that are dominated
by terrigenous higher plant materials (Duan et al., 2006).
This comparison suggests only a small contribution from
higher land plants to the studied crude oils. In general,
the contents of tricyclic terpanes and tetracyclic terpanes
are closely related to the nature of the organic matters in
source rocks. Tricyclic terpanes is generally believed to
be derived mainly from algae and bacteria (Aquino Neto
et al., 1983), while terrigenous organic matter contains
relatively high abundance of C 24 tetracyclic terpane
(Hanson et al., 2000). As shown in Fig. 6, the studied
samples are in a narrow range and contain high tricyclic
terpanes and low C24 tetracyclic terpane. These data reflect that the oils from the two oil pools have a similar
source and were derived mainly from algae and bacteria.
However, small difference in organic matter sources of
the oils is observed between the E31 and N21 oil pools as
shown in Fig. 7. It is well known that steranes are derived mainly from plankton (Moldowan et al., 1985;

Geochemical characteristics and genesis of crude oils 295

Fig. 4. Representative chromatograms of (a) n-alkanes, (b) steranes, (c) pentacyclic terpanes, (d) 4-methyl steranes, (e) bicyclic
terpanes and (f) long chain alkylcyclohexanes for the studied N21 oils, and (g) n-alkanes, (h) steranes, (i) pentacyclic terpanes, (j)
4-methyl steranes, (k) bicyclic terpanes and (l) long chain alkylcyclohexanes for the studied E31 oils from the Gasikule oilfield.

296 Y. Duan et al.

Table 1. Physical features and fraction components of the crude oils from Gasikule oilfield
E3 1 oil pool

Bulk properties

Gravity (g/cm3 )
Viscosity (mPas)
Solidifying point (C)
Salinity (ppm)
Sulfur content (%)
Saturated hydrocarbon (%)
Aromatic hydrocarbon (%)
Nonhydrocarbon + Asphaltene (%)
Nonhydrocarbon/Asphaltene

N2 1 oil pool

Range

Mean value

Range

Mean value

0.8364~0.8442
10.49~18.87
31.5~35.9
300.3~1084.0
0.16~0.22
31.39~77.37
2.94~7.97
17.55~63.71
6.44~15.93

0.8394
15.10
34.4
651.8
0.19
49.38
5.22
45.35
10.80

0.8462~0.8540
11.09~18.40
32.5~38.0
462.7~1414.0
0.38~0.62
44.40~75.53
3.51~15.00
9.46~45.19
1.52~17.90

0.8499
14.10
35.3
987.7
0.47
59.57
7.47
32.95
5.55

Table 2. Analytical data of n-alkanes and isoprenoid alkanes in the studied crude oils
Sample No.

Well No.

Oil pool

Depth (m)

Crange

Cmax

CPI

C 21/C21+

Pr/Ph

Pr/nC17

Ph/nC18

E3
E 31
E 31
E 31
E 31
E 31
E 31

3329
3354
3356
3445
3510
3536
3600

11~37
14~39
15~36
14~38
14~38
12~35
14~39

22
22
22
22
22
20
22

0.98
0.97
0.95
0.99
0.95
0.96
0.98

1.02
1.14
1.04
1.14
1.01
1.03
1.17

0.66
0.60
0.48
0.52
0.48
0.59
0.52

0.71
0.61
0.46
0.54
0.58
0.54
0.57

1.09
1.00
0.91
0.96
1.08
0.92
1.06

N 21
N 21
N 21
N 21
N 21
N 21
N 21
N 21

1383
1499
1662
1716
1756
1833
1924
2196

14~39
14~34
13~35
11~38
13~38
13~35
14~37
14~37

22
17
22
22
22
22
17
22

0.93
0.94
0.96
0.94
0.96
0.90
0.97
0.96

1.09
1.20
1.01
1.08
1.04
1.09
1.16
1.02

0.57
0.41
0.60
0.54
0.52
0.51
0.67
0.52

0.94
0.68
0.94
0.82
0.76
0.75
1.02
0.80

1.69
1.72
1.75
1.58
1.42
1.41
1.77
1.51

C-38
C-37
C-36
C-43
C-40
C-41
C-42

16-6
8-6
9-36
3-4
9-38
5-36
3-34

E3

C-48
C-44
C-45
C-49
C-46
C-50
C-51
C-47

662
742
213
493
414
X662
475
525

N 21

Reservoir age

C 21/C 21+, C21 n-alkanes/>C 21 homologues; CPI, [(C i+6C i+2 + C i+4)/(4C i+1 + 4C i+3)](1)i+1 , i = C24~C 34.

Volkman, 1986; Philp et al., 1991), while hopanes originated primarily from bacteria (Ourisson et al., 1979;
Brault and Simoneit, 1988). Figure 7A shows that the E 31
crude oils contain more hopanes and the N21 crude oils
contain more steranes, suggesting that the former is derived mostly from bacteria and the latter mainly from
plankton. At the same time, Fig. 7B shows that the E 31
crude oils contain more C28 sterane compared to the N21
crude oils. As C28 sterane are derived principally from
algae (Volkman, 1986), the E31 crude oils are mostly from
algae. This recognition is consistent with the studied results of nitrogen compounds in the crude oils from the
two oil pools (Duan et al., 2004a). The compositions of
nitrogen compounds indicate carbazoles in the E31 crude
oils are evidently different from those in the N21 crude
oils. The carbon isotopic ratios of the oils from these two
oil pools range from 26.1 to 27.1, with an average
of 26.5 (Table 5). These values are within the range
of lacustrine organic matters deposited in a saline-

hypersaline environment (Peters et al., 1996).

The crude oils from the two oil pools have a low Pr/
Ph ratio (0.66; Table 2). The Pr/Ph ratio is generally
considered to be a guide to depositional conditions, where
the values above one represent oxic conditions and values below one reflect anoxic conditions or anoxic
hypersaline depositional conditions (Didyk et al., 1978;
ten Haven et al., 1987, 1988). The low Pr/Ph ratios in the
E31 and N21 crude oils indicate that these oils originated
from a strong reducing sedimentary environment. Further
evidence is the studied oil samples lay in the area of a
reducing environment on the cross-plot of Pr/n-C17 versus Ph/n-C18 (Connan and Cassou, 1980; Peters et al.,
1999; Hanson et al., 2000; Duan et al., 2008) (Fig. 8).
The crude oils contain high amount of -carotane (Table
5). The -carotane is commonly related to anoxic and algal-rich lacustrine environments (Fu et al., 1986; Hanson
et al., 2001), although it is also from blooms of purple
halophilic bacteria (Jiang and Fowler, 1986). A high conGeochemical characteristics and genesis of crude oils 297

C 29/( + )

0.28
0.29
0.30
0.28
0.30
0.32
0.30

0.28
0.26
0.29
0.28
0.30
0.28
0.27
0.27

C 2920S/(20S + 20R)

0.27
0.29
0.33
0.28
0.33
0.31
0.32

0.28
0.25
0.29
0.28
0.28
0.28
0.28
0.27

298 Y. Duan et al.

Reg. ster., Regular sterane; 4-Meth. ster., 4-Methyl sterane; Dia., Diasterane; hop, hopane.

0.28
0.19
0.13
0.12
0.10
0.11
0.26
0.31
0.08
0.06
0.09
0.07
0.09
0.08
0.08
0.08
3.17
4.13
3.61
3.52
4.01
3.68
3.73
3.35
35.9
35.5
37.1
36.2
35.0
35.4
33.0
35.1
39.7
39.6
37.7
39.1
39.9
39.9
42.4
40.1
N 21
C-48
C-44
C-45
C-49
C-46
C-50
C-51
C-47

24.4
24.9
25.2
24.7
25.1
24.7
24.6
24.8

0.08
0.08
0.09
0.08
0.09
0.11
0.10
34.8
35.7
37.2
36.3
40.5
38.3
38.2
E 31
C-38
C-37
C-36
C-43
C-40
C-41
C-42

29.6
29.2
27.8
28.8
25.8
26.7
27.1

35.6
35.1
35.0
34.9
33.6
35.0
34.6

2.75
2.62
2.67
2.72
2.69
2.75
2.55

Reg.ster./hop.
C 29
(%)
C 28
(%)
(%)

C 27
Oil pool
Sample No.

Table 3. Analytical data of steranes in the studied crude oils

Dia./Reg.ster.

0.08
0.20
0.09
0.19
0.25
0.08
0.22

4-Meth.ster./Reg.ster.

Fig. 5. Ternary diagram of sterane C27, C28 and C 29 compositions for the studied crude oil samples.

tent of gammacerane and homohopane in source rocks or

oils is generally associated with a hypersaline depositional
environment (Moldowan et al., 1985; Fu et al., 1986;
Philp et al., 1991). The E31 and N21 crude oils contain
high gammacerane/C30 hopane ratios and high relative
abundance of C34+35 hopanes (Table 4), suggesting the
crude oils derived from hypersaline depositional environment. Further evidence is that the crude oils are also located in the hypersaline depositional environment area
in Fig. 8. However, a slight difference in formation environments of the parent materials also exists between the
E31 and N21 crude oils in Fig. 9. We have studied in detail
on the carbon isotopic compositions of crude oils from
the Qaidam Basin (Duan et al., 2003) and revealed that
the carbon isotopic compositions of crude oils from the
western Qaidam Basin were mainly controlled by the
paleosalinity of the depositional environment for the
source materials. It was found that the high carbon isotopic ratios corresponded with the high saline nonmarine deposition environment. Most of the E31 crude oils
have lighter carbon isotopic compositions than the N21
crude oils (Fig. 9), indicating that the depositional
paleosalinity of the E31 oil source materials is slightly
lower than the N21 oil one.
Crude oil maturity
The C 29 steranes 20S/(20S + 20R) and /( + )
ratios, relative content of diasteranes and Ts/Tm ratio are
maturity parameters that can been used to distinguish
crude oil maturation (Seifert and Moldowan, 1978; Mackenzie and MacKenzie, 1983; Mackenzie, 1984; Hanson
et al., 2000; Duan et al., 2006). Huang et al. (1991) suggested that the value 0.25 of C29 steranes 20S/(20S + 20R)
and /( + ) was a limit between immaturity and
lower maturity and a value 0.42 was taken as the bound-

Table 4. Analytical data of terpanes in the studied crude oils

Gammacerrane/-C30 hopane

Tricyc./hop.

Bicyc./hop.

C-38
C-37
C-36
C-43
C-40
C-41
C-42

E 31

8.7
8.0
10.6
8.0
12.2
11.0
9.7

0.29
0.33
0.31
0.38
0.35
0.41
0.39

0.60
0.69
0.70
0.70
0.80
0.69
0.78

0.58
0.56
0.63
0.52
0.54
0.78
0.57

0.19
0.01
0.04
0.04
0.03
0.20
0.03

0.21
0.25
0.24
0.23
0.24
0.28
0.25

0.28
0.33
0.27
0.33
0.31
0.28
0.31

C-48
C-44
C-45
C-49
C-46
C-50
C-51
C-47

N 21

11.3
11.9
10.0
12.5
13.0
10.9
9.1
10.1

0.29
0.30
0.33
0.28
0.33
0.32
0.29
0.28

0.73
0.72
0.65
0.68
0.54
0.64
0.64
0.65

0.51
0.42
0.56
0.55
0.63
0.62
1.03
0.52

0.03
0.03
0.07
0.20
0.10
0.13
0.14
0.05

0.23
0.28
0.21
0.21
0.25
0.25
0.26
0.22

0.30
0.29
0.28
0.26
0.29
0.28
0.30
0.33

Sample No.

Oil pool

C 34 + C35 (%)

Ts/Tm

A, C 23 tricyclic terpane/(C23 tricyclic terpane + C30 hopane); B, C 24 tetracyclic terpane/(C 24 tetracyclic terpane + C26 tricyclic terpane). Tricyc.,
Tricyclic terpane; Hop., Hopane; Bicyc., Bicyclic terpane.

C23 tricyclic terpane +

Fig. 6. Cross-plots of tricyclic terpane/hopane ratios vs. relative content of C 27 sterane (a) and C 24 tatracyclic terpane/(C24
tatracyclic terpane + C26 tricyclic terpane) ratios vs. C23 tricyclic terpane/(C23 tricyclic terpane + C30 hopane) ratios (b) for the
studied crude oil samples.

ary between lower maturity and maturity. Based on these

parameters, the maturation of the studied crude oils is
presented in Fig. 10 and Table 3. As C29 steranes 20S/
(20S + 20R) and /( + ) ratios in the crude oils are
from 0.25 to 0.33 and from 0.26 to 0.32 (Table 3), respectively, the studied crude oils are low mature. The relative contents of diasteranes in the crude oils from the two
oil pools are very low and diasterane/regular sterane ratios range from 0.07 to 0.11. The ratio of diasterane/regular sterane has been generally used as a maturation index. However, previous studies showed that carbonatederived oils contain a relatively low amount of diasteranes

due to the absence of clay minerals to catalyze the sterane

rearrangement (Mello et al., 1988; Peters and Moldowan,
1993). Philp et al. (1991) suggested that the amount of
diasteranes in oils could decrease in highly reducing noncarbonate environments with increasing salinity. Therefore, the low diasterane/regular sterane ratios for the two
oil pools indicate a lower maturity and saline-hypersaline
condition. The Ts/Tm ratio is commonly used to infer oil
maturation (Moldwan et al., 1986), but Ts/Tm ratios are
also low in carbonate source rocks (McKirdy et al., 1983,
1984). The studied crude oils have lower Ts/Tm ratios
(0.28~0.41), again, reflecting a lower maturity and saGeochemical characteristics and genesis of crude oils 299

Fig. 7. Cross-plot of regular sterane/hopane ratios vs. relative content of C 27 sterane (a) and sterane C28/C29 ratios vs. C27/C29
ratios (b) for the studied crude oil samples.

Table 5. Analytical data of alkycyclohexanes, -carotane and carbon isotopic compositions in the studied
crude oils
Oil pool

Cran g e

Cmax

CPI

C2 1 /C2 1 +

Cyclohex/hop.

-Carotane/hop.

1 3 C ()

C-38
C-37
C-36
C-43
C-40
C-41
C-42

E3 1

13~37
14~38
14~34
14~38
14~38
13~37
14~38

17
17
17
17
17
16
17

1.09
1.03
1.06
1.02
1.04
1.06
1.03

1.04
0.80
0.81
0.72
0.78
1.45
0.82

6.76
4.30
5.59
4.01
3.79
9.92
5.03

0.08
0.06
0.10
0.06
0.08
0.09
0.07

27.0
26.2
27.0
26.9
26.6
26.8
27.1

C-48
C-44
C-45
C-49
C-46
C-50
C-51
C-47

N2 1

14~38
15~36
13~36
13~37
13~37
13~33
13~36
13~38

17
18
17
17
17
17
17
17

1.06
0.93
1.02
1.08
1.03
1.04
1.12
1.07

0.86
0.69
0.81
1.16
1.03
1.40
2.90
0.98

2.75
7.27
3.93
4.40
5.15
4.45
8.09
2.85

0.07
0.14
0.06
0.09
0.11
0.07
0.05
0.06

26.2
26.2
26.3
26.3
26.1
26.7
26.4
26.1

Sample No.

Cyclohex, Alkycyclohexanes; hop., hopane; CPI, Odd carbon alkycyclohexanes/even carbon homologues; C21/C 21+ , C 21 alkycyclohexanes/
>C 21 homologues; 13C value was determined by examination of whole oil.

line condition. A small difference in maturity is observed

between the E31 and N 21 crude oils. As shown in Fig. 10,
most of the E31 crude oils are much more mature than the
N21 crude oils.
Crude oil genesis
As shown in Tables 25 and Figs. 410 above, the
crude oils from Gasikule oilfield have a slight even carbon predominance for n-alkanes, low Pr/Ph ratios, relatively high amounts of gammacerane, C34+35 hopanes and
C27 steranes, low C29 steranes 20S/(20S + 20R) and /
( + ) ratios and 13C-rich carbon isotope ratios. These
300 Y. Duan et al.

are consistent with those of the Tertiary source rocks in

the western Qaidam Basin (Ritts et al., 1999; Duan et al.,
2006). For example, Pr/Ph ratios, gammacerane/C30
hopane ratios, relative contents of C 27 steranes, C 29
steranes 20S/(20S + 20R) and /( + ) ratios and
carbon isotope ratios for the Tertiary source rocks are
0.16~0.93, 0.31~1.13, 28.2~64.2% (Zhu et al., 2003),
0.01~0.50 and 0.10~0.89 (Huang et al., 1991) and 21~
26 (Duan et al., 2006), respectively. These data indicate that Tertiary source rocks were deposited under anoxic and saline-hypersaline lacustrine environments, and
have algal organic matters dominated and a lower matu-

rity. The consistency of the crude oils with the source

rocks suggests that the E31 and N21 crude oils studied were
derived most probably from the Tertiary source rocks. We
rule out the possibility of pre-Tertiary source contributions to the E31 and N21 crude oils in western Qaidam
basin, because pre-Tertiary lacustrine source rocks were
deposited under freshwater conditions and had higher
maturities (Qinghai Petroleum Administration, unpublished data). If the oils originated from pre-Tertiary source
rocks, they would have low concentrations of
gammacerane and higher maturities. We also exclude the
possibilities that highly mature light oils with quite less
biomarkers were migrated from deep layers to the E31 and
N21 reservoir rocks and then contaminated by low-maturity bitumens. An example is that the northern Qaidam

Fig. 8. Cross-plot of Pr/n-C 17 ratios vs. Ph/n-C18 ratios for the

studied crude oil samples (Connan and Cassou, 1980; Peters
et al., 1999; Hanson et al., 2000). The studied crude oil samples are in the area of reduction and hypersaline lacustrine
environment.

N1 crude oils of Lenghu and Nanbaxian regions, derived

from Jurassic source rocks, all the same are mature (Duan
et al., 2006). The previously studies showed that the E3,
N 1 and N 2 source rocks had different maturities and
depositional palaeosalinity. Their mean steranes C29 20S/
(20S + 20R) are 0.29, 0.26 and 0.22 (Fig. 2), respectively,
and their average depositional palaeosalinity are 16wt%,
19wt% and 20~60wt% (Duan et al., 2004b, 2006), respectively. As described above, the maturity of the crude
oils from the E31 oil pool is slightly higher than that from
the N21 oil pool and the depositional paleosalinity of N21
oil source materials is higher that of E31 oil source materials. Compared with the maturity and depositional
palaeosalinity of the E3, N1 and N2 source rocks, these
data strongly suggest that the E31 crude oils are derived
mostly from the E3 source rocks, while the N21 crude oils

Fig. 9. Cross-plots of Pr/Ph ratios vs. 13C values for the studied crude oil samples.

Fig. 10. Cross-plots of Ts/Tm ratios vs. C29 sterane 20S/(20S + 20R) ratios (a) and C29 sterane 20S/(20S + 20R) ratios vs. /(
+ ) ratios (b) (Huang et al., 1991) for the studied crude oil samples.
Geochemical characteristics and genesis of crude oils 301

Table 6. Mean contents of pyrrolic nitrogen compounds in the studied crude oils (Duan
et al., 2004a)
Oil pool

C
(%)

MC
(%)

DMC
(%)

TMC
(%)

BC
(%)

W
( g/g)

1,8-DMC
(%)

PSNs
(%)

ENs
(%)

E3 1
N2 1

12.85
14.62

21.22
26.68

38.58
37.48

23.02
17.94

4.33
3.29

3.59
23.38

14.48
13.15

65.78
64.42

19.75
22.44

C, Carbazole; MC, Methylcarbazole; DMC, Dimethylcarbazole; TMC, Trimethylcarbazole; BC, Benzocarbazole; 1,8-DMC, 1,8 Dimethylcarbazole;
PSNs, Partially shielded isomers; ENs, Exposed isomers; W, Total content of carbazole compounds.

are derived mostly from the N1N2 source rocks. These

results are well consistent with pyrrolic nitrogen compounds in the crude oils from these two oil pools (Table
6; Duan et al., 2004a). For the E31 oil pool, absolute concentrations of neutral nitrogen compounds decrease to
both northward and southward directions of the anticline.
These reflect that the charging points of crude oils in the
E31 oil pool are on the west and east sides of the anticline
and the crude oils migrated from the central to north and
south of the anticline, also reflect the oils derived from
the source rocks in the Mangya sag and Gasi fault block.
For the N21 oil pool, absolute concentrations of neutral
nitrogen compounds decrease to tectonically west and
north directions. These indicate that the charging points
of crude oils in the N 21 oil pool are on the tectonic east
and south sides and the crude oils migrate from east to
west and from south to north of the tectonics. Therefore,
the Mangya sag and Gasi fault block provided sources
for the crude oils of the N21 oil pool. The mean carbazole
concentration is 3.53 g/g for the E31 oil pool and 23.38
g/g for the N21 oil pool (Table 2), reflecting that the crude
oil migration distance of the E 31 oil pool is longer than
that of the N21 oil pool. This means that the crude oils
from the E 31 oil pool were derived mostly from the upper
E32 source rocks whereas the crude oils from the N21 oil
pool were derived mainly from the N1N 21 source rocks
with the feature of autogeny and autostorage. The generation of large amounts of hydrocarbons from the Tertiary source rocks deposited in saline-hypersaline lacustrine
environments in the Qaidam Basin at the stage of low
maturity was demonstrated by pryrolysis experiment (unpublished data). An E32 mudstone sample with low maturity (Ro = 0.32%) was crushed to 100 mesh, and then
extracted by BMA (benzene:methanol:acetone =
70:15:15.v/v) solvent. The extracted organic matter and
solid remnant material were pyrolyzed individually for
72 h in a sealed stainless steel reactor at temperatures
ranging from 150 to 450C in temperature steps of 50C.
This simulating experiment revealed that abundant liquid hydrocarbons were formed at heating temperature of
200~300C corresponding to low maturate stage of organic matter evolution. The generation and drainage of
liquid hydrocarbons reach the peak values at heating tem302 Y. Duan et al.

perature of 250C. At the same time, some important contribution of extractable organic matter from the source
rocks to the formation of liquid hydrocarbons was confirmed (unpublished data). The studied results of the abundant non-hydrocarbon fraction of immature-low mature
crude oils from the western Qaidam Basin show that the
non-hydrocarbons are composed primarily of fatty acids,
alkanols, fatty acid glycerol monoesters, amide and sterols (Duan et al., 2004b), indicating the crude oils derived
mainly from biological lipids. The distribution of nalkanes in the studied crude oils exhibits an obviously
even carbon predominance and a maximum at C16 to C22.
Such distribution of n-alkanes are similar to those of fatty
acid, alkanols, fatty acid glycerol monoesters and amide
in the crude oils from the Gasikule oilfield reported previously (Duan et al., 2004b). This suggests that n-alkanes
in the crude oils were derived probably from the reduced
products of these compounds. Thus, the crude oils from
the E32 and N21 oil pools were formed possibly by evaporating and reducing free biological lipids, thermal translating of extractable organic matters that were survived
without bonding to kerogen and thermal cracking of
kerogen in the Tertiary source rocks deposited under saline to hypersaline environments at the stage of low maturity.
CONCLUSIONS
The geochemical characteristics of crude oils from the
E31 and N21 pools in Gaskule oilfield were synthetically
studied for a better understanding of their organic
matter-formation environments, matrix types, maturity
and genesis. The studied results show that n-alkanes in
the crude oils have the obvious even-odd predominance,
low Pr/Ph ratios and certain amount of -carotane. All
these geochemical parameters indicate that the oils originated from strong anoxic environments. High abundance
of gammacerane and C34+35 hopanes in the crude oils reflect that they were derived from the potential source rocks
deposited under saline to hypersaline lacustrine environments. It was observed that the ancient salinity of the sedimentary environment for the source rocks generating the
N21 crude oils was slightly higher than that forming the

E31 crude oils. The crude oils contain high abundance of

C27 steranes, regular steranes, 4-methyl steranes and long
chain tricyclic terpanes, and low abundance of bicyclic
sesquiterpanes and alkylcyclohexanes, showing that the
crude oils were mainly from bacteria and algae. However, the E31 crude oils were mostly from bacteria where
the N21 crude oils were derived mostly from plankton.
Low C29 sterane 20S/(20S + 20R) and /( + ) ratios, Ts/Tm ratios and low abundance of rearranged
steranes in the crude oils show their low maturity. It was
found that the maturity of the E31 crude oils was slightly
higher than that of the N21 crude oils. All these results
show that the N2 and E31 crude oils originated from free
biological lipids, extractable organic matters and kerogen
in the Tertiary source rocks deposited under a salinehypersaline environment at the stage of low maturity.
AcknowledgmentsThis study was supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40872092,
40772069) and the 973 Program of China (Grant No.
2005CB422105). We are grateful to Yoshikazu Sampei and Jordi
Tritlla Cambra for their reviews which significantly improved
the manuscript. G. D. Zheng acknowledges the financial support from Chinese Academy of Sciences as 100-Tallent program to perform research work in 20062009.

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