Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Petroleum Research
journal homepage: http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/
petroleum-research/

Petroleum accumulation: from the continuous to discontinuous

Jingzhou Zhao*, Qing Cao, Yubin Bai, Chuang Er, Jun Li, Weitao Wu, Wuxian Shen
School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Petroleum Accumulation Geology, Xi'an Shiyou University, Shaanxi 710065, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Based on the extensive studies of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon accumulations, the
Received 10 November 2016 concept, classification and formation as well as distribution of petroleum reservoirs are discussed. The
Received in revised form revised concept defined the petroleum reservoir as a continuous hydrocarbon accumulation in a single or
23 February 2017
a set of reservoirs with an independent or uniform pressure system. In terms of the pattern of hydro-
Accepted 28 February 2017
carbon accumulation and distribution, the hydrocarbon accumulations are classified into three basic
types, i.e., the continuous accumulation, the quasi-continuous accumulation and the discontinuous
accumulation. The hydrocarbon accumulation was demonstrated as a process from continuous accu-
Keywords:
Petroleum reservoirs
mulation to discontinuous accumulation, and therefore these three basic types of hydrocarbon accu-
Continuous hydrocarbon accumulation mulations were identified. The continuous hydrocarbon accumulation is principally formed in source
Quasi-continuous accumulation rocks, and typical examples are shale hydrocarbon reservoirs and coal-bed methane reservoirs; it is
Discontinuous accumulation mainly characterized by tight-ultra tight reservoirs with permeability of nanodarcy to millidarcy; the
hydrocarbons occurred in free, adsorbed or dissolved state; a continuous accumulation comprises
actually only a single reservoir, and hydrocarbons are extensively and continuously distributed within
the scope of effective source rocks; the accumulation has neither defined boundaries nor bottom or edge
water; oil and gas mainly accumulate in situ or near the generation of hydrocarbons with no prominent
migration; this hydrocarbon accumulation process is basically not controlled by traps. The quasi-
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation mostly occurs in the tight reservoirs adjacent to source rocks, and
typical examples are most of tight hydrocarbon reservoirs; the hydrocarbons are distributed quasi-
continuously in large areas, and each quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation includes numerous
adjacent small- to medium-size reservoirs; reservoirs of this kind of hydrocarbon accumulation have no
defined boundaries, no or only local edge and bottom water distribution, and no regional oil-gas-water
inversion; hydrocarbons are pervasively charged in large areas, and oil and gas accumulation is caused by
primary migration and short-distance secondary migration; the hydrocarbon migration and accumula-
tion is principally driven by non-buoyant forces in non-Darcy flow; and the hydrocarbon accumulation is
basically not controlled by anticline traps, but largely by non-anticline traps, especially lithological traps.
The discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulation is also named as the hydrocarbon accumulation of the
conventional-trap type, and typically occurs in conventional reservoirs, but some tight hydrocarbon
reservoirs, coalbed methane reservoirs and even possible shale hydrocarbon reservoirs also belong to
this kind of hydrocarbon accumulation; the hydrocarbon reservoirs are distributed discontinuously, and
have clear boundaries and complete edge water or bottom water; the hydrocarbon migration and
accumulation is mainly driven by buoyancy and secondary migration is usually indispensable; the hy-
drocarbon accumulation is strictly controlled by various traps, especially structural traps. In a petrolif-
erous basin, above three types of hydrocarbon accumulation may coexist, andhydrocarbons are often
derived from a common source kitchen(s). Therefore, these three types of hydrocarbon accumulation
should be considered and studied as a whole to maximize hydrocarbon exploration efficiencvy.
© 2017 Chinese Petroleum Society. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

Hydrocarbon reservoirs in the crust can be divided into the

* Corresponding author. conventional type and unconventional type. Global exploration and
E-mail address: jzzhao@xsyu.edu.cn (J. Zhao). development of oil and gas evolve from the conventional reservoirs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptlrs.2017.02.001
2096-2495/© 2017 Chinese Petroleum Society. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
132 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
to the unconventional reservoirs.
In recent years, with the increasing exploration and develop-
ment of both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon re-
sources worldwide (Zhao, 2013), especially with continuous
discoveries and intensive studies of unconventional hydrocarbon
reservoirs, it has been found that the traditional petroleum
geological theories based on conventional hydrocarbon reservoir
studies were difficult to meet new situation of hydrocarbon
exploration and development, and many important petroleum
geological concepts and theories (e.g., concept, classification and
accumulation theories of hydrocarbon reservoirs) needed to be
reconsidered and improved urgently. Moreover, it has been
revealed that the conventional reservoirs and unconventional res-
ervoirs were closely related in terms of the formation and distri-
bution, and contrary to the process of global hydrocarbon
exploration and development, the formation of hydrocarbon res-
ervoirs was usually a process from the unconventional hydrocarbon
accumulation to conventional hydrocarbon accumulation or from
the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation to discontinuous hy-
drocarbon accumulation. This process result in formation of the
continuous, quasi-continuous and discontinuous hydrocarbon ac-
cumulations, which were representative of the basic types of hy-
drocarbon reservoirs in the Earth’s crust (Zhao et al., 2015). In a
petroliferous basin, the conventional and unconventional reser-
voirs, or the continuous, quasi-continuous and discontinuous hy-
drocarbon accumulations often coexist, indicating close
relationships and unique distribution laws among them. Thus, in
order to advance the current and future exploration of conventional
and unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs, it is necessary and
important to carry out a study on the whole process of hydrocarbon
reservoirs from continuous to discontinuous accumulation, so as to
reveal the internal relationships between conventional and un-
conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs as well as the characteristics
and distribution laws of hydrocarbon accumulation. As a result, the
concept and classification of hydrocarbon reservoirs, the contin-
uous to discontinuous accumulation process, and the characteris-
tics, relationships and distribution laws of all types of hydrocarbon
accumulations are discussed in this paper.
2. Definition of petroleum reservoir
Petroleum geologists from different eras, countries or regions
usually have different understandings of the petroleum reservoir
concept, definitions of petroleum reservoir proposed by some
Table 1
Definitions of petroleum reservoir.
Authors (year) Publications
Wilson (1934) Proposed classification of oil
and gas Reservoirs
Levorsen (1967) Geology of petroleum
Northwest University (1979) Petroleum geology
Hobson and Tiratsoo (1981) Introduction to petroleum geology
Zhang and Zhang (1981) Petroleum geology
Chapman (1983) Petroleum geology
North (1985) Petroleum geology
Chen (1994) Geology of oil and gas
Zhang et al. (1999) Petroleum geology
Zhao et al. This paper
domestic and foreign scholars are shown in Table 1.
In the textbook of Petroleum Geology in China, the petroleum
reservoir was regarded as the hydrocarbon accumulation in a single
trap with a unified pressure system and oil (gas)-water interface. In
the definition of petroleum reservoir in many textbooks, particu-
larly since the 1990s, two elements were commonly emphasized,
i.e., “the single trap” and “the unified pressure system and oil (gas)-
water interface” (Chen, 1994; Zhang et al., 1999). Although the
importance of trap was emphasized, however, “the unified oil-
water interface” was not mentioned in and before 1980s, as indi-
cated in the Petroleum Geology written by Northwestern Univer-
sity (1979) and the Petroleum Geology written by Zhang and Zhang
(1981).
Unlike scholars in China, scholars from some other countries do
not emphasize “the unified pressure system and oil (gas)-water
interface” and even “the trap” in the definition of petroleum res-
ervoirs. The oil or gas in a single ore bed was called an oil or gas
reservoir (Levorsen, 1967). A single hydrocarbon accumulation was
considered as a petroleum reservoir (Hobson and Tiratsoo, 1981).
Chapman (1983) proposed that a single hydrocarbon accumulation
could be considered as a petroleum pool sometimes, but the term
“pool” were not recognized worldwide. Only the petroleum reser-
voir defined by North (1985) emphasized the characteristic of “the
single trap”.
However, it is important to note that the above concepts were
proposed primarily on the basis of conventional hydrocarbon res-
ervoirs. With discovery of more and more unconventional hydro-
carbon reservoirs, it is gradually recognized that many
unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs, including tight uncon-
ventional hydrocarbon, shale hydrocarbon and coal bed methane,
generally had no edge or bottom water (Schmoker, 1995; Zhao,
2012; Zhao et al., 2013). In this case, the concept of a petroleum
reservoir with unified oil (gas)-water interface is obviously inap-
plicable to the unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. In addition,
it is also demonstrated by some scholars that the continuous ac-
cumulations, including tight unconventional hydrocarbon, shale
hydrocarbon and coal bed methane, had no obvious traps and cap
rocks (Schenk, 2002, 2005). Nevertheless, the formation of tight
hydrocarbon reservoirs is still controlled by traps to a certain
extent, while most of hydrocarbon accumulations in source rocks,
such as shale hydrocarbon and coal bed methane, have no obvious
traps or basically are not controlled by traps (detailed hereinafter).
Based on such understandings, the traditional trap-centered
concept of the petroleum reservoir was not applicable to some
Definition
Oil (gas) reservoir is a natural container storing commercial oil and/or gas
The oil or gas content of a single deposit is called an oil or gas pool
The oil and gas reservoir is a basic unit of oil and gas accumulation, and exists in an independent
trap, where the oil and gas has a certain distribution law and a uniform pressure system
A single hydrocarbon accumulation is a hydrocarbon reservoir.
The petroleum reservoir is defined as oil and gas accumulation in a single trap
Hydrocarbon accumulation in a single bed is an oil and gas pool sometimes
The petroleum pool is a single and isolated hydrocarbon accumulation in a single trap of a single
reservoir
The petroleum reservoir is referred to as oil and gas accumulated in a single trap with a uniform
pressure system and oil (gas)-water interface
The petroleum reservoir is a basic unit of oil and gas accumulated in the Earth’s crust and it was the
accumulation of oil and gas in a single trap with a uniform pressure system and oil (gas)-water
interface
The petroleum is accumulated in a single or a set of reservoirs with an independent or uniform
pressure system
 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145 133

unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. in different traps, so they belong to different petroleum reservoirs.
Based on the formation characteristics of conventional and
unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs, the petroleum reservoir is (2) For hydrocarbon accumulation in multi-reservoirs, the
defined herein as a continuous hydrocarbon accumulation in a pressure system is a key to determine whether those hy-
single or a set of reservoirs with an independent or uniform pres- drocarbon accumulations belong to the same petroleum
sure system. The core of the concept is the continuity of hydro- reservoir. If they have a unified pressure system (or a unified
carbon distribution and the independence or unity of pressure oil/gas-water interface), they belong to the same petroleum
system, both of which are indispensable; however, the trap and the reservoir (such as a0 and b0 in Fig. 1b); on the contrary, if they
unified oil (gas)-water interface are not necessary to define a pe- are in different pressure systems or have different oil (gas)-
troleum reservoir. As shown in Fig. 1a, a0 and b0 of petroleum res- water interfaces, they belong to different petroleum reser-
ervoirs are two different shale hydrocarbon reservoirs or coal bed voirs (such as a0 and b0 in Fig. 1a).
methane reservoirs with no obvious traps, or hydrocarbon distri-
bution is uncontrolled by traps; it also have neither clear hydro-
carbon reservoir boundaries, nor edge water and bottom water (no
3. Classification of hydrocarbon accumulations and their
unified oil/ gas - water interface). Because hydrocarbons are
characteristics
continuously distributed in the reservoir strata and both have
different pressure systems, the two different petroleum reservoirs
Petroleum reservoirs are commonly classified with regard to a
are formed. It needs to point out that petroleum reservoirs existed
single hydrocarbon reservoir. For the single petroleum reservoir,
in either single or multiple reservoir strata, but there were some
most popular classifications are based on trap genesis, in which
differences between them in the key elements for the formation of
petroleum reservoirs are generally classified as the structural
hydrocarbon reservoirs.
reservoir, stratigraphic reservoir, composite reservoir and so on.
Despite of this, the formation and distribution of petroleum
(1) For hydrocarbon accumulation in a single reservoir, the key
reservoirs are often not isolated; in other words, hydrocarbon
element to form a petroleum reservoir is the continuity of
reservoirs occurred not in isolated individuals, but in clusters which
hydrocarbon distribution. If the hydrocarbon distribution is
had close genetic connections to each other. In this instance, a
discontinuous, then it do not belong to the same reservoir,
classification for single petroleum reservoir could not compre-
despite that the reservoir may have a unified pressure sys-
hensively reflect the reservoir accumulation characteristics,
tem. For hydrocarbon accumulation in source rocks, the
particularly the distribution characteristics of the reservoirs. In
principal element to determine the continuity of hydrocar-
addition, such classification also could not reflect the difference
bon distribution is the continuous distribution of effective
between the conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon res-
source rocks.
ervoirs. In fact, traditional classifications for single reservoir mainly
focused on the conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs; therefore, it is
For the hydrocarbon accumulation outside source rocks (e.g.
not comprehensive, and has certain limitations when it was used as
tight hydrocarbon reservoirs and conventional hydrocarbon reser-
a guidance to petroleum exploration and development.
voirs), a critical element controlling the continuity of hydrocarbon
Thus, it is necessary to carry out studies on the classification of
reservoir is distribution of traps. As shown in Fig. 1a, petroleum
accumulation type of hydrocarbon reservoirs. The so-called hy-
reservoirs of c0 , d0 , e0 and d0 are distributed in the same set of the
drocarbon accumulation type refers to the accumulation or distri-
sandstone reservoirs (including tight sandstone and conventional
bution pattern of hydrocarbon reservoirs which occurred roughly
sandstone), but they belong to different lithologic traps with
in the same time and in the same region with the same hydrocar-
discontinuous distribution of oil and gas, so they are different pe-
bon source kitchen(s). Major consideration for such a classification
troleum reservoirs. Nevertheless, a0 and b0 in the two anticline traps
includes the formation and distribution characteristics of hydro-
in Fig. 1c have a unified pressure system (or unified oil-water
carbon reservoirs as well as interrelationship among individual
interface), but the hydrocarbon distributions are discontinuous and
reservoirs in the accumulation. A hydrocarbon accumulation may

Fig. 1. Concept of the petroleum reservoir. (a) Shale hydrocarbon reservoirs or coalbed methane reservoirs (a0 , b0 ) and sandstone lithologic petroleum reservoirs (c0 , d0 , e0 , f0 ); (b) a0
and b0 belong to the same petroleum reservoir in a single anticline trap; (c) a0 and b0 are two petroleum reservoirs of anticline trap.
134 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
be a single reservoir, or a reservoir cluster. Based on the accumu-
lation or distribution pattern of hydrocarbon reservoirs, hydrocar-
bon accumulations are grouped into three types: the continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation, quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accu-
mulation and discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulation (Fig. 2,
Table 2), of which the continuous and quasi-continuous accumu-
lations belong to unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs, while the
discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulation is actually the conven-
tional reservoirs. Each type can be subdivided into various single
hydrocarbon reservoir according to trap types.
Obviously, the classification of hydrocarbon accumulation pro-
posed in this paper cover all reservoir types of the conventional and
unconventional hydrocarbon, and also reveal formation and dis-
tribution characteristics of hydrocarbon reservoirs and their inter-
nal relationships. This classification therefore has the great
significance for studies of formation and distribution of hydrocar-
bon reservoirs and guidance of oil and gas exploration and
development.
3.1. Continuous hydrocarbon accumulation
“Continuous accumulation” was firstly proposed by the United
States Geological Survey in the mid-1990s. According to Schmoker
(1995) and USGS (1995), it referred to the hydrocarbon accumula-
tion with large distribution area but no distinctive boundary, and
the occurrence of this hydrocarbon accumulation was not depen-
dent on water columns (edge and bottom water) more or less. As
indicated by Schmoker (1995, 2002), the continuous hydrocarbon
accumulation belonged to the unconventional hydrocarbon reser-
voirs, including the coalbed methane, basin-centered gas, tight gas,
shale gas, natural gas hydrate, and so on.
In our opinion, true continuous hydrocarbon accumulation
should be formed within source rocks, typically represented by
shale oil and gas and coalbed methane. However, not all shale hy-
drocarbon reservoirs and coal-bed methane reservoirs belong to
the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation; some of them belong to
the quasi-continuous and discontinuous (conventional) hydrocar-
bon accumulation, in which the discontinuous (conventional trap)
hydrocarbon accumulation may be another important type of the
coalbed methane reservoirs or even shale hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Major characteristics of the continuous hydrocarbon accumu-
lation are summarized as follows:
Fig. 2. Formation and distribution models of the continuous, quasi-continuous and discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations.
(1) The reservoir is tight or ultra tight. The reservoir of the
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation is the worst among
these three accumulation types. The matrix permeability of
reservoirs generally range from a few nano-darcy (nD) to a
few millidarcy (mD), and the pore is dominated by nano-
pores, followed by micropores, moreover, the shale reservoir
is the tightest. According to the statistics, most of shale res-
ervoirs in North America had the permeability of 0e5000 nD
with an average of 10e1000 nD, the porosity was 1e14% with
an average of 4%e8% (Jarvie, 2012).
Since coals characterized by development of cleats and struc-
tural fractures, coalbed methane reservoirs are commonly variable
in permeability, but their matrix permeabilities are still quite low.
Coalbed methane is usually distributed continuously, especially the
high-rank coal-bed methane has relatively poor permeability, fol-
lowed by the midium-rank coal-bed methane. For instance, the
Carboniferous - Permian coal in the south Qinshui Basin are the
high-rank coal bed, the effective porosity was from 1.15% to 7.69%,
generally less than 5%, the permeability was from 0.1 mD to 6.7 mD,
generally no more than 2 mD (Lin and Su, 2007). The Cretaceous
Fruitland Formation coal in the San Juan Basin belong to the mid-
ium-rank coal, the permeability in the gas-producing area ranged
from 5 mD to 60 mD (Ayers, 2002). The permeability of coals in
Black Warrior Basin mostly are from 1 mD to 25 mD. Because of
poor reservoir physical property as well as very tiny and variable
pore throat, oil and gas could hardly migrate in a long distance, and
therefore are hard to accumulate locally to form large area of the
continuous hydrocarbon reservoirs. The high-quality reservoirs
similar to the conventional reservoirs with relatively high porosity
and permeability can not result in formation of the continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation; but more likely formation of the
discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulation, e.g., some coalbed
methane reservoirs.
(2) Oil and gas occur in the multi-phase state (such as the
adsorbed, free and dissolved state). Different from hydro-
carbon occurrence of the typical quasi-continuous and
discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations in a free state, the
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation occurs not only in a
free state, but also in an adsorbed state and even a dissolved
state. Existence of the adsorbed oil and gas is one of the most
distinctive characteristics for the continuous hydrocarbon
accumulation. The coalbed methane principally occurred in
 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145 135

Table 2
Comparison of the continuous, quasi-continuous and discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations.

Classification Continuous hydrocarbon accumulation Quasi-continuous hydrocarbon Discontinuous hydrocarbon

accumulation accumulation

Typical example
Oil-gas-water distribution
Relationship between hydrocarbon
accumulation to hydrocarbon
reservoir
Source-reservoir distribution
Reservoir condition
Formation pressure
Migration distance and channel
Driving force of migration
Migration pattern
Accumulation mechanism
Main controlling factors of
hydrocarbon enrichment
Location of hydrocarbon enrichment
Resource characteristics
Shale oil and gas, coalbed methane
Oil and gas is continuously distributed
in large areas with no definite boundary
as well as edge and bottom water
A hydrocarbon accumulation is only
composed of a hydrocarbon reservoir,
and the oil and gas field was unitization
or non-unitization oil and gas field
Reservoirs are source rocks
Reservoirs are tight to super-tight with
permeability of a few nano-Darcy to a
few mili-Darcy
Abnormal pressure
Hydrocarbon is accumulated in source
rocks in-place or adjacently, without
obvious migration or dominant
migration pathway
Non-buoyancy force, mostly abnormal
pressure and diffusion force
Non-Darcy flow, mainly surge flow and
diffusion flow
Hydrocarbon accumulation is mainly
controlled by effective source rock
distribution as well as roof and floor
conditions, and there is no obvious trap
Source rock quality, reservoir “sweet
spot”, roof and floor, hydrodynamic
condition
Depression and slope
Large in-place resource or large scale
reserve, generally the medium-size and
above especially the large and giant-
size gasfield, but the abundance is
relatively low
Tight oil and gas (including tight
sandstone and tight carbonate gas)
Oil and gas is quasi-continuously
distributed in large areas, generally
with no distinctive boundary, no or
local edge and bottom water, and no
regional oil (gas)-water inversion
A hydrocarbon accumulation is
composed of many adjacent
hydrocarbon reservoirs. and the oil and
gas field is non-unitization oil and gas
field
Reservoirs are adjacent to source rocks,
and both are distributed in large or
relative large areas
Reservoirs are tight with permeability
generally less than 1 mD, the reservoir
mostly is tight firstly and hydrocarbon
is charged later
Generally abnormal pressure
(Overpressure or underpressure)
Hydrocarbon is accumulated near
source rock and is pervasively charged
in large areas without dominant
migration pathway through primary
migration or short-distance secondary
migration
Limited buoyancy force, mostly
abnormal pressure and diffusion force
Non-Darcy flow, mainly surge flow and
diffusion flow
Hydrocarbon accumulation is mainly
controlled by non-anticline traps
especially lithologic traps, and is barely
controlled by anticline traps.
Source rock quality, reservoir “sweet
spot”, caprock
Gentle depression and slope
Large in-place resource or large-scale
reserve, generally the medium-size and
above especially the large and giant-
size gasfield, but the abundance is
relatively low
Conventional oil and gas
Hydrocarbon reservoirs are distributed
discontinuously with distinctive
boundary, complete edge and bottom
water generally
A hydrocarbon accumulation is
composed of one or more hydrocarbon
reservoirs, and the oil and gas field is
unitization or non-unitization oil and
gas field
Reservoirs are adjacent to or far was
away from source rocks, and
distribution areas are large or small
Reservoir condition is good with
permeability generally more than 1mD
Normal pressure and abnormal
pressure
Hydrocarbon is accumulated near or far
away from source rock with dominant
migration pathway through secondary
migration
Mainly buoyancy force
Mainly Darcy flow
Hydrocarbon accumulation strictly is
controlled by conventional traps, such
as structural, stratigraphic and
combination traps
Multiple factors
Principally structural high
More or less in-place resource or
reserve scale, and the abundance is
relatively high

the adsorbed state, while shale gas is mainly in the adsorbed
and free states, and ratios of the adsorbed state hydrocarbon
and the free state hydrocarbon in shale vary greatly. Ac-
cording to statistics, the adsorbed gas and the free gas in the
major shale gas reservoirs in the North America accounted
for 10e70% and 30e90%, respectively (Jarvie, 2012). Because
of the existence of adsorbed gas, the hydrocarbon accumu-
lation in source rocks is of typical continuous accumulation
characteristics, while the existence of large amount of free
gas is more favorable for hydrocarbon enrichment and high
yield.
(3) A hydrocarbon accumulation actually is the only one reser-
voir with the continuous large area distribution and no clear
boundary. One of the prominent features of the continuous
accumulation is actually that a hydrocarbon accumulation
only is composed of a reservoir. Moreover, the hydrocarbon
reservoir has large distribution areas and large-scale re-
serves, generally belonging to the medium and even large to
giant and ultra-giant oil and gas fields, and the distribution
area is over hundreds to more than tens of thousands of
square kilometers. For the accumulation in source rocks, the
distribution area of effective source rocks commonly is also
the area of hydrocarbon accumulation. For example, the
Carboniferous Barnett shale in Fort Worth Basin had the gas-
bearing area of 7.5 ! 103 km2 and the recoverable reserve of
1.2273 ! 1012 m3; the Devonian Marcellus shale in Appala-
chian Basin had the gas-bearing area of 0.18 ! 106 km2 and
the recoverable reserve of 7.4 ! 1012 m3; the San Juan Basin
had the coalbed methane-bearing area of 4.144 ! 103 km2
and the recoverable reserve of 367.9 ! 109 m3 (Zou et al.,
2015). In the Qinshui Basin, the Carboniferous-Permian coal
beds are developed all over the basin, so the coalbed
methane also is distributed in the whole basin with different
enrichment degrees in different regions (Fig. 3); the basin is
rich in the coalbed methane resources, and has discovered
total proven reserves of a coalbed methane field up to
115.2 ! 109 m3 by Huabei Oilfield Company
In addition, the oil and gas is continuously distributed in the
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation area, the whole reservoir
(the effective source rocks) more or less contained oil and gas, and
there are no true dry wells and dry layers. Moreover, the continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation has no distinctive boundary, no oil/gas-
water interface, and no edge or bottom water, which is an impor-
tant characteristic of the conventional hydrocarbon reservoir.
136 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
(4) The hydrocarbon is accumulated within source rocks with
self generation and self preservation, and the accumulation is
in situ or nearby source kichen with no significant hydro-
carbon migration. The continuous hydrocarbon accumula-
tion is primarily formed in source rocks. This continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation distributed in large areas can
only be formed in source rocks. Such oil and gas in reservoirs
in source rocks are principally accumulated in situ or nearby,
and there is no obvious hydrocarbon migration and no
dominant migration channel. Otherwise, if dominant
migration channels are developed in source rocks, the con-
ventional hydrocarbon reservoirs (e.g., mudstone fracture
reservoirs) would be probably formed in source rocks; on the
other hand, it would easily cause huge amount of oil and gas
discharge from source rocks, and is not favorable for hydro-
carbons accumulation in source rocks. In addition, the
“continuous” oil and gas reservoirs with large distribution
areas might form in some conventional strata, but generally
have edge and bottom water as well as distinctive boundary
of hydrocarbon reservoir; therefore, they may not belong to
the continuous accumulation of hydrocarbon reservoir, but
belong to the conventional hydrocarbon reservoir.
(5) Hydrocarbon accumulation basically is not controlled by
traps. As indicated by studies of continuous hydrocarbon
accumulation in source rocks, such as shale oil and gas,
coalbed methane, such hydrocarbon accumulation is basi-
cally not controlled by traps, and the accumulation and dis-
tribution of oil and gas is mainly controlled by distribution of
effective source rocks as well as roof and floor conditions.
Despite this kind of hydrocarbon accumulation uncontrolled
by traps, structural traps usually have certain and even
important control effect on local hydrocarbon accumulation,
and therefore the structural traps actually play a role of the
“sweet spots”. For some reservoirs of continuous accumula-
tion (e.g., coalbed methane reservoir), hydrodynamic con-
ditions also significantly control oil and gas enrichment, but
this so-called “hydrodynamic trap” may not completely
played the role of trap.
(6) Hydrocarbon enrichment is principally controlled by source
rock quality, “sweet spot” of reservoirs and sealing condi-
tions, and characterized by hydrocarbon enrichment at lower
structural locations. (I) Hydrocarbon generation condition is
the principal factor for controlling hydrocarbon enrichment
degree, and oil and gas mostly enrich at lower structural
Fig. 3. Accumulation model of coalbed methane reservoirs in the Qinshui Basin (modified from Huang et al., 2014).
location or hydrocarbon generation center, this because
source rocks in the hydrocarbon-generating center have
relatively high abundance and maturity of organic matters,
and therefore, it is favorable for generation and accumulation
of a large quantity of thermogenic oil and gas. Studies sug-
gest that shale gas content was positively correlated with
organic matter abundance, and the higher the TOC was, the
higher the shale gas content would be (Fig. 4). In addition,
shale source rocks have sufficiently large thickness, the
larger the thickness is, the more difficult the oil and gas will
be to discharge outward, and the more the oil and gas will be
retained in source rocks. As indicated by the analysis of
marine shale gas high-yield area in the North America, the
common characteristics were that source rock had TOC >1%
and Ro >1.4%, and shale thickness was generally larger than
30 m (Jarvie, 2012). On the contrary, if organic matter-rich
shale has no sufficient high thermal evolution degree, or
insufficient thickness, it is not favorable for shale gas accu-
mulation and enrichment. For example, Ro of source rocks in
Triassic Member 7 of Yanchang Formation in Ordos Basin was
from 0.7% to 1.2%, indicating source rock was in the “oil
generation window” and the produced hydrocarbon was
mainly oil with a small quantity of gas (Zhao et al., 2012a);
although the organic matter abundance, maturity and type of
the Carboniferous-Permian mudstone are favorable for gas
generation, the thickness is relatively small, and the thick-
ness of single layer at most is about 30 m, that was not
favorable for retention and accumulation of natural gas in the
shale.
In fact, besides sufficient amount of hydrocarbon generation in
shale, the shale hydrocarbon-expulsion rate is also a critical factor
to influence enrichment of shale oil and gas. The lower the hy-
drocarbon-expulsion rate is or the more the hydrocarbon retention
amount in reservoir is, the more the oil and gas accumulation
quantity in shale will be. According to researches from Pepper
(1992) and Jarvie et al. (2007), the Barnett shale had the hydro-
carbon-expulsion rate of 60%, i.e., when the hydrocarbon retention
volume in the shale was about 40% of total hydrocarbon quantity,
the large-scale continuous shale gas accumulation would be
developed.
(II) The specific location of hydrocarbon accumulation is
controlled by reservoir heterogeneity and “sweet spot”. Reservoir
conditions of shale or coal bed are generally poor, and most of
 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
reservoirs are tight to ultra-tight, and therefore, the reservoir het-
erogeneity is more favorable for oil and gas enrichment. The “sweet
spots” are only developed in reservoirs in the case of heterogeneity
in reservoirs; otherwise, oil and gas enrichment is hardly to form in
ultra-tight reservoir. As demonstrated by researches, the “sweet
spots” in source rocks are classified into two types: the structural
“sweet spot” (e.g., the anticline “sweet spot”) and the non-struc-
tural “sweet spot” including geochemical “sweet spot” (favorable
area of TOC, Ro, thickness and so on) and the reservoir physical
property (porosity and permeability) “sweet spot”. Accordingly, the
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation can be divided into two
types, i.e., the structural “sweet spot” and the non-structural “sweet
spot”; the former generally has higher resource abundance and
hydrocarbon output than the latter, but less hydrocarbon distri-
bution areas. For instance, the Fuling shale gas field in the Sichuan
Basin is a continuous hydrocarbon accumulation of the structural
“sweet spot” type.
It is worth noting that the good reservoir physical property may
not be favorable for formation of the continuous hydrocarbon
accumulation, the good physical property actually is more favorable
for formation of the conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs in source
rocks, or is much more easily for migration and exclusion of oil and
gas from source rocks. According to the study (Jarvie, 2012), in the
marine shale gas high-production area (core area) of North Amer-
ica, the shale porosity was less than 15% and mainly in the range of
4e7%, and the shale permeability was less than 1000 nD. Most
researchers considered that the minimum permeability of the
commercial shale gas reservoir was more than 100 nD, the
permeability of the good shale reservoir was more than 500 nD
(Zagorski et al., 2012).
Formation characteristic for fracturing is one of the important
evaluation indexes for the “sweet spot” of shale oil and gas, which
requires that the shale should contain a certain quantity of brittle
minerals such as quartz and should not contain an excessive high
content of clay minerals. The shale with relative high brittle mineral
content and low clay mineral content can be easily fractured and is
of relative good porosity and permeability for shale oil and gas
accumulation. According to the study (Jarvie, 2012), the shale in
marine shale gas high-production area (core area) of North America
had quartz content greater than 30% and contained moderate
content of carbonate minerals and non-expansive clay minerals.
Bowker (2007) considered that the Barnett shale was successfully
fractured because the clay mineral content was less than 50%. In
fact, the clay mineral content of the shale in North America nor-
mally was less than 50%. However, it is worth noting that the
Fig. 4. Relationship between gas content and TOC in shales (Ross and Bustin, 2009; Guo, 2013). (a) Relationship between methane absorption content and TOC of some shales in
North America; (b) Relationship between shale gas content and TOC in Well Jiaoye 1.
137
genesis of quartz in the shale had two types, e.g., the organic
genesis and the terrigenous clastic genesis. According to the study,
the organic genetic quartz is mainly from the skeletons of animals
(such as radiolarian) in marine deep water environment, thus high
content of such quartz indicate high abundance of organic matters.
But the content of the terrigenous clastic genetic quartz is not so
high in shale. In the lacustrine facies clay shale in Triassic Member 7
of Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin, the TOC content was
correlated negatively with quartz content, but was correlated
positively with clay mineral content (Er et al., 2013; Zhao et al.,
2016). Major mineral component of shale is dominated by clay
minerals; therefore, although excessive high content of the terrig-
enous clastic quartz or low clay mineral content can increase shale
brittleness, porosity and permeability, it inevitably will reduce
organic matter abundance, and is not favorable for generation of
shale oil and gas. The balance point of quartz, clay mineral and TOC
content in shale is critical to successful exploration and develop-
ment of shale oil and gas.
Furthermore, preliminary results reveal that unlike marine
shales, terrigenous shales may have relative high clay mineral
content but relative low brittle mineral content, which is a negative
factor for shale oil and gas development. For example, both in
Mesozoic Member 7 of Yanchang Formation and Upper Paleozoic in
the Ordos Basin, clay mineral content of organic-rich shales
generally is higher than 50% with relative low brittle mineral
content (e.g., quartz) (Fig. 5). Therefore, compared with marine
shale, exploration and development of terrigenous shale oil and gas
face greater challenges.
(III) Good roof and floor sealing condition is an important factor
for enrichment of continuous hydrocarbon. For accumulation of
shale hydrocarbon or coalbed methane, the prerequisite is that oil
and gas generated in organic-rich clay shale and coalbed is not
completely expelled, and the more the hydrocarbon retained
within source rocks is or the less the expelled hydrocarbon is, the
more enriched the shale hydrocarbon and coalbed gas will be. The
quantity of hydrocarbon retained in source rocks is controlled not
only by mass of source rock but also by sealing condition or hy-
drocarbon expulsion condition.
Sealing condition and hydrocarbon expulsion condition for
source rocks depends on three factors. (a) Thickness of source rock:
the larger the thickness was, the worse the internal hydrocarbon
expulsion condition will be and the more the retained hydrocarbon
will be. (b) Roof and floor condition: better roof and floor condition
(larger thickness and worse physical property) is more favorable for
perseveration of hydrocarbons in source rocks. (c) Intensity of
138 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
tectonic activities (e.g., fault): the more development of faults is,
the more expulsion hydrocarbon from source rocks will be, but the
worse hydrocarbon accumulation in source rocks will be. Therefore,
a favorable shale hydrocarbon and coalbed methane enrichment
region have large thickness of source rocks, good roof and floor
conditions, and no considerably development of faults. Studies
suggest that the major gas-rich shales in North America generally
had good-excellent roof and floor conditions; both the roof and
floor were limestone, i.e., Barnett shale in Fort Worth Basin, and
Devonian-Carboniferous New Albany shale in Illinois Basin; for
Devonian Marcellus shale in the Appalachian Basin, and Devonian
Antrim shale in Michigan Basin, the roof was shale and the floor
was limestone respectively; for Devonian Wood-ford shale in
Acoma Basin, the roof was limestone and the floor was sandstone/
limestone; for Upper Jurassic Haynesville shale in East Texas-North
Louisiana Basin, the roof was sandstone and the floor was lime-
stone; for Carboniferous Fayetteville shale in Acoma Basin, the roof
was limestone and the floor was sandstone.
In China, Fuling shale gas field also has good roof and floor
conditions as an important controlling factor for oil-gas enrichment
and high yield (Fig. 6). The roof of Silurian shale gas in Longmaxi
Formation of this gas field was the upper mudstone of Longmaxi
Formation, it was characterized by low organic matter abundance,
low porosity and permeability; the floor was the widespread tight
limestone of Ordovician Jiancaogou Formation, and the thickness
was from 45 to 50 m, and this limestone in Well DS1 had the
porosity of 0.61%e1.66% (the average of 1.01%) and the permeability
of 0.0058e0.1092 mD (the average of 0.0201 mD) (Guo, 2013). In
addition to above factors, the hydrodynamic condition is also an
important factor to influence formation and enrichment of
continuous hydrocarbon reservoirs, especially for coalbed methane
reservoir.
3.2. Quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation
The quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation typically
ocurred in tight reservoirs near source rocks, but not all tight hy-
drocarbon accumulations belong to the quasi-continuous
Fig. 5. Mineral content distribution of dark shales in the Member 7 of Yanchang
Formation and the Upper Paleozoic dark argillaceous shale in the Ordos Basin. (a)
Distribution of mineral content of argillaceous shales in the Member 7 of Yanchang
Fm.; (b) Distribution of mineral content in the Upper Paleozoic argillaceous shales.
hydrocarbon accumulation. The quasi-continuous hydrocarbon
accumulation may also occur in shale and coalbed methane
reservoirs.
Two accumulation models were proposed for tight hydrocar-
bons: (a) the deep basin gas, basin-centered gas or continuous
accumulation model, (b) the conventional-trap accumulation
model. In recent years, we argued that tight oil and gas accumu-
lations mainly belong to the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accu-
mulation model (Zhao, 2012; Zhao et al., 2012b, 2012c, 2013). A
typical example was tight oil accumulation in Member 6 of Triassic
Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin (Bai et al., 2013). The quasi-
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation was defined as a group of
petroleum reservoirs that were adjacent and had closely genetical
relation with no distinctive boundaries (Zhao et al., 2013).
Major characteristics of the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon
accumulation are summarized as follows:
(1) Reservoirs are tight, and mostly were compacted first and
were charged later.
The quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation is principally
formed in tight reservoirs with permeability generally less than
1mD, and mainly includes tight sandstone and tight carbonates. It
should be noted that the upper and lower limit of physical property
of tight reservoir are actually not fixed values in the same region,
just because every hydrocarbon reservoirs have different geologic
conditions. For instance, the tight gas reservoirs in different Upper
Paleozoic strata in the east of Ordos Basin had different upper and
lower limit of physical property (Cao et al., 2013a).
The tight reservoirs of the quasi-continuous accumulation are
characterized by first compaction and later charge of reservoirs. For
instance, during the main accumulation period of the early Creta-
ceous, the Upper Paleozoic natural gas reservoir in Ordos Basin was
tight (Zhao et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2007; Fu et al., 2008; Li et al.,
2008; Yang et al., 2011, 2012). Only when the continuous-accu-
mulation tight reservoirs become tight firstly and then hydrocar-
bons are charged later, the tight reservoir could prevent a large
quantity of oil and gas from escaping by self-sealing. On the other
hand, because of tiny pore throat, large capillary resistance and
strong heterogeneity, oil and gas could hardly migrate over long
distances in large scale, and difficult to gather and form conven-
tional hydrocarbon reservoir locally, and therefore the quasi-
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation in large areas would be
formed. If the hydrocarbon accumulated before the reservoir be-
comes tight, oil and gas would easily migrate over long distances
because of good reservoir property; in this case, oil and gas are
prone to migrate and accumulate at structural highs to form con-
ventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. Although reservoirs may tight
after hydrocarbon accumulation, the original-formed conventional
hydrocarbon reservoirs may be modified; the modified oil and gas
reservoirs are mostly distributed near the paleo-reservoirs which
hydrocarbons are accumulated at structural highs, and the quasi-
continuous hydrocarbon which was distributed in large areas and
was not subject to structural control, hardly is formed from basin
center to slope, unless the oil and gas supply is extremely adequate.
(2) Oil and gas are quasi-continuously distributed in large areas
with no distinctive boundary, no or only local distribution of
edge or bottom water, and no regional oil-gas-water
inversion.
Similar to the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation, the quasi-
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation is also characterized by
large distribution area and large-scale reserves; the oil and gas
fields of this kind of hydrocarbon accumulation generally are the
 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
Fig. 6. Distribution of the Longmaxi Formation shale and its roof and floor in the Fuling Gas Field (Guo, 2013).
medium and even large-giant oil and gas fields, and its distribution
areas are around hundreds to tens of thousands of square meters.
For instance, the Sulige Gasfield in the Ordos Basin had the proven
and basic proven geologic reserves of natural gas up to
3.9 ! 1012 m3, and the gas-bearing area was more than
60 ! 103 km2, the annual tight gas production was 21.2 ! 109 m3 by
2013 (Zou et al., 2015). The Hechuan Gasfield of Xujiahe Formation
in Sichuan Basin had the gas-bearing area of 1.058 ! 103 km2, and
the proven geological natural gas reserve of 222.9 ! 109 m3; the
Guang'an Gasfield had the proven gas-bearing area of
0.579 ! 103 km2 and the proven geological reserve of
135.6 ! 109 m3 (Wei et al., 2013). In addition, the Uinta Basin in the
America had the proven recoverable tight gas reserve of
474 ! 109 m3 and the gas-bearing area of 17.066 ! 103 km2; tight oil
in the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin had the oil-bearing
area of 285 ! 103 km2 and the recoverable reserve of 0.56 ! 109 t;
the “sweet spot” area of the Eagle Ford tight carbonate reservoir in
southern Texas was 9 ! 103 km2 with the recoverable reserve of
0.476 ! 109 t, and by 2013, the tight oil production was up to
52.36 ! 106 t (Zou et al., 2015).
Different from the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation, hy-
drocarbon reservoirs of the quasi-continuous accumulation are
distributed quasi-continuously, and each quasi-continuous hydro-
carbon accumulation are composed of several adjacent small and
medium-size hydrocarbon reservoirs. In a plane, multi-layer hy-
drocarbon reservoirs are superimposed and formed the “contin-
uous” distribution pattern; in profile, hydrocarbon reservoirs are
distributed discontinuously because of discontinuous lateral dis-
tribution of reservoirs (Fig. 7 and Fig. 8). Hydrocarbon reservoirs
that continuously distributed in a plane but discontinuously on the
profile are called the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation.
No dry wells but dry layers are possible in such kind of hydrocarbon
reservoirs during the exploration and development period.
Furthermore, absence or only local distribution of edge and
bottom water, and no regional oil-gas-water inversion is also an
important characteristic of the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon
accumulation. The phenomenon of water production in the struc-
tural high and hydrocarbon production in the down-dip direction
of the structural high is considered as the oil/gas -water inversion,
but in fact, both reservoirs in these two structural positions are not
connected, and therefore is not a real “oil/gas-water inversion”. A
real regional “oil/gasewater inversion” in a connected body of the
reservoir has not yet been discovered.
(3) The oil and gas is accumulated near source rocks, and is
charged pervasively in large areas; the oil and gas is
139
accumulated through hydrocarbon primary migration and
secondary migration of short distance. Hydrocarbon accu-
mulation and migration is principally controlled by non-
buoyancy drive.
Different from the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation formed
in source rocks, the typical quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumu-
lation is formed in tight reservoirs nearby source rocks. Unlike con-
ventional hydrocarbon reservoirs with obvious dominant migration
channels, there are no obvious dominant migration pathways in
hydrocarbons migration from source rocks to tight reservoirs and
hydrocarbon migration inside tight reservoirs; the oil and gas is
pervasively charged in large areas, and is accumulated through pri-
mary migration and short-distance secondary migration.
The charging and migrating channels may be pore throat or
faults, the channel of fault generally is characterized by large
quantity, wide distribution but small scale, and therefore there are
no obvious dominant migration pathways as well. For instance, from
analysis result of relationship between natural gas composition and
source rock maturity of Upper Paleozoic tight sandstone gas reser-
voir in the Ordos Basin, correlations between methane content,
aridity coefficient, d13C1, d13C1-d13C2 of natural gas from Upper
Paleozoic gas-producing intervals and Ro of Upper Paleozoic source
rocks are positive; with the increase of maturity of Upper Paleozoic
source rocks, the methane content and the aridity coefficient also
increase, and d13C1 and d13C1-d13C2 become heavier (Fig. 9); these
characteristics indicate that natural gas composition and isotopic
variation on each major gas production intervals of Upper Paleozoic
tight sandstone gasfiled in Ordos Basin is substantially controlled by
thermal evolution variation of major nearby source rocks, and no
natural gas composition and carbon isotope fractionation effect are
caused by natural gas lateral migration, suggesting that natural gas
did not experience long-distance or large-scale lateral migration but
short-distance migration and accumulation.
The oil and gas migration is principally driven by abnormal high
pressure caused by large amounts of hydrocarbon in source rocks,
secondly by diffusion force caused by extensive hydrocarbon con-
centration gradient, and there is weak or no buoyancy. Therefore,
the migration mode was mainly rapid flow driven by abnormal high
pressure, and secondly diffusion flow caused by hydrocarbon con-
centration difference, like gas migration in Upper Paleozoic tight
sandstone in Ordos Basin (Li et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2014).
(4) Hydrocarbon accumulation is principally controlled by the
non-anticlinal trap (such as lithologic trap), rarely by anti-
clinal traps.
140 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
Different from the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation, the
quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation is controlled by trap
to a certain extent, this kind of trap was mainly the non-anticlinal
trap, like the lithologic trap but not the anticlinal trap. That is
because, on the one hand, compared with conventional reservoirs,
tight reservoirs were generally characterized by thin thickness,
quick lateral change of facies and small scale of single reservoir, and
charging degree of oil and gas in the reservoirs was mostly quite
high; despite existence of anticlinal structural traps, oil and gas was
also distributed out of range of structural trap, and thus the anti-
cline trap could not play a decisive role in oil and gas accumulation.
On the other hand, since tight reservoirs of the quasi-continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation was generally characterized by strong
heterogeneity and great lateral variation of lithological property,
therefore the lithological trap was developed as the major trap type
controlling oil and gas accumulation in tight reservoirs, i.e., the
quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation was formed only in
the condition of relative strong heterogeneity of reservoirs.
For tight sandstones, because most of the quasi-continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation is developed in sand bodies of fluvial or
delta facies, the most prominent heterogeneity of such sandstones
is poor lateral continuity, the reservoir is generally composed of a
number of adjacent different-size sandstone lens bodies, therefore,
hydrocarbon reservoirs are lenticular and adjacent to each other.
Each lenticular body is a self-sealing body, and such hydrocarbon
reservoir is generally of good sealing conditions.
(5) Oil and gas are principally enriched at the gentle depressions
and slopes, the main controlling factors of hydrocarbon
accumulation are source rock, reservoir and sealing
conditions.
The quasi-continuous hydrocarbon reservoirs are principally
developed at the gentle depressions and slopes, on the one hand,
this is because those locations were favorable places not only for
development of source rocks but also for large distribution areas of
tight reservoirs; on the other hand, the gentle stratigraphic
framework is not favorable for hydrocarbon accumulation driven
by buoyancy or local hydrocarbon enrichment, but is easy to form
the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon reservoirs which were distrib-
uted in large areas.
Fig. 7. The quasi-continuous gas reservoir in Upper Paleozoic tight sandstone in the Ordos Basin.
The most important factor that controlled the quasi-continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation is the hydrocarbon source condition.
The higher the organic matter abundance of effective source rocks
is and the larger the distribution area is, the more favorable it will
be to form the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation. For
example, formation of tight sand oil reservoirs in Member 6, 7 and
8 of Triassic Yanchang Formation in Ordos Basin is closely related to
high-quality source rocks in Member 7 of Yanchang Formation. The
source rock is widely distributed with effective area of about
0.1 ! 106 km2, and the area of the high-quality source rock is nearly
50 ! 103 km2; the thickness of the source rock is generally
30e60 m, and the maximal thickness is up to 130 m; the residual
organic carbon content is mainly from 6% to 12%, maximally up to
30%e40%, and average total organic content is 13.76%; values of Ro
range from 0.85% to 1.15%; the average hydrocarbon-generating
intensity is 4.95 ! 106 t/km2, the total hydrocarbon-generation
amount is 247.308 ! 109 t, the average hydrocarbon expulsion in-
tensity is 2.9 ! 106 t/km2, the total hydrocarbon expulsion amount
is 144.771 ! 109 t (Yang et al., 2013), and the average hydrocarbon
expulsion rate is 72% (Zhang et al., 2006). In addition, the formation
of the Upper Paleozoic large to ultra-large tight sandstone gasfields,
such as Sulige, Yulin and Zizhou in Ordos Basin, also have an
important relation with the widespread high-quality coal-bearing
source rocks of the Upper Paleozoic. This source rock nearly are
distributed over the whole Ordos Basin, it commonly is in high-
mature to over-mature stage; the gas-generation intensity of this
source rock range from 1 ! 109 m3/km2 to 4 ! 109 m3/km2, which
was favorable for formation of large-area tight sandstone gas res-
ervoirs. The areas with the Upper Paleozoic gas-generating in-
tensity higher than 1 ! 109 m3/km2 are favorable for formation of
large-scale tight sandstone gasfields (Yang et al., 2011, 2012; Zhao
et al., 2012c; Cao et al., 2013b).
In addition to source rock conditions, both reservoir and caprock
are another two important factors to control tight oil and gas
enrichment. For reservoir, the large-area distribution and strong
heterogeneity of reservoirs are important factors for formation of
the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation, while develop-
ment of sweet spots is a key for enrichment and high yield. For
caprock (including roof and floor), horizons of high-quality caprock
generally control the possible highest (above source rocks) or
lowest (beneath source rocks) positions of hydrocarbons
 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145 141

Fig. 8. The quasi-continuous oil tight sandstone reservoirs in Triassic Member 6 of Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin (Zhao, 2012).

Fig. 9. Relationships between geochemical parameters of Upper Paleozoic natural gas and maturity of source rock in Ordos Basin (Li et al., 2013).

accumulation; the caprock is important for hydrocarbon enrich- caprock conditions may be relatively poor. Therefore, the best
ment in tight reservoirs, the better the quality of caprock is, the places for tight hydrocarbon accumulation are positions of the
more favorable it will be for hydrocarbon enrichment in tight coupling or allocation of accumulation factors (hydrocarbon source,
reservoirs. reservoir and caprock), that is the general law of hydrocarbon
For tight hydrocarbon enrichment, it should be noted that accumulation.
although the better the quality of each condition (hydrocarbon
source, reservoir and caprock condition) was, the more favorable it
3.3. Discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulation
would be for hydrocarbon accumulation, actually it was impossible
to each condition at the same time to achieve the best. This is
The discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulation, also called the
because the excessive development of any condition would often
conventional trap or the conventional hydrocarbon accumulation,
lead to other conditions become worse in the real geological
is mainly distributed in conventional reservoirs with permeability
setting. For example, if source rock condition in a series of strata in a
generally larger than 1 mD, but not all the conventional reservoirs
region is excellent (such as large thickness of source rock and high
are accumulated discontinuously. The unconventional hydrocarbon
organic matter abundance), then reservoir condition will become
reservoirs such as tight oil and gas, coalbed methane as well as
poor; if the reservoir condition is excellent (such as large thickness
shale oil and gas reservoirs, may also have the discontinuous hy-
and good properties of reservoir), the hydrocarbon source and
drocarbon accumulation (the conventional trap type). In fact, the
142 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulation (the conventional trap
type) is also an important accumulation pattern for the uncon-
ventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. For example, tight oil and gas
although mostly belong to the quasi-continuous accumulation, but
the conventional trap type of hydrocarbon reservoirs (e.g., anticline
reservoirs) may exist in the tight oil and gas as well (Dai et al., 2012;
Zhao et al., 2013). The hydrocarbon accumulation of structural traps
(e.g., anticline), especially in strong structural deformation areas of
tight reservoirs (e.g., foreland thrust belt), are the main reservoir
accumulation model, such as Kuqa Foreland Basin. In addition, if
tight oil and gas reservoirs are accumulated firstly and its reservoirs
are tight later, the conventional trap accumulation of tight oil and
gas reservoirs can be formed as well. For coalbed methane reser-
voirs, due to large permeability variation from 1mD to 1000 mD,
thus the coalbed methane reservoirs not only have the continuous
accumulation, but also have the discontinuous conventional accu-
mulation, such as anticline and fracture coalbed methane reser-
voirs. Permeability of low-rank coal is relatively high, and almost
can be comparable to the conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs,
thereby the coalbed methane accumulation of low-rank coal is
often controlled by structural traps, and the coalbed methane is
often enriched at the structural highs; the permeability variation of
the medium-rank coal generally is relatively large, thus both the
continuous and discontinuous coalbed methane accumulations are
developed. Permeability of the low-rank coalbed methane reser-
voirs in the Powder River Basin generally ranged from 10 mD to
several Darcy (Ayers, 2002). The Walloon Formation coal in Surat
Basin was the lignitous coal, the hydrocarbon reservoirs belonged
to the typical low-rank coalbed methane reservoirs, and the
physical properties were relatively good, the porosity was about
17% and the permeability varied from 1 to 300 mD; the Blackwate
Group coal in Northern Bowen Basin was the bituminous coals with
low metamorphic grade, the porosity varied from 6 to 13% and the
permeability ranged from 5 to 30 mD (Li et al., 2014).
Major characteristics of the discontinuous hydrocarbon accu-
mulation are summarized as follows.
(1) Occurrence of hydrocarbon reservoirs is scattered and iso-
lated with distinctive boundary as well as complete edge and
bottom water. The conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs may
occur as an individual but mostly as group and zone, and
have distinctive boundaries as well as complete edge and
bottom water; distribution of the discontinuous hydrocarbon
accumulation is separately or discontinuously (Fig. 10). This
is an important difference from the continuous and quasi-
continuous accumulations.
(2) Hydrocarbon reservoirs are generally formed through sec-
ondary migration, and are accumulated near or far from
source rocks; the buoyancy is the major driving force for
hydrocarbon migration, and the dominant hydrocarbon
migration channels commonly exist. Different from the
continuous and quasi-continuous accumulations, the
discontinuous (conventional) hydrocarbon accumulation is
principally developed in the reservoirs and carrier beds with
good physical properties or near faults, and the dominant
migration channels exist, so that hydrocarbons can easily
migrate and accumulate toward favorable places for enrich-
ment through secondary migration driven by buoyancy.
(3) The hydrocarbon accumulation is strictly controlled by
various traps. Formation of the discontinuous (conventional)
hydrocarbon reservoirs are strictly controlled by traps
(structural trap, lithologic trap and combination trap). The
structural hydrocarbon reservoir controlled by anticline
structural trap is the most typical conventional hydrocarbon
reservoirs, but the anticline trap basically have no control on
the continuous and quasi-continuous hydrocarbon
accumulations.
(4) Hydrocarbon enrichment is controlled by multiple factors,
and mostly occur at structural high generally. Different from
the continuous and quasi-continuous accumulations, for-
mation of the conventional trap hydrocarbon reservoirs is
significantly influenced by such factors as hydrocarbon
generation, reservoir, caprock, migration, trap and preser-
vation, and therefore the hydrocarbon enrichment is
controlled by multiple factors. Due to good condition of hy-
drocarbon migration, this kind of oil and gas reservoirs is
developed structural highs or shallow strata of depression
and slope.
Major characteristics of the continuous, quasi-continuous and
discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations were discussed above.
In fact, the typical continuous unconventional hydrocarbon accu-
mulation and the typical discontinuous conventional hydrocarbon
accumulation represent two end-member types of reservoir for-
mation in the complex geological setting, and there are different
transition types of hydrocarbon accumulation between these two
end-member types. The auasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumula-
tion is one of the important transition types of hydrocarbon accu-
mulation, and it may be the principal formation model for large
hydrocarbon fields in tight reservoirs.
4. Spatiotemporal relationship and distribution law of the
continuous, quasi-continuous and discontinuous
hydrocarbon accumulations
The continuous, quasi-continuous and discontinuous hydro-
carbon accumulations are three basic types of hydrocarbon reser-
voirs in the crust, it may be widely developed in major petroliferous
basins around the world. Furthermore, hydrocarbons generated
from the same source kitchen may form the continuous, quasi-
continuous and discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations simul-
taneously, and these three hydrocarbon accumulations have close
relations and unique distribution laws.
For the spatial distribution, the continuous and quasi-contin-
uous hydrocarbon accumulations horizontally are mainly distrib-
uted at the hydrocarbon-generation depressions and the upper
slopes, while the discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulation is
mainly distributed at structural highs in the margin of depression
and relative shallow strata inside the depression, or places rela-
tively far away from effective source rock (Fig. 2). Vertically, these
three hydrocarbon accumulation types often not occur in the same
horizon and are distributed in different horizons; downward and
upward from the source rock, the continuous, quasi-continuous
and discontinuous accumulations are distributed successively.
The quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation represented
by tight oil and gas is generally distributed in the upper and lower
adjacent strata of source rocks, while the discontinuous conven-
tional hydrocarbon accumulation is mostly distributed in the strata
far from source rocks (Fig. 11). This is because source rocks often
deposited during the maximum marine (lacustrine) invasion
period; sediments of the normal graded sequence were usually
deposited during the marine (lacustrine) transgression period; in
the marine (lacustrine) regression period, sediments of the reverse
graded sequence were often deposited. Thus, the closer to the
source rock is, the finer the sediment particles will be, the easier it
will be to form tight reservoirs, and the conventional reservoirs will
be more likely formed far away from source rocks.
It can be predicted that shale oil and gas (or coalbed methane),
tight oil and gas, conventional oil and gas (i.e., the continuous,
quasi-continuous and continuous accumulations) might be
 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
developed together in petroliferous basins. For the Mesozoic oil
reservoirs in Ordos Basin, shale oil reservoirs in the shale of Triassic
Member 7 of Yanchang Formation in major source rocks belong to
the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation, those tight sandstone
reservoirs in Member 8, 7, 6 and 4 þ 5 of Yanchang Formation
mainly are the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation, and
those reservoirs in Member 2 þ 3 of Yanchang Formation and
Jurassic belong to the discontinuous conventional hydrocarbon
accumulation. Development of coal reservoirs has the similar law
with formation of oil and gas reservoirs. For instance, the coalbed
methane reservoirs in source rocks of Upper Paleozoic Benxi For-
mation-Shanxi Formation in Ordos Basin belong to the continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation, tight gas reservoirs inside the source
rocks and tight sandstones of Shihezi Formation are the quasi-
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation, while the conventional gas
reservoirs in Shiqianfeng Formation belong the discontinuous hy-
drocarbon accumulation.
For time sequence of formation of those three hydrocarbon
accumulation types, during the reservoir oil and gas formation
which hydrocarbon was from the same source kitchen, the contin-
uous hydrocarbon accumulation was formed firstly, followed by the
quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation and then the discon-
tinuous hydrocarbon accumulation (Zhao et al., 2015). The detail
formation process is shown as below. Firstly, hydrocarbons gener-
ated from source rocks generally prefer to saturate source rock and
then form the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation; subsequently,
after pores of source rocks are saturated with hydrocarbons or hy-
drocarbons generated in source rocks are able to expel hydrocarbon
by sufficient driven force, then hydrocarbons will be expelled from
source rocks to reservoirs. For thick source rocks, hydrocarbon
expulsion will easily occur at the upper and lower edge of source
rocks or near faults; it is difficult to expel hydrocarbon inside the
source rocks, so hydrocarbon is easily retained in source rocks to
form oil and gas accumulation, therefore, the thick source rocks are
the major places for the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation.
During the process of hydrocarbon expulsion from source rocks to
outside, since reservoirs nearest to source rocks mostly are tight
reservoirs, hydrocarbons will usually first accumulated in these
tight reservoirs, thus tight hydrocarbon reservoirs or the quasi-
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation are formed unless faults are
directly connected source rocks with conventional reservoirs. After
hydrocarbons accumulation in tight reservoirs, the surplus hydro-
carbon begin to migrate to the conventional reservoirs which were
relatively far away from source rocks, thus the conventional reser-
voirs or discontinuous accumulations are formed.
For hydrocarbon accumulation formed in the same source
kitchen, oil and gas in the continuous, quasi-continuous and
discontinuous hydrocarbons reservoirs are accumulated in source
rocks, tight reservoirs and conventional reservoirs respectively.
These three types of reservoirs have mutual relationship in their
potential of resources. Among them, the resource percentage of the
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation accounting for the
Fig. 10. Distribution pattern of the discontinuous (conventional) hydrocarbon
accumulation.
143
hydrocarbon resource generated from source rocks (retention ratio)
is the critical factor; the higher retention ratio or the lower the
hydrocarbon expulsion rate is, the higher the resource percentage of
the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation will be, and the lower the
resource percentage of the quasi-continuous and discontinuous
hydrocarbon accumulations will be. Major factors controlling the
retention ratio of hydrocarbon in source rocks includ thickness and
organic matter abundance of effective source rocks as well as roof
and floor sealing conditions. The larger the thickness of effective
source rocks is, and the higher the organic matter abundance is,
especially the better the roof and floor sealing conditions are, the
more favorable it will be for hydrocarbon accumulation in source
rocks, and the higher the resource percentage of the continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation will be. On the contrary, thin thickness
source rocks as well as poor roof and floor sealing conditions
generally cause high hydrocarbon expulsion rate which was favor-
able for hydrocarbons to accumulate outside source rocks. Resources
potential of the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation in
tight reservoirs and the continuous hydrocarbon accumulation in
conventional reservoirs not only are controlled by hydrocarbon
quantity expelled from source rocks, but also the scale, quality and
sealing conditions of tight reservoirs. The better the tight reservoir
and sealing conditions are, the more favorable it will be for hydro-
carbon accumulation in tight reservoirs, and the higher the re-
sources percentage of the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon
accumulation will be; in contrast, it will be favorable to hydrocarbon
accumulation in the conventional reservoirs and resource enrich-
ment. For example, either Mesozoic or Upper Paleozoic in Ordos
Basin, due to widespread distribution and thin thickness of source
rocks, and relative development of tight reservoirs and caprocks,
tight hydrocarbon resources are the most abundant, followed by the
continuous hydrocarbon resources (including shale oil and gas as
well as coalbed methane) and the conventional hydrocarbon re-
sources. On the contrary, in some basins or regions with abundant
conventional hydrocarbon resources, the unconventional hydro-
carbon resource will be relatively small.
In the petroliferous basins, the conventional and unconven-
tional hydrocarbon reservoirs or the continuous, quasi-continuous
and discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations often exhibit close
correlations and unique distribution laws. But previous studies on
formation and distribution of hydrocarbon reservoirs and petro-
leum explorations usually focus on either the conventional or un-
conventional reservoirs separately, and just only one kind of the
unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs is emphasized during the
unconventional hydrocarbon exploration; therefore, researches on
the whole formation process of hydrocarbon reservoir are absent,
and the exploration efficiency inevitably is affected. Considering
the fact that formation of hydrocarbon reservoirs is a process from
the continuous to discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations, and
three types of hydrocarbon accumulation (the continuous, quasi-
continuous and discontinuous accumulations) may simultaneously
occur in the same source kitchen and have close relationships
among them, therefore, in the studies of petroliferous basin or
system and hydrocarbon exploration, it should strengthen re-
searches on the whole formation process of hydrocarbon reser-
voirs, and integrate the continuous, quasi-continuous and
discontinuous hydrocarbon reservoirs into a unified system for
overall researches and comprehensive analysis, to enhance pre-
diction accuracy of hydrocarbon reservoir formation and resource
distribution as well as effectiveness of exploration.
5. Conclusions
(1) Traditional concept, classification and accumulation theory
of petroleum reservoirs are principally derived from studies
144 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
Fig. 11. Vertical distribution of the continuous, quasi-continuous and discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations.
on conventional petroleum reservoirs. Based on extensive
studies on accumulation characteristics and distribution
laws of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon ac-
cumulations, the petroleum reservoir is defined as a
continuous hydrocarbon accumulation in a single or a set of
reservoirs with an independent or uniform pressure system.
(2) In terms of the accumulation or distribution patterns, hy-
drocarbon accumulations are classified into three basic
types: the continuous, quasi-continuous and discontinuous
hydrocarbon accumulations. Among them, the continuous
hydrocarbon accumulation typically occurs in source rocks,
such as shale hydrocarbon reservoirs and coalbed methane
reservoirs; the quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumulation
is typically developed in tight reservoirs, such as most of the
tight hydrocarbon reservoirs; the discontinuous hydrocar-
bon accumulation typically occurs in conventional reser-
voirs, and some formed in tight reservoirs and even source-
rock reservoirs like coalbed methane reservoirs and shale
reservoirs.
(3) The petroleum reservoir formation is a process from the
continuous accumulation to the discontinuous accumula-
tion, resulting in the occurrence of continuous, quasi-
continuous and discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations.
In petroleum basins, conventional and unconventional hy-
drocarbon reservoirs or the continuous, quasi-continuous
and discontinuous hydrocarbon accumulations often co-
exist with close correlations and unique distribution laws.
Hence, it is necessary to strengthen stuidies on the whole
process of hydrocarbon accumulation so as to enhance
exploration effectiveness.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Science and Technology
Major Project of China (Grant No. 2011ZX05007-004 and Grant No.
2011ZX05018001-004), National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. 41402121 and Grant No. 41502132), Natural Sci-
ence Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (Grant No.
2013JM5007) and Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. 2013JQ503).
References
Ayers Jr., W.B., 2002. Coalbed gas systems, resources, and production and a review
of contrasting cases from the San Juan and Powder River Basins. AAPG Bull. 86
(11), 1853e1890.
Bai, Y.B., Zhao, J.Z., Fang, C.Q., Liu, P., 2013. Forming mechanism of quasi-continuous
tight sandstone reservoir of Chang 6 oil-bearing formation, Ordos Basin. Pe-
troleum Geol. Exp. 35 (1), 65e71 (in Chinese).
Bowker, K.A., 2007. Barnett shale gas production, Fort Worth Basin: issues and
discussion. AAPG Bull. 91 (4), 523e533.
Cao, Q., Zhao, J.Z., Fu, J.H., Yao, J.L., Liu, X.S., Zhao, H.T., Hou, Y.D., Fan, L.Y., 2013b. Gas
source conditions of quasi-continuous accumulation of the upper paleozoic in
Ordos Basin. Oil Gas Geol. 34 (5), 584e591 (in Chinese).
Cao, Q., Zhao, J.Z., Liu, X.S., Hu, A.P., Fang, L.Y., Wang, H.C., 2013a. Determination of
physical property limits for the gas accumulation in tight sandstone reservoirs
in the eastern Ordos Basin. Acta Pet. Sin. 34 (6), 1040e1048 (in Chinese).
Chapman, R.E., 1983. Petroleum Geology (Developments in petroleum science 16).
Elsevier, New York, p. 415.
Chen, R.S., 1994. Geology of Oil and Gas. China University of Geoscience Press,
Wuhan, p. 254 (in Chinese).
Dai, J.X., Ni, Y.Y., Wu, X.Q., 2012. Tight gas in China and its significance in explo-
ration and exploitation. Petroleum Explor. Dev. 39 (3), 257e264 (in Chinese).
Er, C., Zhao, J.Z., Bai, Y.B., Fang, H., Shen, W.X., 2013. Reservoir characteristics of the
organic-rich shales of the triassic Yanchang Formation in Ordos Basin. Oil Gas
Geol. 34 (5), 708e716 (in Chinese).
Fu, J.H., Wei, X.S., Ren, J.F., 2008. Distribution and genesis of large-scale Upper
Palaeozoic lithologic gas reservoirs on Yi-Shaan Slope. Petroleum Explor. Dev.
35 (6), 664e667 (in Chinese).
Guo, T., 2013. Evaluation of highly thermally mature shale-gas reservoirs in com-
plex structural parts of the Sichuan Basin. J. Earth Sci. 24 (6), 863e873.
Hobson, G.D., Tiratsoo, E.N., 1981. Introduction to Petroleum Geology, second ed.
Gulf, Houston, p. 352.
Huang, X.B., Zhao, P., Dong, Z.L., Guo, M., Qian, Z., Liu, J.J., 2014. Main controlling
factors of CBM reservoiring and its mode in Qinshui Basin. Coal Geol. China 26
(2), 12e17 (in Chinese).
Jarvie, D.M., Hill, R.J., Ruble, T.E., Pollastro, R.M., 2007. Unconventional shale-gas
systems: the Mississippian Barnett Shale of north-central Texas as one model
for thermogenic shale-gas assessment. AAPG Bull. 91 (4), 475e499.
Jarvie, D.M., 2012. Shale resource systems for oil and gas: Part 1dshale-gas
resource systems. AAPG Mem. 97, 69e87.
Levorsen, A.I., 1967. Geology of Petroleum. W.H. Freeman and Co., p. 724
Li, J., Zhao, J.Z., Fan, Y.F., Cao, Q., Wang, Q., Hu, W.Q., 2013. Gas migration mechanism
of quasi-continuous accumulation in the upper paleozoic of Ordos Basin. Oil
Gas Geol. 34 (5), 592e600 (in Chinese).
Li, Z.D., Hui, K.Y., Li, L., Zhou, W., Zhang, S.N., Guo, M., 2008. Analysis of charac-
teristics of gas migration and reservoir-forming in the Upper Paleozoic of
northern Ordos Basin. J. Mineral Petrol. 28 (3), 77e83 (in Chinese).
Li, Z.H., Li, S.L., Yu, X.H., Fang, X.X., 2014. Coalbed methane enrichment regularities
and controlling factors in Bowen-Surat Basin, Australia. Coal Geol. Explor. 42
(6), 29e33 (in Chinese).
Lin, X.Y., Su, X.B., 2007. Reservoiring mechanism of coalbed methane in southern
Qinshui Basin. Nat. Gas. Ind. 27 (7), 8e11 (in Chinese).
 J. Zhao et al. / Petroleum Research 2 (2017) 131e145
Liu, X.S., Zhou, L.F., Hou, Y.D., 2007. Study of gas charging in the Upper Paleozoic of
the Ordos Basin using fluid inclusion. Acta Pet. Sin. 28 (6), 37e42 (in Chinese).
North, F.K., 1985. Petroleum Geology. Allen & Unwin, Boston, p. 607.
Pepper, A.S., 1992. Estimating the petroleum expulsion behavior of source rocks: a
novel quantitative approach. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 59, 9e31.
Northwestern University, 1979. Petroleum Geology. Geological Press, Beijing, p. 282
(in Chinese).
Ross, D.J.K., Bustin, R.M., 2009. The importance of shale composition and pore
structure upon gas storage potential of shale gas reservoirs. Mar. Petroleum
Geol. 26, 916e927.
Schenk, C.J., 2002. Geologic Definition and Resource Assessment of Continuous
(Unconventional) Gas Accumulations: the U.S. Experience. AAPG, Cairo.
Schenk, C.J., 2005. Geologic Definition of Conventional and Continuous Accumula-
tions in Select U.S. Basins: the 2001 Approach. AAPG, Tulsa.
Schmoker, J.W., 1995. Method for Assessing Continuous-Type (Unconventional)
Hydrocarbon Accumulations. U. S. Geological Survey, Virginia.
Schmoker, J.W., 2002. Resource assessment perspectives for unconventional gas
systems. AAPG Bull. 86 (11), 1993e1999.
U.S. Geological Survey National Oil and Gas Resource Assessment Team, 1995. 1995
national assessment of United States oil and gas resources. U.S. Geological
Survey, Virginia, p. 20.
Wei, G.Q., Li, J., Xie, Z.Y., Yang, W., Wang, D.L., Zhao, Z.H., 2013. Reservoir geology
and exploration theories of large gas fields in China. Acta Pet. Sin. 34 (S1), 1e13
(in Chinese).
Wilson, W.B., 1934. Proposed Classification of Oil and Gas Reservoirs. Part IV. Re-
lations of Petroleum Accumulation to Structure. SP 6: Problems of petroleum
geology. AAPG Special vol. s, pp. 433e445.
Yang, H., Fu, J.H., Liu, X.S., Meng, P.L., 2012. Accumulation conditions and explora-
tion and development of tight gas in the Upper Paleozoic of the Ordos Basin.
Petroleum Explor. Dev. 39 (3), 295e303 (in Chinese).
Yang, H., Li, S.X., Liu, X.Y., 2013. Characteristics and resource prospects of tight oil
and shale oil in Ordos Basin. Acta Pet. Sin. 34 (1), 1e11 (in Chinese).
Yang, H., Liu, X.S., Meng, P.L., 2011. New development in natural gas exploration of
the Sulige Gas Fields. Nat. Gas. Ind. 31 (2), 1e8 (in Chinese).
Zagorski, W.A., Wrightstone, G.R., Bowman, D.C., 2012. The Appalachian Basin
Marcellus gas play: its history of development, geologic controls on production,
and future potential as a world-class reservoir. AAPG Mem. 97, 172e200.
Zhang, H.F., Fang, C.L., Gao, X.Z., 1999. Petroleum Geology, third ed. Petroleum In-
dustry Press, Beijing, p. 345 (in Chinese).
145
Zhang, W.X., Zhang, H.F., 1981. Petroleum Geology. Petroleum Industry Press, Bei-
jing, p. 307 (in Chinese).
Zhang, W.Z., Yang, H., Li, J.F., Ma, J., 2006. Leading effect of high-class source rock of
Chang 7 in Ordos Basin on enrichment of low permeability oil-gas accumu-
lationddhydrocarbon generation and expulsion mechanism. Petroleum
Explor. Dev. 33 (3), 289e293 (in Chinese).
Zhao, J.Z., Cao, Q., Bai, Y.B., Er, C., Li, J., Wu, W.T., Shen, W.X., 2015. Petroleum
accumulation: from continuous to discontinuous. Acta Geol. Sin. 89 (s1),
303e306.
Zhao, J.Z., Zhang, W.Z., Li, J., Fan, Y.F., 2014. Genesis of tight sand gas in the Ordos
Basin, China. Org. Geochem. 74, 76e84.
Zhao, J.Z., 2012. Conception, classification and resource potential of unconventional
hydrocarbons. Nat. Gas. Geosci. 23 (3), 393e406 (in Chinese).
Zhao, J.Z., 2013. Petroleum Accumulation Geology. Petroleum Industry Press, Bei-
jing, p. 277 (in Chinese).
Zhao, J.Z., Bai, Y.B., Cao, Q., Er, C., 2012b. Quasi-continuous hydrocarbon accumu-
lation: a new pattern for large tight sand oil field formation in the Ordos Basin.
Oil Gas Geol. 33 (6), 811e827 (in Chinese).
Zhao, J.Z., Bai, Y.B., Cao, Q., Er, C., Shen, W.X., Fang, Y.F., 2012a. Geologic conditions
for terrestrial shale gas enrichment: a case study from the Ordos Basin, North
China. In: Academic Committee of 4th Convention of CAPG (Eds.), Symposium
of 4th Convention of Chinese Association of Petroleum Geologists. Petroleum
Industry Press, Beijing, pp. 373e384 (in Chinese).
Zhao, J.Z., Fu, J.H., Yao, J.L., Liu, X.S., Wang, H.E., Cao, Q., Wang, X.M., Ma, Y.P.,
Fang, Y.F., 2012c. Quasi-continuous accumulation model of large tight sand-
stone gas field in Ordos Basin. Acta Pet. Sin. 32 (S1), 37e52 (in Chinese).
Zhao, J.Z., Li, J., Cao, Q., Bai, Y.B., Er, C., Wang, X.M., Xiao, H., Wu, W.T., 2013. Hy-
drocarbon accumulation patterns of large tight oil and gas fields. Oil Gas Geol.
34 (5), 573e583 (in Chinese).
Zhao, J.Z., Wang, R., Er, C., 2016. Adsorption characteristics of chang 7 shales from
triassic Yanchang Formation and the controlling factors, the Ordos Basin. Earth
Sci. Front. 23 (1), 146e153 (in Chinese).
Zhao, W.Z., Wang, Z.C., Zhu, Y.X., Wang, Z.Y., Wang, P.Y., Liu, X.S., 2005. Forming
mechanism of low-efficiency gas reservoir in Sulige gas field of Ordos Basin.
Acta Pet. Sin. 26 (5), 5e9 (in Chinese).
Zou, C.N., Zhai, G.M., Zhang, G.Y., Wang, H.J., Zhang, G.S., Li, J.Z., Wang, Z.M.,
Wen, Z.X., Ma, F., Liang, Y.B., Yang, Z., Li, X., Liang, K., 2015. Formation, distri-
bution, potential and prediction of global conventional and unconventional
hydrocarbon resources. Petroleum Explor. Dev. 42 (1), 13e25 (in Chinese).