South China
Onshore South China contains the largest producer of natural gas in the country, the Sichuan Basin. Sichuan has had a long history of exploration, although this has been hampered by the basin's complex structural evolution and its numerous potential source and reservoir intervals. Oil and gas is also produced in the Jianghan and Dian-Qian-Gui basins. Recent exploration ventures have focused offshore in the East and South China seas.
Map of Region
Regional Expertise
CASP’s research in South China began in 1991 and has involved the study of the Sichuan and Jianghan basins onshore and the East and South China seas offshore. Early work was mainly based on reviews of the Chinese geological literature, with original fieldwork and analysis carried out in west and east Sichuan in the mid 1990s. A subsurface petrographic study on the Zhujiangkou Basin was carried out in 2000. We returned to conduct more fieldwork in east Sichuan in 2018 as part of a Pre-Salt reservoir analogue study. All work was carried out in collaboration with Chinese researchers from the Academia Sinica and the Academy of Geological Sciences.
Most Recent Reports
- Palaeoecology, taphonomy and diagenesis of Early Jurassic shell accumulations in Lake Sichuan, China, and their implications for Pre-Salt reservoirs in the South Atlantic CASP.CCPS2017-19.4
- Early Jurassic coquinas from Lake Sichuan, China – a depositional analogue for Cretaceous Pre-Salt reservoirs in the South Atlantic? CASP.CCPS2017-19.3
- Lower Miocene reef facies and reservoirs in the Zhujiangkou Basin, South China Sea CASP.CB.64
- Sedimentary facies and porosity development of the lower Triassic Jialingjiang Formation in southern Sichuan CASP.CB.61
- The reef facies and reservoir characteristics of the uppermost Permian Changxing Formation of eastern Sichuan, China CASP.CB.53