bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Petrological and Tectonostratigraphic Evidence for a Mid Ordovician Rift Pulse on the Arabian Peninsula
Authors: Oterdoom W. Heiko , Worthing Mike A. , Partington Mark 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
During late Early Ordovician times an increase in the rate of subsidence in the Ghaba Salt Basin and western South Oman Salt Basin is suggested by the thick sequence of continental clastics of the Ghudun Formation. After a phase of rift-shoulder uplift and erosion, related to a renewed pulse of extension which may have initiated diapiric growth of salt structures in the Ghaba Salt Basin, sedimentation resumed again in the Mid Ordovician. During this period, the center of deposition shifted to the Saih Hatat area in North Oman. This paper documents seismic and well data, field investigations and petrological study of potassic mafic rocks from the Huqf area which were intruded in the eastern side of the Ghaba Salt Basin. A Mid Ordovician age of 461 ± 2.4 million years has been established for these rocks by the Argon-Argon step heating method. Analogy with the petrology and setting of similar potassic mafic rocks from the Rio Grande Rift in the western United States of America suggests that they were intruded into the shoulder of an intra-continental rift. The data provide the first clear evidence of a pulse of rift-shoulder uplift in the Huqf area during the Mid Ordovician. The 3-kilometer-thick Mid to Late Ordovician clastic sediments of the Amdeh Formation in North Oman, together with the occurrence of abnormally thick sedimentary sequences and volcanics in the Tabas Graben in Iran, are consistent with a period of break-up of eastern Gondwana. Together, the Ghaba-Saih Hatat and Tabas Basins are considered to be part of a failed rift arm. These observations further improve our regional knowledge of the Early to Late Ordovician tectonic setting of Oman and will assist in unlocking the hydrocarbon potential of classical rift-related structures consisting of early-rift Early Ordovician sand-prone reservoirs sealed by syn-rift Mid to Late Ordovician marine shales.
Jurassic Gastropod Faunas of Central Saudi Arabia
Authors: Fischer Jean-Claude , Le Nindre Yves-Michel , Manivit Jacques , Vaslet Denis 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACTMapping of Phanerozoic rocks at 1:250,000 scale by joint teams from the Saudi Arabian Deputy Ministry for Mineral Resources and the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières since 1980 has covered most of the Jurassic outcrops in central Saudi Arabia. Stratigraphic, sedimentologic and paleogeographic studies provided a precise framework for collected gastropod faunas that could be calibrated against ammonite zones and sequence-stratigraphic zones. Of more than 600 samples collected, about 440 gastropod specimens could be determined on at least a generic level. Their age range is from Bajocian to Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian. They correspond to 26 genera and 35 species from the Euomphalidae, Ataphridae, Pseudomelaniidae, Coelostylinidae, Procerithiidae, Nerineidae, Purpurinidae, Aporrhaidae, Naticidae, Acteonidae, Retusidae, and Akeridae families. Twelve species are new, and three (Kosmomphalus and Bifidobasis in the Euomphalidae, and Striatoonia in the Pseudomelaniidae) were proposed for new taxa of generic or subgeneric rank. Most of the identified species are of Middle Jurassic age, mainly Bathonian and Callovian and only six are Late Jurassic. All species are typical of an internal platform environment (upper infralittoral), in a lagoonal to back-reef setting, but some also colonized the external platform in the lower infralittoral fore-reef zone. Paleogeographically, most of the species are related to European and Sinai faunas; only seven are equivalent to North African or East African faunas, and one only was reported from Madagascar.
High-resolution Sequence Stratigraphic Architecture of Barremian/Aptian Carbonate Systems in Northern Oman and the United Arab Emirates (Kharaib and Shu’aiba Formations)
Authors: van Buchem Frans S.P. , Pittet Bernard , Hillgärtner Heiko , Grötsch Jürgen , Al Mansouri Abdullah I. , Billing Ian M. , Droste Henk H.J. , Oterdoom W. Heiko , van Steenwinkel Mia 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACTA regional sequence stratigraphic model for the Kharaib and Shu’aiba formations (Barremian, Aptian) is proposed based on outcrop and subsurface transects in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The model shows distinct variations in depositional facies and geometrical patterns in relation to third-order sequences. The sedimentary systems evolved from a low-angle carbonate ramp (Kharaib Formation), to an organic-rich intrashelf basin surrounded by carbonate platforms (Hawar Member and Lower Shu’aiba), to a clay-dominated sedimentation restricted to the intrashelf basin (Upper Shu’aiba). Eustatic sea-level changes and, to a lesser extent, local tectonic controls influenced the development of the systems. This high-resolution sequence stratigraphic model has implications for both exploration and production strategies.This study presents a revised sedimentological facies interpretation based on detailed outcrop observations with geological constraints provided by a regional well-log correlation from Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Time control was provided by biostratigraphy (including new nannofossil data), and carbon isotope stratigraphy. Four third-order depositional sequences bounded by regional exposure surfaces were defined that are composed of at least two higher-order sequences (fourth- and fifth-order).Depositional sequences I and II have a flat ramp setting. The typical ecological succession was orbitolinid and/or miliolid wackestone-packstone deposited in a low-energy, inner ramp environment during early transgression; a mixed-fauna mudstone-wackestone in an open lagoon during maximum flooding and early highstand; and a rudist/miliolid wackestone-packstone-grainstone-framestone of the succeeding late highstand in a high-energy, inner- to mid-ramp environment. The doubling in thickness of the sequences from Oman to Abu Dhabi is attributed to differential subsidence. The Sequence III succession was somewhat similar, but differences were caused by the creation of the intrashelf Bab Basin, and by well-developed microbial boundstones. The basin morphology was primarily due to differential accumulation rates and tectonism was of only minor importance. Rapidly aggrading and backstepping microbial boundstones formed the platform, whereas condensed sedimentation and the accumulation of carbonate source rocks occurred in the basin. Highstand deposits were primarily grainy, high-energy rudist-dominated facies. The sequence ended with a forced regressive wedge along the basin margins. Sequence IV was restricted to the Bab Basin and sedimentation consisted of a clay-rich infill phase. At that time, the Oman and Abu Dhabi platforms were exposed on both sides of the basin. Nannofossils dated this major relative fall in sea level to the early-late Aptian.
Maximum flooding surfaces and sequence boundaries: comparisons between observations and orbital forcing in the Cretaceous and Jurassic (65-190 Ma)
Authors: Matthews Robley K. , Frohlich Cliff 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
We have undertaken a simplified calculation of orbital forcing back through the Cretaceous to the Late to Middle Jurassic from 65 to 190 Ma. So long as the Earth has a continental ice volume, orbital forcing will impose a 400-ky periodicity upon glacioeustasy and thereby on fourth-order sequence stratigraphy cycles. Similarly, third-order cycles were defined by orbital forcing of 2.4 ± 0.4 my (predominately 2.0- and 2.8-my cycles). These concepts greatly simplified the task of unraveling sequence stratigraphy. Our sea-level calculations are comparable with stratigraphic observations and the results are consistent with a persistent continental ice volume throughout the Late to Middle Jurassic and Cretaceous. In general, they compare well with the Arabian Plate Maximum Flooding Surfaces and the Cretaceous and Jurassic stage boundaries, within the limits of the recognized stratigraphic time scales. We used simple Parametric Forward Models (PFMs) for modeling changes in sea level, subsidence, and sedimentation and noted that PFMs can be applied to other tasks. The results will provide for rapid, cost-effective forward modeling on tasks such as reservoir characterization and flow simulation.
Shu’aiba rudist taphonomy using computerised tomography and image logs, Shaybah field, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Hughes G. Wyn ap G. , Siddiqui Shameem , Sadler R. Kumbe 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
Rudist fossils in cored carbonates from the Shu’aiba reservoir in the Shaybah field have been used to aid the interpretation of lithofacies and reservoir facies in uncored horizontal development wells. The rudists are sufficiently large fossils that they provide well-developed and easily identified images on computerised tomography (CT) scans of cores. The CT images provide valuable information on the rudist orientation prior to damage caused by plugging and slabbing procedures. CT images, combined with the core-based fossil information, are then used to interpret the images on the formation micro-imager (FMI) logs. As the various rudist species are known to have preferentially occupied different environments during the deposition of the Shu’aiba carbonates, depositional environments can now be interpreted from the FMI logs. Specimen orientation in the core provides supplementary information on the depositional environment by discriminating between in-situ and displaced assemblages. Rudist identification in FMI images is a new tool in uncored vertical wells. In long horizontal wells, this is a major achievement and will assist in modelling the 3-D lithofacies and associated reservoir facies distribution for improving the reservoir model.
Reservoir quality and K-Ar age dating of the pre-Khuff section of Kuwait
Authors: Strohmenger Christian J. , Al-Anzi Menahi S. , Pevear David R. , Ylagan Robert F. , Kosanke Tobi H. , Ferguson G. Scott , Cassiani Daniel H. , Douban Adel F. 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACTBased on studies of petrographic thin sections from core and cutting samples, the pre-Permian siliciclastics in four deep wells in southern Kuwait were found to be tight. Three of these wells are located on the crestal region of the Burgan Arch, and one on the Umm Gudair anticline. These clastics were encountered beneath a thin brick-red shale of unknown thickness, immediately below the pre-Khuff unconformity at the base of the Permian-Triassic Khuff Formation. The pre-Khuff clastics range in thickness from a few tens of feet to more than 4,000 ft, and overlie a Proterozoic argillite (Economic Basement). Based on Illite Age Analysis (IAA) of samples from cores, the depositional K-Ar age of the pre-Khuff clastics is estimated to be younger than 509 Ma (90 percent confidence interval: 544–481 Ma, i.e. Cambrian-Early Ordovician). The argillite was uplifted through the 300°C isotherm at about 611 Ma (90% confidence interval: 635-588 Ma, i.e Late Proterozoic); its deposition and metamorphism preceded this date. During the Paleozoic, the pre-Khuff clastics were buried to depths of 10,000–15,000 ft, but were subsequently uplifted in the Late Paleozoic. IAA diagenetic K-Ar ages of the Economic Basement (421 Ma; 90 percent confidence interval: 442-397 Ma; Late Ordovician-Early Devonian) and pre-Khuff clastics (369 Ma; 90 percent confidence interval: 404–337 Ma, i.e. Devonian-Early Carboniferous) indicate that by these times the pre-Khuff section was already deposited and undergoing burial diagenesis. The interpretation of gravity data indicates that in Paleozoic basinal regions (e.g. between the Burgan Arch and Umm Gudair Anticline), the Paleozoic sedimentary section is likely to be more complete and may exceed 10,000 ft in thickness.
Predicting the occurrence of bulk bitumen in uncored wells: a core-log calibration method, Uwainat Reservoir, Dukhan field, Qatar
Authors: Shankar Varavur Venkitardr , Trabelsi Ali Miloud Said , Beg Mirza Arshad 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
Most Jurassic reservoirs in the Middle East contain bulk bitumen. Core data from the Middle Jurassic Uwainat reservoir in the Dukhan field of Qatar show that bulk bitumen predominantly occurs in grainstones, and to a lesser degree, in bioclastic packstone and wackestone intervals. Bitumen fills interparticle and intraparticle porosities, hairline fractures, and stylolites. The thickness of the bitumen varies, generally in response to the distribution of the porous-permeable lithologies. For this study a learning dataset was constructed, from which numerical estimations were made to isolate petrophysical characteristics of bitumen. Then qualitative estimates were made to predict the occurrence of bitumen. Data from cores and thin sections were integrated with porosity and resistivity logs of twenty cored wells to develop a technique for determining the presence of bulk bitumen in the uncored wells. As this methodology is largely qualitative, a binary flag system was employed to indicate bitumen. The technique involves cross-plotting of bulk density versus thermal neutron porosity, across zones where bulk bitumen has been identified in cores. A transform of the form y=abxxc relates the neutron porosity to the bulk density. This transform is then applied to the neutron data to arrive at a calculated bulk density, theoretically predicting a bulk density response to bitumen. When the difference between the calculated and the actual bulk density is within ± 0.03 gm/cc, a positive flag is generated (suggesting that bulk bitumen is present). Using cut-offs based on calculated bulk density values and the microresistivity log further refines this flag. This method is useful in detecting bulk bitumen in uncored wells, when bulk bitumen forms in intervals more than 2 feet thick. The zones identified as having bulk bitumen in cores were correctly identified by the log data. This technique has about 80 percent reliability when the rock interval containing bulk bitumen is more than 10 feet thick. The approach however, has limitations where bitumen occurs in low porosity rocks, as it becomes difficult to differentiate resistivity increases due to reduction in porosity from those due to bitumen filling the pore spaces. The agreement between core and log requires an accurate depth matching between core and logs.
Fault characterization by seismic attributes and geomechanics in a Thamama oil field, United Arab Emirates
Authors: Tamura Yoshihiko , Tsuneyama Futoshi , Okamura Hitoshi , Furuya Keiichi 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
Faults and fractures were interpreted using attributes that were extracted from a 3-D seismic data set recorded over a Lower Cretaceous Thamama oil field in offshore Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Thamama reservoir has good matrix porosity (frequently exceeding 20%), but poor permeability (averaging 15 mD). Because of the low permeability, faults and fractures play an important role in fluid movement in the reservoir. The combination of the similarity and dip attributes gave clear images of small-displacement fault geometry, and the orientation of subseismic faults and fractures. The study better defined faults and fractures and improved geomechanical interpretations, thus reducing the uncertainty in the preferred fluid-flow direction. Two fault systems were recognized: (1) the main NW-trending fault system with mapped fault-length often exceeding 5 km; and (2) a secondary NNE-trending system with shorter faults. The secondary system is parallel to the long axis of the elliptical domal structure of the field. Some of the main faults appear to be composed of en-echelon segments with displacement transfer between the overlapping normal faults (relay faults with relay ramps). The fault systems recognized from the seismic attributes were correlated with well data and core observations. About 13 percent of the fractures seen in cores are non-mineralized. The development of the fault systems was studied by means of clay modeling, computer simulation, and a regional tectonics review. The existing fluid-flow characteristics of individual faults and fractures in the field can be modeled using the present-day stress regime, with the maximum horizontal stress oriented north-northeast. Slip-tendency and dilation-tendency analyses simulating present-day regional stress conditions are indicators of fault and fracture transmissibility. The NNE-striking secondary fault system is parallel to the present-day maximum horizontal stress and could act as a flow conduit in the reservoir.
Sedimentology and play potential of the late Neoproterozoic Buah Carbonates of Oman
Authors: Cozzi Andrea , Al-Siyabi Hisham A. 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
The search for new exploration plays in Oman, and recent successes in the Ara Group, has rejuvenated the interest of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) in the stratigraphy of the pre-Ara Group. Below the Ara Group, the late Neoproterozoic Nafun Group comprises five formations. The Buah is the youngest of these formations, and represents the most promising exploration target. Accordingly, an integrated outcrop and subsurface study was initiated to better understand the distribution of the Buah depositional facies. High-resolution chemostratigraphy and field gamma-ray surveys were used to correlate outcrop data with the PDO subsurface database. These studies resulted in the reconstruction, with an unprecedented accuracy, of the distribution of the depositional environments at Buah time throughout Oman.
This study indicates that the Buah was deposited on a distally-steepened carbonate ramp, during a highstand systems tract, as a shallowing and upward-coarsening cycle. Good reservoir facies (peloidal-ooidal grainstones) are ubiquitous in the shallow-water Buah sections, making up continuous sheets for tens of kilometers. Karst and fracture development at the top of the Buah may improve the reservoir quality, as in the case of the Makarem gas field in Oman. Buah reservoirs are generally capped by the Ara salt, except on structural highs where the top seal is provided by mudstones of the middle Haima Supergroup. The Buah off-ramp basinal facies represent potential source rocks with total organic carbon values ranging from 2.5–3.5 %.
Two distinct glacial successions in the Neoproterozoic of Oman
Authors: Guerroué Erwan Le , Allen Philip , Cozzi Andrea 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
Neoproterozoic glacial strata in Oman are key to the ongoing Snowball Earth discussion, providing a great opportunity to test the hypothesis. The Abu Mahara Group (Huqf Supergroup) is well exposed in the core of the Jabal Akhdar of northern Oman. It contains two glaciogenic units, the Ghubrah Formation (723+16/−10 Ma) and the Fiq Formation (currently undated), that are separated by the volcaniclastic Saqlah Formation. An angular unconformity is present between the Ghubrah and Saqlah formations, indicating a significant time gap between the deposition of the Ghubrah and Fiq glacial successions. The localised occurrence of pillow basalts and more widespread volcaniclastics of the Saqlah Formation, suggests the initiation of a rifting phase, which is considered to have continued during deposition of the Fiq Formation. Given the available geochronology, the Ghubrah Formation may correlate with other glaciogenic successions worldwide attributed to the Sturtian glacial epoch, and the Fiq Formation with younger glaciogenic successions attributed to the Marinoan glacial epoch. Neoproterozoic glaciations appear to have taken place at times of tectonically generated accommodation, suggesting a link between geodynamics, basin development and climate change.
Devonian Jauf Formation, Saudi Arabia: Orbital Second-order Depositional Sequence 28
Authors: Al-Husseini Moujahed , Matthews Robley K. 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACTThe Devonian Jauf Formation (Huj Group) froms part of a regional transgressive-regressive depositional sequence that extends more than 1,500 km across the Arabian Platform from the Al Jawf outcrops in northwest Saudi Arabia, to the subsurface of eastern Saudi Arabia and Oman (Misfar Group). The formation ranges in thickness from 200–335 m in eastern Saudi Arabia to about 300–330 m in northwest Saudi Arabia. It disconformably (?unconformably) overlies the continental to shallow-marine Tawil Formation, and is unconformably overlain by the continental Jubah Formation. The Jauf Formation consists of five members that are apparently conformable; from base-up: Sha’iba Shale, Qasr Limestone, Subbat Shale, Hammamiyat Limestone and Murayr. In the Al-Qalibah reference section, it is divided into 21 informal units. The Early Devonian Emsian Hammamiyat Member represents the main marine flooding event; it consists of Hammamiyat units 1–6 each characterized by a clastic section that is capped by limestone.The Jauf Formation is interpreted as an orbital second-order depositional sequence (denoted DS2 28), which is bounded by two second-order sequence boundaries: SB2 28 = Jauf/Tawil (c. 407.6 Ma) and SB2 27 = Jubah/Jauf (c. 393.0 Ma). The Jauf Formation appears to consist of six third-order depositional sequences (DS3 28.1 to 28.6) that were deposited in the Early Devonian, ?Pragian and Emsian stages The Hammamiyat Member (DS3 28.4) is interpreted to consist of six fourth-order orbital cycles (DS4 28.4.1 to 28.4.6) each deposited in 0.405 million years.
Geophysical reservoir monitoring feasibility study in a Central Saudi Arabian oil field
Authors: Vesnaver Aldo L. , Broadhead Michael K. , Bellaci Isidore J. 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
The Central Arabian field of this study is part of a trend of oil fields primarily producing from Permian sandstone reservoirs. The most productive zone, in the upper part of the reservoir, is characterized with good porosity and permeability, an aeolian depositional environment, and producing zones that tend to be laterally and vertically heterogeneous. The reservoir sandstone lenses are interspersed with low porosity/permeability siltstones. We examined the feasibility of watersaturation surveillance by geophysical means that could help to better produce the field and unravel certain production challenges; hence, time-lapse seismic (4-D) was considered. Using modeling, we argue that time-lapse seismic is a low probability candidate for successful reservoir monitoring of water saturation in this field. We also discuss other techniques that are potential alternatives, such as micro-seismicity, magnetotellurics and borehole gravity, comparing the relative merits and limitations of these methods as applicable to this field. Finally, we conclude with the potential impact of improved reservoir characterization, via integration of more seismic information into the reservoir model.
Strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and calcium isotope ratios (44Ca/40Ca-44Ca/42Ca) of the Miocene Dam Formation in Qatar: tools for stratigraphic correlation and environment analysis
Authors: Dill Harald G. , Henjes-Kunst Friedhelm 
Published: October 2021

ABSTRACT
The Dam Formation in Qatar is a series consisting of calcareous (calcite, dolomite) and evaporitic sediments (gypsum, celestite) that developed under subtidal through supratidal conditions passing towards younger and older series in an environment of deposition more akin to modern beach deposits. In the present study 87Sr/86Sr ratios, δ44/40Ca and δ44/42Ca data are discussed together with δ13C and δ18O values obtained during an environmental analysis carried out previously. Rather uniform isotope curves of the Sr, Ca and O isotopes for tidal deposits are replaced by more oscillating ones when these tidal-influenced regimes became substituted for by a more wave-dominated regime. Calcium isotope ratios still at its infancy and not fully understood seem to provide a new tool in carbonate petrography when it comes to an interpretation of the environment of deposition and calcification of dolomitic series. The Sr isotopes not only indicate an influx of more primitive Sr from the hinterland but also allow for a refinement of the stratigraphy, which yields a late Aquitanian to early Burdigalian age of sedimentation for the Dam Formation in Qatar.