--> ABSTRACT: Imprints of Arabia-Eurasia Plate Collision on Stratigraphy and Hydrocarbon Prospectivity of Kuwait, by Husain, Riyasat; Rinaldi, Mulyono; Al-Ammar, Nada M.; #90135 (2011)

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Imprints of Arabia-Eurasia Plate Collision on Stratigraphy and Hydrocarbon Prospectivity of Kuwait

Husain, Riyasat 1; Rinaldi, Mulyono 1; Al-Ammar, Nada M.1
(1)Exploration Group, Kuwait Oil Company, Ahmadi, Kuwait.

The Arabian Plate has experienced a multiphase tectonic history that began in the Proterozoic and continues up to the present day Zagros Orogeny. Kuwait, located on the eastern edge of the Arabian Plate, has witnessed these evolutionary phases and preserved their imprints into its sedimentary record. The study focuses on the major tectonic phases since Arabia-Eurasia plate collision and their impact on depositional history, facies development and trap formation.


The evolutionary history of Kuwait since Arabia-Eurasia collision is defined by three tectonic phases. During Late Cretaceous to Early Paleogene the Arabian plate moved to the north-northeast, subducted and subsequently collided into Eurasia. The onset of the deformation is marked by the Turonian unconformity which down cuts progressively towards the west and south, causing significant thinning and loss of the Late Cretaceous sediments over the Kuwait Arch. Besides enhancing trap geometry, erosional truncation and onlaps over the arch the event provided avenues for stratigraphic trap exploration. During the Paleogene, the plate collision continued in the Zagros causing the Neo-Tethys to progressively narrow. In Kuwait, the sediments were deposited on a shallow carbonate shelf within a compressive foreland basin setting. The structuration was mainly confined along Kuwait Arch and northern part of Kuwait. The Paleogene reservoir facies are envisaged to be better developed in these areas. Red Sea spreading along western margin and compression due to Zagros Orogeny in the east occurred during latest Eocene to Present Day. The Kuwait Arch and structures in western Kuwait were reactivated and a massive supply of continental to deltaic clastics occurred in the rapidly subsiding Zagros foredeep. The succeeding development and infill of the Zagros foredeep generated the regional north-easterly dip which is a characteristic feature of the Offshore Kuwait today. The regional tilt of the basin during this time is responsible for tilt in oil water contacts of producing reservoirs and change in closures of prospects.


The tectonic phases have left their distinct impressions in geological record and have impacted the facies development, enhancement of reservoir properties, trap formation, maturation and migration of hydrocarbons in Kuwait. Process response models can be gainfully employed to assess the effect of tectonics on hydrocarbons prospectivity of Kuwait, especially in frontier exploration areas.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90135©2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Milan, Italy, 23-26 October 2011.