Introduction

In China, oil shale deposits are widespread, and proved reserves

amount to about 32 billion tons
Most of oil shales were formed in lacustrine environments, such as
Cretaceous oil shale in the Songliao basin, and Tertiary oil shale in
the Maoming and Fushun areas
In May 2006, the Shengli River oil shale deposit was discovered in
the Qiangtang basin
Excavation of trial trenches indicated that reserves of the Shengli
River oil shale may amount to ca. 0.51 billion tons, potentially the
largest marine oil shale resource in China
This paper describe about systematic geochemical and palynological
investigations of the Shengli River oil shale
Geological Setting
During Early Cretaceous time, the Bangong ocean closed by
northward subduction beneath the Qiangtang terrane, resulting in a
large-scale regression in the Qiangtang basin
During this interval, the South Qiangtang depression was uplifted
entirely, while the North Qiangtang depression was still a
depositional area
Sedimentary rocks of this stage are mainly made up of sandstone,
shale, marl, oolitic limestone, mudstone and oil shale
The Shengli River oil shale is located in the southern part of the
North Qiangtang depression, northern Tibet plateau, China
The oil shale, about 9min thickness, is exposed for a distance of
more than 38 km in an eastwest direction.
Samples
The study section (XP) is located in the eastern part of
the Shengli River area
A total of 42 samples were collected from this section.
Seventeen of them were collected for geochemical
analyses, and the other twenty-five samples were
collected for palynological examination.
Samples
Analytical Methods
About 100 mg of sample (ground to 120 mesh) was heated
from ambient temperature up to 600 C in a helium
atmosphere.
Analyzed samples (ground to 120 mesh) were extracted
with chloroform in a Soxhlet apparatus for 72 h
Extracts were separated into saturated hydrocarbons,
aromatic hydrocarbons and polar NSO fractions by column
chromatography using a silica gelalumina column after the
precipitation of asphaltenes
Saturated fractions were analyzed by gas chromatography
(GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
Analytical Methods
For GC-MS analysis, a Finnigan Voyager gas
chromatography/mass spectrometerwas used
For the analysis of biomarkers, metastable ion transition for
sterans (m/z 217) and triterpanes (m/z 191) was recorded
at a dwell time of 25 ms per ion and a cycle time of 1 s
Elemental analyses as well as GC-MS analyses were
performed on a Heareus CHN-O-rapid elemental analyzer
For palynological samples were processed in the laboratory
by standard techniques using hydrochloric and hydrofluoric
acids and the residues were sieved through a screen of 10
mm mesh