Oil-shale mining in Maoming basin of China

Conference · Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1989 · AAPG Bull.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6005770

Mitchell-Tapping, H J

The Maoming basin in Guangdong Province is one of the major oil-shale mining areas of China and is situated about 300 km southwest of Hong Kong. This Tertiary basin produces oil from shales mined from a 5-km long open-faced pit on the crest of an anticline in the center of an uplifted and tilted graben. The oil shale extends about 30 km in a northwest-southeast line, and the beds dip as much as 10/degree/ toward metamorphic mountains to the northeast. In the surrounding area are numerous oil seeps, especially in ponds, water wells, and at the foundations of buildings. Holes with oil shows, made to test the extent of the oil shale, have been drilled to a depth of 1000 m. At the base of the mine face is a limestone hardground on top of which is a coal seam about 0.5 m thick that can be traced throughout the basin. Atop this Paleocene coal bed are Eocene oil-shale and thin sandstone beds in five repeated sections, each about 15 m thick, called the Youganwou formation. All kinds of freshwater fossils - fish, insects, plants, turtles, and tree trunks - are found in a near-perfect state of preservation in these oil-rich shales and coal sections. The estimated oil content of the rock is about 8% of good-quality oil with plenty of light ends.

• OSTI ID: 6005770
• Report Number(s): CONF-890404-
• Journal Information: AAPG Bull.; (United States), Vol. 73:3; Conference: AAPG annual convention with DPA/EMD Divisions and SEPM, San Antonio, TX, USA, 23-26 Apr 1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
CHINA
OIL SHALE MINING
COAL
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
OIL YIELDS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
ASIA
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
MATERIALS
MINING
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
YIELDS
040300* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Drilling
Fracturing & Mining