Secondary Migration Trend Based on Basin Modeling: A Case Study of the Cambrian Petroleum System in the Tarim Basin

Secondary hydrocarbon migration is an important aspect of oil-gas accumulation research. While previous studies have relied on geological and fluid geochemical characteristics to predict migration direction, these results are often limited by the number of samples. In recent years, basin simulation has emerged as a valuable tool in hydrocarbon migration research due to its extensive algorithms and adaptable modeling capabilities. It has obvious technical advantages especially for resource evaluation in areas with a lower exploration degree and scarce data. The deep oil and gas in the Cambrian petroleum system in the Tarim Basin is a deep hydrocarbon challenging area in China. There has been no breakthrough in exploration due to the large burial depth ( generally > 6000   m ) and the long accumulation and transformation processes. Therefore, predicting the secondary migration of Cambrian oil and gas has become the key to solving this problem. In this study, first, the thermal evolution of the Lower Cambrian source rocks in the Tarim Basin was recovered, and the three thermal evolution models were developed. The secondary migration process of the Cambrian petroleum system was restored using the geologic model of the source rocks and paleotectonic evolution and the latest fluid potential information. By comparing the simulation results, four secondary migration models of the ultradeep oil-gas migration and accumulation were developed: multisource, multiphase, multidirectional accumulation; multisource, multiphase, single-directional accumulation; single-source, multiphase, multidirectional accumulation; and single-source, multiphase, single-directional accumulation. The fluid potential simulation results indicate that the Cambrian oil and gas have salient inheritance characteristics. The dominant migration channels in the uplift and slope are beneficial to oil-gas migration and accumulation, and the Katake uplift and the west Bachu uplift have multisource charging accumulation. The east Bachu uplift and the Tabei uplift are oil-gas accumulation zones that are beneficial to the lower petroleum system due to the continuous charging of a single petroleum system. This fluid potential simulation provides a new solution for studying the secondary migration of deep oil and gas. It provides an important reference for studying hydrocarbon accumulation in deep and ultradeep areas.