A new scale shoal-forming model and natural gas exploration implications in Feixianguan Formation, northwestern Sichuan Basin, China

As an important exploration target in the Sichuan Basin, the Lower Triassic Feixianguan Formation has been previously interpreted to be deposited in the trough-platform margin system according to the genetic model of classic lithofacies paleogeography. However, this model does not apply to the northwestern Sichuan Basin. Accordingly, this study proposed a new genetic model that highlighted the carbonate ramp based on the outcrop sections, drilling and logging data, and seismic sections. A large-scale regional regression was found to occur in Sichuan Basin at the end of the Late Permian, leading to the evolution of the original Kaijiang-Liangping Trough into a very shallow tidal flat/lagoon environment at the beginning of the Early Triassic. The sedimentary pattern during the Early Triassic was different from that during the Late Permian. A total of six long-term cycles (LSC1-LSC6) were identified within the Feixianguan Formation. The deposition of LSC1-LSC3 witnessed the filling of the trough to a large extent, and the depositional periods of LSC4 and LSC5 were the main shoal-forming periods. The Feixianguan Formation in the study area was speculated to be deposited in the continuous continental carbonate ramp. With the intensified uplifting of the Longmenshan island chain and the Kangdian ancient land on the northwestern margin of the Upper Yangtze Platform, a large number of terrigenous materials were input into the study area from west to east, leading to the continuous eastward migration of the carbonate facies belt during the deposition of the Fei 1 and Fei 2 Members. Meanwhile, large-area inner-ramp shoal bodies were formed during the deposition of LSC5. It became possible to find a giant gas reservoir belt in the Feixianguan Formation of the northwestern Sichuan Basin and the results of this study provide a new complement to the existing classic trough-platform margin shoal-forming model. © The Author(s) 2021.