How Changes to the Plate Tectonic History of Arabia Impact Petroleum System Analysis

M. Spaak¹, A. Bell¹, L. Kennan¹, and M. Naujoks¹

Abstract

Basin modeling has become an integral part of prospect evaluation. Basin models are largely controlled by their thermal boundary conditions, which in turn are linked to the tectonic history of a basin. If we understand what tectonic processes affect a basin through time we can constrain boundary conditions through time, something that thermal indicators lack.

In the established view, Arabia was part of a passive margin throughout the Mesozoic which developed by the opening of Neotethys between Gondwana and Cimmeria. We have investigated this event by constructing complete burial graphs for 8 wells in East Arabia. We then use basin modeling software to extract the tectonic component of subsidence, in which we account for eustatic effects and erosional events. The subsidence data consistently show two phases of rapid subsidence, in the Early-Permian and Late-Jurassic respectively.

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