Compositional and geochemical characteristics of light hydrocarbons for typical marine oils and typical coal-generated oils in China.

Different types of crude oils have different light hydrocarbon compositional and geochemical characteristics. Based on the light hydrocarbon data from two kinds of oils, i.e., coal-generated oils and marine oils in China, light hydrocarbons in marine oils in the Tazhong area are generally relatively enriched in n-heptane, and coal-generated oils from the Turpan Basin are enriched in methylcyclohexane. The K1 values, reported by Mango (1987), range from 0.97 to 1.19 in marine oils, basically consistent with what was reported by Mango on light hydrocarbons in terms of the majority of the crude oil data. But the K1 values of coal-generated oils are particularly high (1.35–1.66) and far greater than those of marine oils; heptane values in marine oils, ranging from 32.3% to 45.4%, and isoheptane values, ranging from 1.9 to 3.7, are respectively higher than those of coal-generated oils, indicating that the oils are in the high-maturity stage. In addition, expulsion temperatures of coal-generated oils from the Turpan Basin are obviously lower than those of marine oils from the Tazhong area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]