--> Abstract: Micropalaeontology and Palaeoenvironments of the Wadi Waqb Member, Jabal Kibrit Formation, and Its Reservoir Equivalent, Saudi Arabian Red Sea, by Geraint W. Hughes; #90077 (2008)

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Micropalaeontology and Palaeoenvironments of the Wadi Waqb Member, Jabal Kibrit Formation, and Its Reservoir Equivalent, Saudi Arabian Red Sea

Geraint W. Hughes
Saudi Aramco
[email protected]

The Saudi Arabian Red Sea stratigraphy consists of a variety of lithologies that range from evaporites, deep- and shallow-marine siliciclastics and carbonates, biostratigraphically constrained to range from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) to Late Pliocene. The Midyan area of the northern Red Sea offers a unique window into the Cretaceous and Miocene succession that is otherwise only present in the deep subsurface. The sediments are of hydrocarbon interest because of the presence of source rocks, siliciclastic and carbonate reservoirs. The Wadi Waqb reservoir is hosted within the Wadi Waqb Member of the Jabal Kibrit Formation, and is of Early Miocene age. This member is exposed on the east flanks of the Ifal Plain, where it is represented by a discontinuous fringing rhodolith and coral reef complex that is welded to steep cliffs of granitic basement. Exposures of the member in Wadi Waqb, located in the middle part of the Midyan region, consist of pelagic, planktonic foraminiferal dominated packstones that contain abundant shallow marine allochthonous bioclasts. These shallow-marine bioclasts are considered to have been derived from the rhodolith-coral reefs exposed to the east. The Wadi Waqb reservoir is located in the central part of the Ifal Plain, approximately midway between the in-situ rhodolith-coral reefs and the mixed allochthonous and authochthonous facies in Wadi Waqb. The reservoir consists of biofacies that compare well with those exposed in Wadi Waqb, and therefore testify to the presence of a deep-marine environment, in excess of 50­–75 m water depth, located less than 25 km to the west of the fringing reef source of the shallow bioclasts.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90077©2008 GEO 2008 Middle East Conference and Exhibition, Manama, Bahrain