Natural Gas in Kashmir

Haji Abdul Majid Butt
Retired Government of India

The Pliocene-Pleistocene Karewa Formation of Kashmir was deposited under fluviatile, lacustrine, and tectonic conditions favourable for gas generation and entrapment. The Karewas are 1,700 m thick, but drilling to date has tested only the upper 200 m. All gas accumulations found to date are noncommercial.

Because anticlinal structures are not prominent in the Karewas, the principal traps are believed to be stratigraphic. Continued drilling, particularly for deeper reservoirs within the Karewas, should develop a commercial gas supply in this region. Migration of gas may have taken place from the Karewas to the underlying Triassic formations, and retention there of the gas in suitable traps is possible.

Collusion of Indian plate with Eurasian plate some 50 million years ago sank the Tethyan sea, the major organic source of the time; confirmed by fossils of Elephants, Whales, Crocodiles, Palm leaves, Tree Trunks. Pressure and temperature followed converted this into huge reservoir of hydrocarbons which got subsequently migrated into the rocks of Proterozoic as well to Plio-Pleistocene formations. Two periods of folding one after Eocene and other beginning in the Pliocene and continuing up to Pleistocene diverted the migration of this hydrocarbon within their type of rock beds. Zones of compression from East and West. Forming V shaped pattern of bordering organic zones contained Oil / Gas. Since energy return ratio on energy invested is falling constantly. Petroleum recovery is getting more difficult and price per barrel crossing $140; an investigation is worth timely investment.

Presentation GEO India Expo XXI, Noida, New Delhi, India 2008©AAPG Search and Discovery