Deep‐water Fan Systems and Petroleum Resources on the Northern Slope of the South China Sea

Abstract  The shallow shelf delta/strand arenaceous‐pelitic deposit region in the north of the Pearl River mouth basin, sitting on the northern continental shelf of the South China Sea, has already become an important oil production base in China. Recent researched has revealed that a great deal of deep‐water fans of great petroleum potentiality exist on the Baiyun deep‐water slope below the big paleo Pearl River and its large delta. Based on a mass of exploration wells and 2‐D seismic data of the shallow shelf region, a interpretation of sequence stratigraphy confirmed the existence of deep‐water fans. The cyclic falling of sea level, abundant detrital matter from the paleo Pearl River and the persistent geothermal subsidence in the Baiyun sag are the three prerequisites for the formation and development of deep‐water fans. There are many in common between the deep‐water shelf depositional system of the northern South China Sea and the exploration hotspots region on the two banks of the Atlantic. For example, both are located on passive continent margins, and persistent secular thermal subsidence and large paleo rivers have supplied abundant material sources and organic matter. More recently, the discovery of the big gas pool on the northern slope of the Baiyun sag confirms that the Lower Tertiary lacustrine facies in the Baiyun sag has a great potentiality of source rocks. The fans overlying the Lower Tertiary source rocks should become the main exploration areas for oil and gas resources.