--> Abstract: Variations in Carbonate Facies: Wadi Waqb Member, Midyan Area, Saudi Arabia, by R.E. Collier, K. Al-Ramadan, M. Kaminski, A.I. Koeshidayatullah, G.W. Hughes, D. Cantrell, and A. AlHussaini, #90188 (2014)

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Variations in Carbonate Facies: Wadi Waqb Member, Midyan Area, Saudi Arabia

R.E. Collier1, K. Al-Ramadan2, M. Kaminski2, Koeshidayatullah3, G.W. Hughes3, D. Cantrell4, and A. AlHussaini4

1University of Leed
2King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
2The Natural History Museum
2Saudi Arabian Oil Company

Abstract

The Wadi Waqb Member carbonates are a hydrocarbon reservoir in the Midyan field, NW Saudi Arabia. Previous work has focused on their microfacies variation, and on their micropalaeonotological components, notably coralline red algae (rhodolith materials), and benthonic and planktonic foraminifera. A latest Early Miocene age is inferred. Thus the Wadi Waqb carbonates were developed in a similar syn-rift tectonic context to carbonates of the Upper Rudeis and Kareem Formations of the Gulf of Suez Rift, such as at Abu Shaar.

The Wadi Waqb palaeoenvironments have been inferred to range from fringing rhodolith and coral reefs and back-reef lagoonal environments on basement platforms in the east, close to the Midyan rift margin, to allochthonous carbonate packstones and rudstones to the west. The latter include planktonic foraminifera that indicate deposition in water depths of at least 50m.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90188 ©GEO-2014, 11th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition, 10-12 March 2014, Manama, Bahrain