A hundred natural gas samples of different geological.periods collected from various localities were determined for their nitrogen,helium and argon contents,as ,weil as the isotopic composition of argun. The range of Ar^40/A^36 ratio was found to be 305--9255. The helium-argon chronological formula for calculating natural gas age was corrected. Based upon the chronological accumulation effect of Tadiogenic argon-40, an argon-40-argon-3-6 cmpirical formula for calculating natural gas age has been proposed. It can be seen from the ratio of nitrogen to atmospheric argon that most of nitrogen in these natural gases could not be derived from atmospheric nitrogen,but elsewhere.The range of radiogenic He/Ar^40 turns out to be 5.19 to 23.18 with the range betwwen 7 to 14 for most samples.The He/Ar^40 ratios of Sinian samples are in the range of 5.39 to 6.14,indicating their deep derivation from the earth.It should be noted that the Ar^40/Ar^36 ratio shows a general trend of approaching the atmospheric value from the Sinian to the Tertiary Period,or from old to young in geological age,mirroring,to a great extent,the evolutionary tendency of the rare gas isotopic composition of natural gases with the continuous degassing of the earth.
In the present paper is recommended a new method of directly injecting crude oil into a gas chromatograph for gas chromatographic analysis, which has been proved valid it the analysis and investigation of crude oil samples from different formationsin China. In terms of the distribution patterns of hydrocarbons in “total hydrocarbon”chromatogram and the relative values of their major characteristic peaks,types of crude oil of different forations from a same region can be readily recognized and a comparison of different oil sourees can also be made.Meanwhile,it might be adopted to eveluate the geological conditions in favour of oil preservation.
