Theoretical and practical knowledge regarding low-mature gasses is of significant importance to identifying potential natural gas resources.Light hydrocarbon parameters and C and H isotopes are useful tools to identify low-mature gas.Twenty gas samples were collected from the Turpan-Hami Basin for light hydrocarbon analyses.The results showed that the light hydrocarbon components of natural gases contain high methylcycloxane,high isoparaffin and low benzene.This implies that the gas-generating parent materials are of typical humus type and the paleoenvironment is a fresh water sedimentary environment.These features are consistent with the geological setting of the basin.Comparative studies of isoheptane,heptane,and the carbon isotopic compositions of methane in natural gases,and other maturity indices indicated that natural gases in the Turpan-Hami Basin are dominated by low-mature gas formed during the low evolution stage of Jurassic coal seams.The parent materials are of type III,and the maturation degree was in the low evolution stage.These are the fundamental characteristics of low-mature gas.Results of light hydrocarbon research provided further evidence to suggest that the Turpan-Hami Basin is a large-scale gas producer of low-mature gas in China.It is likely that this resource will play an important role in future exploration and development of low-mature gas in China.
The influences of water media on the hydrogen isotopic composition of organic-thermogenic natural gas were tested in three series of experiments on coal pyrolysis, with no water, deionized water （δDH2O-58‰）, and seawater （δSDn2O=-4.8‰） added, respectively. The experimental results show that the productivities of H2 and CO2 obviously increased under hydrous conditions and that the productivity of CH4 also remarkably increased in the high-evolution phase of hydrous experiments. Water was involved in the chemical reaction of hydrocarbon generation, and then the hydrogen isotopic composition of methane was affected. There is a linear correlation between the hydrogen isotopic composition of methane and its productivity, as reflected in the three series of experiments. In the case of the same CH4 productivity, the hydrogen isotopic composition of the methane produced in anhydrous experiments was the heaviest, that of the methane produced in seawater-adding experiments came second, and that of the methane produced in deionized water-adding experiments was the ligbtest. The hydrogen isotopic composition of natural gas/methane is affected by the following factors： 1） the characteristics of hydrogen isotopic composition of organic matter in source rocks, 2） the thermal evolution extent of organic matter, and 3） fossil-water media in the natural gas-generation period. The experimental results show that the influence of the fossil-water medium in the natural gas-generation period was lower than that of the other factors.
