Mechanisms of abnormal overpressure generation in Kuqa foreland thrust belt and their impacts on oil and gas reservoir formation

 Based on overview for mechanism of abnormaloverpressure generation in sedimentary basins, an insightdiscussion is made by the authors for the distribution, fea-tures and generation mechanisms of abnormal overpressurein the Kuqa foreland thrust belt. The abnormal overpressurein the Kelasu structure zone west to the Kuqa forelandthrust belt was primarily distributed in Eogene to lowerCretaceous formations; structural compression and struc-tural emplacement as well as the containment of Eogenegyps-salt formation constituted the main mechanisms for thegeneration of abnormal overpressure. The abnormal over-pressure zone in the eastern Yiqikelike structure zone wasdistributed primarily in lower Jurassic Ahe Group, resultingfrom hydrocarbon generation as well as structural stressother than from under-compaction. Various distributionsand generating mechanisms have different impacts upon theformation of oil and gas reservoirs. K-E reservoir in the Ke-lasu zone is an allochthonous abnormal overpressure system.One of the conditions for reservoir accumulation is the mi-gration of hydrocarbon (T-J hydrocarbon source rock) alongthe fault up to K-E reservoir and accumulated into reservoir.And this migration process was controlled by the abnormaloverpressure system in K-E reservoir. The confined abnor-mal overpressure system in the Yiqikelike structure zoneconstituted the main cause for the poor developing of dis-solved porosity in T-J reservoir, resulting in poor physicalproperty of reservoir. The poor physical property of T-J res-ervoir of Yinan 2 structure was the main cause for the ab-sence of oil accumulation, but the presence of natural gasreservoir in the structure.