## 3 Samples and Methods
### Basin and Petroleum System Modeling (BPMS)
#### 3.3.2 Input Parameters  
* Lithology definition; The lithofacies data (Table 3) were derived from three wells supplied by Tarim Oilfield Research Institute. The present average porosities and permeabilities of the J\({}_{1}\)_a_ reservoirs in the three sub-structural belts, as represented by the YN-2, DB-102, and YS-4 wells, are 5.2% and 1.0 mD, 4.3% and 1.9 mD, and 9.5% and 7.4 mD, respectively. The reservoir porosity evolution curves assigned for individual structural belts (from the Slope Belt to the Anticline Belt) are based on porosity reconstruction considering the diagenetic history and stress-strain regimes among various geological periods;
* Source rock geochemistry; To depict the development of various types of source rocks, the J\({}_{2}\)_k_z, J\({}_{1}\)_y_, T\({}_{3}\)_t_, and T\({}_{3}\)_t_ source rocks were divided into coal, carbonaceous mudstone, and dark mudstone in five geological sections, as reported by [PERSON] et al. (2021) [55]. Previous studies commonly used fixed kinetics in PetroMod software based on kerogen types [78; 79] but these cannot reflect the real hydrocarbon generation process in the study area. This is because of significant variations in the generative kinetics of source rocks with different organofacies (e.g., varying origins of organic matter, depositional environments, heterogeneity of sediments, geological background, etc.) [80; 81]. Consequently, customized kinetics of generation for each individual source rock kerogen of different lithologies are necessary to ensure an accurate hydrocarbon generation process in the study area [81; 82; 83]. Kinetic models obtained from sealed gold tube pyrolysis experiments by [PERSON] et al. (2023) [84] in the northern Kuqa Foreland Basin were employed in the modeling. Since the TOC and HI values of source rocks will decrease in the process of thermal evolution [85; 86], we used the method proposed by [PERSON] et al. (2003) [87] to calculate the original TOC and HI in the early stage of hydrocarbon generation. The restored TOC and HI values are shown in Table 3;
* Boundary conditions; Sediment-water-interface temperatures (SWIT) were determined using the global mean surface temperature based on Wygrala (1989) [88] contained in the PetroMod software. The location of the study area was set in Central Asia (latitude 41\({}^{\circ}\)) to automatically generate the SWIT map for the northern Kuqa Foreland Basin through time. The paleowater depth (PWD) was based on the estimation of sequence stratigraphic architecture and sedimentary facies characteristics in Kuqa Foreland Basin, defining the depth ranges for shore and shallow lacustrine (5-10 m), shallow to half deep lacustrine (10-20 m), and half deep to deep lacustrine (20-40 m) [89]. The PWDs in geological periods were calibrated from the previous studies by [PERSON] et al. (2013) [89] and [PERSON] et al. (2016) [63] and shown in Table 3. Heat flow data for each grid in different geological sections came from the previous studies [90; 91], showing that the present heat flow in the northern Kuqa Foreland Basin is (42.5 \(\pm\) 7.6) mW/m\({}^{2}\)[91; 92] and decreases from north to the south [87]. The modeling was calibrated by changing the present heat flow values until a reasonable result was achieved.