Petrological characteristics and the impact of mineral content on reservoir quality in coal-bearing strata of Linxing area, eastern margin of Ordos Basin, China

Tight sandstone gas is on the first position of unconventional natural gas sources, which can be developed under today’s technical conditions. In recent years, tight sandstone gas reservoirs have been found in several wells in the Linxing area, eastern margin of Ordos Basin, China. In this article, a variety of methods, including cast thin sections, X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscope, and drill core data were used to study the petrological characteristics and their influences on tight sandstone reservoir in coal-bearing strata of the Linxing area. Based on the analysis of thin section, it can be concluded that the sandstone reservoir is essentially constituted of lithic sandstone as well as lithic arkose and feldspathic litharenite. Cement types are complicated, including carbonate minerals, clay minerals, and quartz overgrowth. Illite, kaolinite, chlorite, illite–smectite mixed layer, and chlorite–smectite mixed layer are found in clay minerals. Compared with other clay minerals, illite is in the dominant position. Pores can be divided into residual intergranular pore, intragranular dissolution pore, intergranular dissolution pore, cement dissolution pore, intercrystalline pore, and microcrack in sandstone reservoir of the Linxing area. Quartz has an average content of 68% with the feature of low compositional maturity and plays a major role in increasing porosity due to dissolution and protecting of quartz. Feldspar dissolution plays a role in decreasing porosity because the by-product materials of feldspar dissolution remain in original place, instead of being transported to other areas. Dissolution pores are 2–20 µm and may be filled with kaolinite, illite, or halite. It is worth mentioning that grain-coating chlorite may be of sufficient thickness to protect reservoirs along with the increasing content of chlorite, which is testified by the crossplot between the chlorite and porosity when the absolute content of chlorite is less than 1.5%.