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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Structural Geology and Tectonics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1428316

Control of lamination on bedding-parallel fractures in tight sandstone reservoirs: The seventh member of the upper Triassic Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin, China

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, Beijing, China
  • 2 College of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China
  • 3 College of Science, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The tight oil sandstone in the 7th member of the upper Triassic Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin, China, has low porosity and permeability. Bedding-parallel fractures play a crucial role in enhancing reservoir and flow capacity. Based on core and thin section data, most bedding-parallel fractures are unfilled, with apertures generally <40μm, mainly <10μm. Larger apertures correlate with smaller filling ratios. The distribution of BPFs is intricately governed by laminations' types, density, and thickness. (1) The degree of development of bedding-parallel fractures depends on the degree of difference in mechanical properties between adjacent laminations; (2) When the laminations density is within a range, as the laminations density increases, the bedding-parallel fractures also increase; When the density of the laminations continues to increase beyond this range, the degree of fracture of the bedding-parallel fractures decreases; (3) Bedding-parallel fractures in thick laminations mainly distribute along the edges, while in thin laminations, they mainly distribute in the middle. The change in the thickness of the laminations leads to a change in the development position of bedding-parallel fractures, indicating that the position of the plastic plane controls the development position of beddingparallel fractures; (4) When multiple laminations coexist, the type and thickness of the laminations jointly influence the development of bedding-parallel fractures. Plastic thin laminations are conducive to the development of bedding-parallel fractures, while brittle thick laminations are not conducive to the formation of bedding-parallel fractures. When the thickness of the plastic laminations is close to or less than that of the brittle laminations, the laminations type has a dominant influence on bedding-parallel fractures, conversely, the influence of laminations thickness on bedding-parallel fractures will be dominant.

    Keywords: Bedding-parallel fracture, lamination, Tight oil sandstone, Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation, Ordos Basin

    Received: 06 May 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lu, Cao, Dong, Lyu and Zeng. 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: Lianbo Zeng, State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, Beijing, China

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