Potential of Oil and Natural Gas Resources of Main Hydrocarbon- Bearing Basins and Key Exploration Fields in China

Resources are the foundation of oil and gas industry.With the continuous development of exploration and the obviously changed situation, it is urgent to evaluate the potential of domestic conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources, as well as the favorable directions of the remaining resources, in order to consolidate the foundation of the cognition for oil and gas resources.In this paper, the system of methodology and technology in resource assessment for conventional and unconventional resources is researched and developed based on the achievements in oil and gas exploration, geological recognitions and accumulation of research data, which leads to the systematical initiation of 4th resources assessment.According to the results, there is 1 080.31×10⁸ t of conventional oil with 272.50×10⁸ t of recoverable resources.There is 78×10¹² m³ of conventional gas with 48.45×10¹² m³ of recoverable resources.There are also abundant unconventional resources in China.There is 672.08×10⁸ t of unconventional oil in which recoverable resources make up 151.81×10⁸ t.There is 284.95×10¹² m³ for unconventional gas in which recoverable resources account for 89.3×10¹² m³.Among these types of unconventional resources, the geological amount of tight oil is 125.80×10⁸ t, the geological amount of oil sands is 12.55×10⁸ t, the geological amount of oil shale is 533.73×10⁸ t, the geological amount of tight gas is 21.86×10¹² m³, the geological amount of shale gas is 80.21×10¹² m³, the geological amount of coalbed methane is 29.82×10¹² m³, the geological amount of natural gas hydrate is 153.06×10¹² m³.The remaining resources of conventional oil and gas are mainly distributed in 4 domains, which are clastic rocks in domain of lithologyformation, clastic rocks of complex structures, carbonatites of marine facies and belts of foreland thrust.The onshore part of remaining oil is mainly distributed in the former 2 domains.The onshore part of remaining gas is mainly distributed in the latter 2 domains.The offshore resources are mainly in 3 domains which are structures, bio-reefs and lithologic traps of deep water.