Although dark mudstones are well developed in the Paleogene of the Bohai Sea waters

the major source rocks are still poorly understood

constraining the planning of exploration strategy.To tackle the problem

researchers redefined the high-quality source rocks and preliminarily developed a systemic method for its evaluation and prediction.The method was applied to the prediction of source rocks in the Paleogene in the Bohai Sea waters.The following understandings were obtained.Vertically

the source rocks in the Shahejie Formation are large in thickness

high in quality and relatively large in proportion to the dark mudstones.In contrast

although the dark mudstones in the Dongying Formation are large in thickness

high-quality source rocks are rare.Laterally

source rocks in the Bozhong depression are the largest in both thickness and distribution

followed by Liao-dong Bay

Qikou and Huanghekou depressions.Source rocks of Es

4

-Ek are mainly developed in Liaodong Bay area

Laizhou Bay and Qikou depressions.In general

the major source rocks in the study area are considered to come from the Shahejie Formation

of which the Es

3

is the most important.