Dating hydrocarbon generation and migration based on bitumen reflectance

On the basis of thermal maturation theories of organic matter in sediments and an improved Karweil’s method, a method for dating hydrocarbon generation and migration by means of bitumen reflectance has been suggested. A few representative boreholes in the Tazhong Area of the Tarim Basin was investigated by this method. The results indicate that the three phases of bitumen from the Tazhong Area formed during Middle and Late Ordovician, Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary, and Late Tertiary, respectively. This implicates that there were three phases of hydrocarbon generation and migration occurring in this area during geological history. This study provided a new idea for the geological application of geochemical data of bitumen.