Oil Possibilities in the Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene Foreland Basins of the Western Zagros Belt, Kurdiatan Region (N-Iraq)

Fadhil Ahmad Amin¹ and Dlear H. Baban^2
1Kurdistan Region-Iraq, Sulaimani, Iraq
²University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Iraq

The western segment of the zagros folded thrust belt is one of the world richest oil provinces, including Kirkuk embayment and the studied Sulaimani area in Kurdistan region ( N-iraq).Oil and associated gas usually occurs in three carbonate reservoirs ,The Qamchuqa formation of Albian age, Shiranish of Campanian – Maastrichtian ,and Oligocene series represent by Kirkuk Group. Mostly, sealed by the thick(about 1-2km ) evaporites of Miocene age and represent by Fatha Formation. Sequence boundaries, maximum flooding surfaces and component system tract are defined within the Late Cretaceous and Neogene's successions. Essentially they are divided into two second –order cycles and 16 third order cycle. Sequence boundary type one recorded at the boundaries between Maastrichtian and Danian, Paleocene and Eocene, as well as between Eocene and Oligocene, that is emphasized by foraminiferal zonations.The Rudist bearing Crabonates and the thick sequence(600m)of Nummulitic carbonates of the injar,Avanah and Pilaspi formations , may act as important oil reservoirs, in the southern sector of the simply folded zone,when they are sealed by the miocene evaporites.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece