ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Georeservoirs
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Hydrocarbon Origins and Reservoir Dynamics in Complex Geological SettingsView all articles
Characteristics of the Early Miocene globigerinid-rich siliciclastic-carbonate reservoirs in ultra-deep water areas of the Baiyun Sag, Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shenzhen Branch, CNOOC China Limited, Shenzhen, China
- 2CNOOC Deepwater Development Limited, Shenzhen, China
- 3College of Marine Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
- 4School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China
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Exploring new types of high-quality reservoirs in terrigenous clastic-starved (ultra-)deep-water areas is a crucial component in ensuring future energy supply. Recent drilling (water depth >1500 m) in the Pearl River Mouth Basin revealed globigerinid-rich mixed siliciclastic-carbonate rocks with high porosity and low permeability physical properties, providing promising exploration opportunities. Based on core, logging and seismic data across critical wells in ultra-deep water areas (>1500 m deep) aside the Yunli Low Uplift, this study presents the reservoir properties of the Early Miocene globigerinid-rich siliciclastic-carbonate rocks. These rocks contain 10%-80% terrigenous components and 5%-45% biogenic carbonate grains dominated by Globigerina shells (>90%). Shell chambers exhibit as those are hollow and those filled with carbonates (e.g., micrite, sparite, dolomite) or quartz, glauconite, analcime, and pyrite. Well-preserved visceral foramen pores contribute to reservoir spaces, exhibiting with high porosity (up to 37.7%, average 17.43%). However, interstitial micrite and clay, along with authigenic ferroan calcite and ferroan dolomite, severely reduce permeability (average 0.148×10⁻³μm²). Accompanied with the Globigerina enrichment within seabed sediments, appropriate amounts of terrigenous components/moderate bottom current dynamics help constrain the chamber fillings from carbonate cementation/micrite and clay matrix. These findings provide theoretical insights for exploring new types of deep-sea high-quality reservoirs.
Keywords: Cementation, Deep-water reservoirs, Globigerina, Highporosity, Mixed siliciclastic-carbonate rocks
Received: 15 Nov 2025; Accepted: 17 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Xu, Jiang, Yao, Wang, Sun and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Leyi Xu
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