Controls on Early Retention and Late Enhancement of Microporosity in Reefal Gas Reservoirs, Offshore North Sumatra Basin

Stephen O. Moshier

Chalky lime-matrix texture is pervasive in 300 m of coralgal and skeletal carbonates in the NSB-A (North Sumatra basin-A) gas field (lower-middle Miocene), offshore northern Sumatra. Much of the reservoir quality can be attributed to matrix with abundant intercrystalline, vuggy, and channel-form micropores. Matrix is composed of calcite microrhombs which are interpreted to have developed during stabilization of the precursor mud. On the same shelf, the smaller NSB-H oil field is composed of more than 45-m thick buildup of similar lithofacies which lack abundant microporosity.

In both fields, early diagenesis included dissolution of aragonitic skeletal material, matrix neomorphism, and precipitation of nonluminescent calcite followed by zoned, luminescent calcite cements. Stable isotopes from matrix reflect a more open or water-dominated matrix diagenesis at NSB-H field. More active flushing of oversaturated, organically charged meteoric waters was responsible for thorough matrix cementation and microporosity occlusion at NSB-H field. Calcite cements show progressive enrichment of iron and manganese and depletion of magnesium and strontium during growth. The matrix at NSB-H field contains iron-rich dolomite. At A field, remnant matrix microporosity and intraparticle microporosity in calcitic skeletal material were greatly enhanced after all phases of cement tion. Some pore-rimming cements are partially dissolved. At NSB-H field, late-phase dissolution is limited to the vicinity of open fractures where matrix-calcite and dolomite crystals are leached. Reservoir brines have a limey marine origin but are depleted in Ca and Mg relative to seawater, and carbon dioxide accounts for 31% of reservoir gas. If present brines are carbonate undersaturated, they may be substantially enhancing microporosity at NSB-A field. Late-stage dissolution is insignificant at NSB-H field due to the lack of early formed matrix microporosity.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91022©1989 AAPG Annual Convention, April 23-26, 1989, San Antonio, Texas.