Regional Hanifa Reservoir Fairways in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia: An Integrated Approach

Paul Lawrence*, Tom Harland, David Tang, Douglas Cook, Geraint Hughes, Ravi Singh, Greg Gregory, Abdel Fattah Bakhiet, and Abdel Ghayoum Ahmed
Saudi Aramco
*[email protected]

The Late Jurassic Hanifa Formation in Saudi Arabia consists of a succession of shallow- to deep-marine carbonates. It contains both prolific oil-producing reservoirs and important source rocks. Prediction and mapping of the regional reservoir fairways have been achieved through an integrated approach involving the study of microbiofacies, lithostratigraphy, core-based sequence stratigraphic analysis, well-log correlation, petrophysical characterizations and interpretations, and attributes extraction and modeling of a vast area of 3-D seismic data. The Hanifa Formation consists of the lower and upper Hanifa members. The lower member is composed of predominantly argillaceous limestones and laminated organic-rich mudstones, which constitutes a major Jurassic source rocks. The upper Hanifa member is a major reservoir comprised of mostly shallow-water, higher energy grainstone and skeletal packstone facies. Regional well correlations, core studies and seismic interpretation revealed an extensive intra-shelf basin. A series of clinoforms offlap into the intra-shelf basin from the carbonate ramp edges, which were established in response to carbonate deposition and base-level falls in Late Oxfordian time. Seismic mapping and attributes analysis have provided a robust reservoir fairway map that depicts the intra-shelf basin and the Hanifa shoaling complexes at the ramp crests. The results of this integrated study have opened-up new exploration opportunities in stratigraphic plays.

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