BTEX anomalies used as indicators of submarine oil and gas reservoirs

It is a conventional method for petroleum prospecting to generally use paraffin hydrocarbon as basic indexes of oil and gas. This conventional geochemical technology, however, shows some limits in the prospecting as paraffin is vulnerable to influences from human and biologic activities. Consequently, BTEX (short for benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylem, which are direct biomarkers) among aromatic hydrocarbon series has been taken into account for the oil and gas prediction. Domestic and foreign study results demonstrate that BTEX is hardly disturbed and can well indicate oil and gas reservoirs. Based on measured data from a South China Sea area, the present authors have used self-developed visual assessment software for petroleum prospecting has been used to process data, strip background anomalies, and outline significant BTEX anomalies. By comparison with stratigraphic profiles of the target area, it is confirmed that BTEX is a good indication of marine oil and gas during the petroleum prospecting.