Diagenetic Controls on Reservoir Heterogeneity in Cretaceous Mishrif Formation in Zeta-1 Well, Offshore Dubai

P. E. Videtich, R. K. McLimans, H. J. Frank

The Zeta-1 well tested a thickened lens of the Cretaceous Mishrif Formation located east of Fateh field in offshore Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Initial petrographic study of Mishrif core showed it to be a homogeneous, mollusk-rudist packstone that apparently underwent similar diagenesis throughout. However, geochemical analyses of the ore identified a horizon where sharp changes in the elemental and stable carbon isotope compositions occur. We interpret those changes to be due to a discontinuity that divides the packstone into upper and lower units. There is a marked change in porosity coincident with the discontinuity from 13% in the lower unit to 24% in the upper unit.

Evidence for oil migration at Zeta-1 is retained in the form of oil fluid inclusions trapped within calcite cements. However, oil inclusions are found only in cements near or above the discontinuity. This suggests that oil migration was confined to the upper packstone, whereas cementation continued unrestricted in the lower packstone, resulting in diminished porosity. The lack of an updip seal is the apparent reason why commercial quantities of oil did not accumulate at Zeta-1.

Geothermometry studies of fluid inclusions entrapped in late blocky calcite spar that occludes much of the porosity indicate that the cement originated at depth from a high-density brine, consistent with the above scenario. Thus, the heterogeneity in the reservoir rock is related to early diagenesis, controlled in part by the discontinuity, deep burial cementation, and migration of oil.

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