--> ABSTRACT: Landsat Exploration of Unayzah Trend, Saudi Arabia, by Sabins, Floyd; #90142 (2012)

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Landsat Exploration of Unayzah Trend, Saudi Arabia

Sabins, Floyd *1
(1) Remote Sensing Enterprises, Inc., Fullerton.

In the late 1980s Saudi Aramco requested Chevron to process and interpret Landsat TM images of the unexplored Central Arabian Arch, which is a vast homocline with regional dips of 1o to 2° and no closed surface structures. The giant fields in the Retained Areas are drape anticlines with very gentle dips that overlie basement faults. We developed a 3-D model illustrating how such structures might be expressed on images of the Arch. We used the model to recognize a number of anomalies on the Landsat images of the Central Arabian Arch. We then checked the anomalies in the field. Next, Aramco conducted seismic surveys that confirmed the model concept. In 1989 the Raghib and Dilam fields were discovered on anomalies that are almost 100 km from the nearest fields. The Unayzah Sandstone (Pennsylvanian and Permian) reservoir produces light, sweet oil, in contrast to the heavy, sour oil of the Arab D (Jurassic) of the Retained Areas. The organic-rich Qusaiba Shale (Silurian) is the source of the oil which migrated upward along the faults that underlie the anticlines. Exploration of other Landsat anomalies was interrupted by Desert Storm, but resumed with several additional discoveries along the “Unayzah Trend”.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90142 © 2012 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 22-25, 2012, Long Beach, California