Print this pageUse of a Second and Third Order Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis of the Arabian Plate as a Tool for Understanding the Current Distribution of Hydrocarbon Reserves and Predicting Future Plays
Patrick D. Duff1, Christopher G. Kendall1, Charles Kerans2, and Abdulrahman S. Alsharhan3
1Geological Sciences, University South Carolina, Columbia, SC
2Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas, Austin, TX
3Middle East Geological Establishment, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
This study furthers the predictive power of sequence stratigraphy using our understanding of how second and third order changes in eustasy, subsidence, and sediment supply are recorded stratigraphically. The products are a series of regional chronostratigraphic charts and cross sections that detail the major petroleum producing horizons east across the Arabian plate to the folded Zagros Mountains. These graphical data characterize the controls on facies distribution in terms of base level, depositional dynamics, and regional structural overprint.
The sedimentary record of the Arabian plate is ideal for this exercise since it captures the accumulation of carbonate and minor clastic sequences expressed as a variety of facies and facies architectures responding to the beat of eustasy within the structural framework of a Wilson cycle from the Permian to present. This deposition on the Arabian plate occurred in a tropical setting, first on an extensional passive carbonate shelf during the Mesozoic, and second in a foreland basin flanking the Zagros uplift during the Tertiary.
Recent advances in sequence stratigraphy have focused on low and high frequency changes in sequence development and relationships between carbonate and siliciclastic accumulation. They have created a more detailed and flexible framework for understanding the evolution and distribution of sedimentary facies and predicting them on smaller spatial and temporal scales. We suggest that a synthesis of regional stratigraphic and structural data will better determine the second and third order controls on sequence development and will serve as a tool for prediction of future plays in the region.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas