The geochemical signatures of the Silurian–Devonian succession in eastern Saudi Arabia
The geochemical signatures of the Silurian–Devonian succession in eastern Saudi Arabia
This study was performed on 663 sandstone core and cutting samples taken from the Silurian–Devonian succession in five wells, located in eastern Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to correlate the Tawil Formation in the study wells, defining the lower Qalibah/ Tawil and upper Tawil/Jauf boundaries. The Tawil Formation is mostly characterized by clastic-dominated fluvial to marginal marine depositional environments.A chemostratigraphic correlation workflow was established using key element ratios and comprising four zones (C1 to C4) and five subzones (C2-1 to C2-3 and C3-1-C3-2).The chemostratigraphic zonation allowed robust characterization of stratigraphy in the uppermost Qalibah, Tawil, and lower Jauf Formations. Zone C1 is associated in most cases with the Sharawra Formation. Zones C2 and C3 are generally linked with the Tawil Formation, and Zone C4 broadly defines the lower part of Jauf Formation. In detail, the chemostratigraphic zonal boundaries do not precisely match the biostratigraphical and lithostratigraphic boundaries, indicating that the C1-C2 and C3-C4 boundaries are probably time-transgressive.The ratio Zr/Nb was used to model sequence stratigraphy. This ratio can vary in proportion to grain size, in which the element Zr is known to be concentrated in the heavy mineral zircon; while Nb-bearing heavy minerals along with clay minerals, likely illite, produce Nb. The increasing Zr/Nb ratio values are considered to define the coarsening upward or regressive sequences while decreasing Zr/Nb trends can mark fining upward or transgressive sequences.
___
- Al-Hajri S, Filatoff J, Wender LE, Norton AK (1999). Stratigraphy
and operational palynology of the Devonian System in Saudi
Arabia. GeoArabia 4 (1): 53-68.
- Al-Hajri S, Owens B (2000). Sub-surface palynostratigraphy of the
Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia. Stratigraphic Palynology of the
Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia. GeoArabia Special Publication 1:
10-17.
- Al-Hajri S, Paris F (1998). Age and palaeoenvironment of the
Sharawra Member (Silurian of North-Western Saudi Arabia).
Geobios 31 (1): 3-12.
- Al-Ramadan KA, Hussain M, Imam B, Saner S (2004). Lithologic
characteristics and diagenesis of the Devonian Jauf sandstone
at Ghawar Field, eastern Saudi Arabia. Marine and Petroleum
Geology 21 (10): 1221-1234.
- Armstrong HA, Turner BR, Makhlouf IA, Williams M, Al Smadi
A, Abu Salah A (2005). Origin sequence stratigraphy
and depositional environment of an Upper Ordovician
Hirnantian) peri-glacial black shale, Jordan: Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 220: 273-289.
- Bigot M (1970). Geology of the Tabuk and Jauf Formations in the
Wadi Al-Fajr area,” BRGM, 70 Jed 28, Directorate General
of Mineral Resources, Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral
Resources
- Cocker JD, Knox WO’B, Lott GK, Milodowski AE (2003). Petrologic
controls on reservoir quality in the Devonian Jauf Formation
sandstones of Saudi Arabia. GeoFrontier (1) : 6-11.
- Dossary N, Tourqui H, Breuer P, Soua M, Lacsamana E (2017). Tawil
Formation, Eastern Saudi Arabia: Sequence Stratigraphic
Analysis and Implications for Better Understanding of
Reservoir Heterogeneities. Middle East Region, Geosciences
Technology Workshop, Amman, Jordan, May 15-16, 2017
- Ellis DV (1987). Nuclear Logging Techniques (1987 PEH Chapter
50). Petroleum Engineering Handbook.
- Ellwood BB, Tomkin JH, Ratcliffe KT, Wright AM, Kafafy AM
(2008). Magnetic Susceptibility and Geochemistry for the
Cenomanian/Turonian Boundary GSSP with Correlation to
Time Equivalent Core. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology 251 (1): 1-22.
- Fralick PW, Kronberg BI (1997). Geochemical discrimination of
clastic sedimentary rock sources. Sedimentary Geology 113
(1): 111-124.
- Fujimaki H (1986). Partition coefficients of Hf, Zr, and REE between
zircon, apatite, and liquid. Contributions to Mineralogy and
Petrology 94 (1): 42-45.
- Green TH, Pearson NJ (1983). Effect of pressure on rare earth
element partition coefficients in common magmas. Nature 305
(5933): 414-416
- Helal AH (1965). On the occurrence and stratigraphic position of
Permo-Carboniferous illites in Saudi Arabia: Geologische
Rundschau 54: 193-207.
- Janjou D, Halawani M, Al-Muallem, MS, Robelin C, Brosse JM
et al. (1997). Explanatory notes to the geological map of
the Al Qalibah Quadrangle, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
GeoscienceMap G-135, scale 1:250,000, sheet 28C. Deputy
Ministry for Mineral Resources, Ministry of Petroleum and
Mineral Resources, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- Laboun AA (2010). Paleozoic tectono-stratigraphic framework of the
Arabian Peninsula. Journal of King Saud University-Science 22
(1): 41-50.
- Mahmoud MD, Vaslet D, Husseini, MI (1992). The Lower
Silurian Qalibah Formation of Saudi Arabia: An Important
Hydrocarbon Source Rock (1). AAPG Bulletin 76 (10): 1491-
1506.
- Mange MA, Morton AC (2007). Geochemistry of heavy minerals. In:
Mange MA, and Wright DT (editors). Heavy Minerals in Use.
Developments in Sedimentology 58: 345-391.
- McLennan SM (1989). Rare earth elements in sedimentary rocks;
influence of provenance and sedimentary processes. Reviews
in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 21 (1): 169-200.
- Morton AC, Hallsworth C (1994). Identifying provenance-specific
features of detrital heavy mineral assemblages in sandstones.
Sedimentary Geology 90 (3): 241-256.
- Pearce TJ, Besley BM, Wray DS, Wright DK (1999).
Chemostratigraphy: a method to improve interwell correlation
in barren sequences- a case study using onshore Duckmantian/
Stephanian sequences (West Midlands, U.K.). Sedimentary
Geology 124: 197-220.
- Pearce TJ, Wray DS, Ratcliffe KT, Wright DK, Moscariello A
(2005). Chemostratigraphy of the Upper Carboniferous
Schooner Formation, southern North Sea. In: Carboniferous
hydrocarbon geology: the southern North Sea and surrounding
onshore areas. In: Collinson, J.D., D.J., Evans, D.W. Holliday,
and N.S. Jones (eds.) Yorkshire Geological Society, Occasional
Publications series (7): 147-164.
- Pettijohn FJ, Potter PE, Siever R (1987). Sand and sandstone. Springer
Science & Business Media.
- Powers RW, Ramirez LF, Redmond CD, Elberg EL (1966). Geology of
the Arabian Peninsula. Sedimentary geology of Saudi Arabia:
U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 560-D.
- Powers RW (1968). Lexique stratigraphique international. Volume
III, Asie, Fas. 10b1, Arabia Saoudite. Centre Nationale de la
Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France.
- Rahmani RA, Steel RJ, Duaiji AA (2002). Concepts and methods of
high-resolution sequence stratigraphy: Application to the Jauf
gas reservoir, Greater Ghawar, Saudi Arabia. GeoFrontier 1:
15-21.
- Ratcliffe KT, Hughes AD, Lawton DE, Wray DS, F Bessa et al.
(2006). A regional chemostratigraphically-defined correlation
framework for the late Triassic TAG-I in Blocks 402 and 405a,
Algeria. Petroleum Geoscience 12: 3-12.
- Ratcliffe, KT, Morton A, Ritcey D, Evenchick CE (2008). Whole rock
geochemistry and heavy mineral analysis as exploration tools
in the Bowser and Sustut Basins, British Colombia, Canada.
Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 55 (4): 320-336.
- Ratcliffe, KT, Wright AM, Montgomery P, Palfrey A, Vonk A et al.
(2010). Application of chemostratigraphy to the Mungaroo
Formation, the Gorgon field, offshore Northwest Australia:
Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association,
Journal, 50th Anniversary Issue, 371-388.
- Riboulleau, A, Bout-Roumazeilles V, Tribovillard N, Guillot F,
Recourt P (2014). Testing provenance diagrams: lessons from
the well-constrained Cariaco Basin. Chemical Geology 389:
91-103.
- Sano JL, Ratcliffe KT, Spain DR (2013). Chemostratigraphy of the
Haynesville Shale. In: Hammes U, Gale L (editors). Geology of
the Haynesville Gas Shale in East Texas and West Louisiana,
USA. AAPG Memoir 105: 137-154.
- Schock HH (1979). Distribution of rare-earth and other trace
elements in magnetites. Chemical Geology 26 (1-2): 119-133
- Serra O, Baldwin J, Quirein J (1980). Theory, interpretation, and
practical applications of natural gamma ray spectroscopy. In:
SPWLA 21st Annual Logging Symposium.
- Sharland PR, Archer R, Casey DM, Davies RB, Hall SH et al. (2001).
Arabian Plate Sequence Stratigraphy. GeoArabia Special
Publication 2, Gulf PetroLink, Bahrain.
- Shaw PJA (2003). Multivariate Statistics for the Environmental
Sciences, London, UK: Hodder Arnold.
- Soua M (2014). Paleozoic oil/gas shale reservoirs in southern Tunisia:
An overview. Journal of African Earth Sciences (100): 450-492.
- Soua M (2016). Chemostratigraphic approach: a tool to unravel the
stratigraphy of the Permo-Carboniferous Unayzah Group and
Basal Khuff Clastics Member, Central Saudi Arabia, Fall 2016
Saudi Aramco Journal of Technology 88-103.
- Steemans P, Wellman CH, Filatoff J (2007). Palaeophytogeographical
and palaeoecological implications of a miospore assemblage
of earliest Devonian (Lochkovian) age from Saudi Arabia.
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 250 (1):
237-254.
- Steineke M, Bramkamp RA, Sander NJ (1958). Stratigraphic relations
of Arabian Jurassic oil. In: Weeks LG (editor). Habitat of Oil:
American Association of Petroleum Geologists 1294-1239
- Stump TE, Al-Hajri S, Van der Eem JGLA (1995). Geology and
biostratigraphy of the Late Precambrian through Palaeozoic
sediments of Saudi Arabia. Review of Palaeobotany and
Palynology 89 (1): 5-17.
- Svendsen J, Friis H, Stollhofen H, Hartley N (2007). Facies
discrimination in a mixed fluvio-eolian setting using elemental
whole-rock geochemistry—applications for reservoir
characterisation: Journal of Sedimentary Research 77: 23-33.
- Wallace CA, Dini SM, Al-Farasani AA (1996). Explanatory notes
to the geological map of the Ash Shuwahitiya Quadrangle,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Geoscience Map GM-125C, scale
1:250,000, sheet 30D. Deputy Ministry for Mineral Resources,
Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia.
- Wender LE, Bryant JW, Dickens MF, Neville AS, Al-Moqbel MA
(1998). Paleozoic (pre-Khuff) hydrocarbon geology of the
Ghawar area, eastern Saudi Arabia. GeoArabia 3 (2): 273-302.