1D PetroMod software modeling of the Basrah oil fields, Southern Iraq
- PDF / 3,714,568 Bytes
- 26 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 89 Downloads / 209 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
1D PetroMod software modeling of the Basrah oil fields, Southern Iraq Thamer K. Al-Ameri & Mohamed S. A. Jafar & Janet Pitman
Received: 2 May 2012 / Accepted: 23 July 2012 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2012
Abstract 1D (Petromod) hydrocarbon charge modeling and source rock characterization of the Lower Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic underlying the prolific Cretaceous and Tertiary reservoirs in the Basra oilfields in southern Iraq. The study is based on well data of the Majnoon, West Qurna, Nahr Umr, Zubair, and Rumaila oil fields. Burial histories indicate complete maturation of Upper Jurassic source rocks during the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene followed by very recent (Neogene) maturation of the Low/Mid Cretaceous succession from early to mid-oil window conditions, consistent with the regional Iraq study of Pitman et al. (Geo Arab 9(4):41– 72, 2004). These two main phases of hydrocarbon generation are synchronous with the main tectonic events and trap formation associated with Late Cretaceous closure of the neo-Tethys; the onset of continent–continent collision associated with the Zagros orogeny and
Neogene opening of the Gulf of Suez/Red Sea. Palynofacies of the Lower Cretaceous Sulaiy and Lower Yamama Formations and of the Upper Jurassic Najmah/Naokelekan confirm their source rock potential, supported by pyrolysis data. To what extent the Upper Jurassic source rocks contributed to charge of the overlying Cretaceous reservoirs remains uncertain because of the Upper Jurassic Gotnia evaporite seal in between. The younger Cretaceous rocks do not contain source rocks nor were they buried deep enough for significant hydrocarbon generation. Keywords PetroMod software . Hydrocarbon charge modeling . Source rocks . Palynomorph facies . South Iraq . Basra region . Late Jurassic . Early Cretaceous
Introduction T. K. Al-Ameri (*) Department of Geology, University of Baghdad, Jadiriyah, Iraq e-mail: [email protected] M. S. A. Jafar Oil Exploration Company, Ministry of Oil, Baghdad, Iraq J. Pitman US Geological Survey, Denver, CO, USA
The Basrah region in southeast Iraq is well known for its giant oil fields. It is situated in what is known as the Mesopotamian Basin near the eastern edge of the Arabian plate (Fig. 1). The Mesopotamian Basin is the NW trending foredeep to the Zagros fold and thrust belt that formed in response to the continental collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates. Collision started during the Late Cretaceous and increased in intensity during the Paleogone/Neogene (Beydoun et al. 1992). The Mesopotamian Basin is relatively unaffected. Deformation
Arab J Geosci Fig. 1 Location map of Iraq showing; northeast Arabian Peninsula of the region Iraq with locations of basins and oil fields
increases in intensity from west to east, towards the Zagros Mountains. The fields in the Basrah region occur along N–S trending folds in the southern part of the basin (Fig. 2). N–S striking, basement-cored anticlines in this part of the basin began forming in the Paleozoic, with continued b
Data Loading...
