The Paleozoic Petroleum Geology of Central Arabia

MCGILLIVRAY, JAMES G., and MOUJAHED I. HUSSEINI, Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Recent exploratory drilling in central Saudi Arabia indicates that all the geological elements of a major petroleum basin are present in this province. Several Paleozoic siliciclastic sequences which were deposited along the stable Arabian margin of Gondwanaland constitute excellent reservoirs. The identified reservoir targets include the Cambrian-Ordovician Saq Formation, Upper Ordovician-Lower Silurian glaciogenic clastics of the Sarah and Zarqa formations, and both fluvial and shallow marine sandstones of the Permian-Carboniferous Unayzah Formation.

The source rock is a widespread organic-rich shale which was deposited during the regional deglaciation in the earliest Silurian. Migration occurred vertically along faults and/or updip from the regional Qusaiba shale subcrop through the reservoirs. Interbedded upper Permian shales and evaporites form the basal sequence of a major carbonate transgression and provide a capping seal. The traps are broad, low-relief, fault-generated structures which developed primarily during the Triassic.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91007© 1991 AAPG International Conference, London, England, September 29-October 2, 1991 (2009)