When 4D seismic is not applicable: Alternative monitoring scenarios for the Arab-D reservoir in the Ghawar Field

Ghawar, the largest oilfield in the world, produces oil from the Upper Jurassic Arab‐D carbonate reservoir. The high rigidity of the limestone–dolomite reservoir rock matrix and the small contrast between the elastic properties of the pore fluids, i.e. oil and water, are responsible for the weak 4D seismic effect due to oil production. A feasibility study was recently completed to quantify the 4D seismic response of reservoir saturation changes as brine replaced oil. The study consisted of analysing reservoir rock physics, petro‐acoustic data and seismic modelling. A seismic model of flow simulation using fluid substitution concluded that time‐lapse surface seismic or conventional 4D seismic is unlikely to detect the floodfront within the repeatability of surface seismic measurements. Thus, an alternative approach to 4D seismic for reservoir fluid monitoring is proposed. Permanent seismic sensors could be installed in a borehole and on the surface for passive monitoring of microseismic activity from reservoir pore‐pressure perturbations. Reservoir production and injection operations create these pressure or stress perturbations. Reservoir heterogeneities affecting the fluid flow could be mapped by recording the distribution of epicentre locations of these microseisms or small earthquakes. The permanent borehole sensors could also record repeated offset vertical seismic profiling surveys using a surface source at a fixed location to ensure repeatability. The repeated vertical seismic profiling could image the change in reservoir properties with production.     

Rock composition and origin of the Duwi Formation calcareous rocks, Upper Egypt

Upper Cretaceous phosphorite beds of the Duwi Formation, Upper Egypt, are intercalated with limestone, sandy limestone, marl, calcareous shales, and calcareous sandstone. Calcareous intercalations were subjected to field and detailed petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical investigations in order to constrain their rock composition and origin. Mineralogically, dolomite, calcite, quartz, francolite and feldspars are the non-clay minerals. Smectite, kaolinite and illite represent the clay minerals. Major and trace elements can be classified as the detrital and carbonate fractions based on their sources. The detrital fraction includes the elements that are derived from detrital sources, mainly clay minerals and quartz, such as Si, Al, Fe, Ti, K, Ba, V, Ni, Co, Cr, Zn, Cu, Zr, and Mo. The carbonate fraction includes the elements that are derived from carbonates, maily calcite and dolomite, such as Ca, Mg and Sr. Dolomite occurs as being dense, uniform, mosaic, very fine-to-fine, non-ferroan, and non-stoichiometrical, suggesting its early diagenetic formation in a near-shore oxidizing shallow marine environment. The close association and positive correlation between dolomite and smectite indicates the role of clay minerals in the formation of dolomite as a source of Mg^2＋ -rich solutions. Calcareous rocks were deposited in marine, oxidizing and weakly alkaline conditions, marking a semi-arid climatic period. The calcareous/argillaceous alternations are due to oscillations in clay/carbonate ratio.     

Roles for fluid and/or melt advection in forming high-P mafic migmatites, Fiordland, New Zealand

A series of striking migmatitic structures occur in rectilinear networks through western Fiordland, New Zealand, involving, for the most part, narrow anorthositic dykes that cut hornblende‐bearing orthogneiss. Adjacent to the dykes, host rocks show patchy, spatially restricted recrystallization and dehydration on a decimetre‐scale to garnet granulite. Although there is general agreement that the migration of silicate melt has formed at least parts of the structures, there is disagreement on the role of silicate melt in dehydrating the host rock. A variety of causal processes have been inferred, including metasomatism due to the ingress of a carbonic, mantle‐derived fluid; hornblende‐breakdown leading to water release and limited partial melting of host rocks; and dehydration induced by volatile scavenging by a migrating silicate melt. Variability in dyke assemblage, together with the correlation between dehydration structures and host rock silica content, are inconsistent with macroscopic metasomatism, and best match open system behaviour involving volatile scavenging by a migrating trondhjemitic liquid.     

Morphological and microtectonic analysis of Quaternary deformation from Puná and Santa Clara Islands, Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador (South America)

This paper presents the neotectonic study of Santa Clara and Puná Islands sited in the Gulf of Guayaquil eastern part. Both islands are located on the south-western segment of the fault zone bounding to the east the North Andean Block. Fault motion and morphostructural analysis were carried out from Pleistocene age terrain. A two step deformation characterises the South Puná tectonics. The first step involves the Zambapala Cordillera uplift that post-dates Pleistocene sediments and pre-dates a marine terrace correlated with the M.I.S. 11 or 13 (440–550 ka). The second step is the formation of a pull-apart that shows evidence of 2.9 km dextral offset since the M.I.S. 11 or 13, giving an offset mean rate of 5.3 to 6.6 mm/yr. This rate is higher than the one calculated on the Pallatanga Fault northeast of the study area, in the Western Andean Cordillera, suggesting that deformation is split in different fault segments from the Gulf of Guayaquil to the continent. The Zambapala Cordillera uplift and transpression deformation requires a compressive event that may have been induced by the subduction process during the early Pleistocene.     

Age and tectonostratigraphic significance of the Upper Carboniferous series in the basement of the Andean Frontal Cordillera: Geodynamic implications

The age and tectonosedimentary environment of the Palaeozoic sediments on the Frontal Cordillera is not well known and earlier studies have been unable to satisfactorily explain the geological history of the basement of the Andes.In the vicinity of the old Castaño Viejo mine crop out various levels of partially metamorphosed microbialite limestones, which alternate with thin marly–lutitic interstrata. These levels contain abundant palynomorph remains, which allow the series to be dated as Silurian–Devonian. These data, together with the presence of warm climate fossils, lend support to the hypothesis of a major allochtony of the Chilenia Terrane (of which the Frontal Cordillera formed part), relative to the Cuyania Terrane (which included the Precordillera), prior to their amalgamation.Upper Carboniferous palynomorphs found during this study occur in association with resedimented palynomorphs and chitinozoa, of possible Devonian age. This demonstrates the equivalence of both fossiliferous series and their location within the upper part of the Upper Carboniferous Agua Negra Fm. The Silurian–Devonian elements, deformed during a phase prior to the Gondwanic orogeny, were eroded and transported to the foreland basin during the Upper Carboniferous.The palynomorph associations found in all samples correspond to the Ancistrospora palynological zone and to the Raistrickia densa–Convolutispora muriornata Biozone, which are indicative of Upper Carboniferous times. Characteristic forms such as Ancistrospora verrucosa and C. muriornata, both indicative of an Upper Carboniferous age, were found in samples from the Castaño Viejo area.Earlier interpretations of the Frontal Cordillera attributing the sedimentation to a palaeo-latitude at some distance from Gondwana, were based on the presence of Silurian–Devonian hot water stromatolithic limestones. Our results suggest that Cuyania and Chilenia were not necessarily separated by a great distance before their amalgamation. This in turn means that a large ocean was not necessarily consumed in the process.     

Directional dependence of P- and S-wave propagation and polarization in foliated rocks from the Kola superdeep well: Evidence from laboratory measurements and calculations based on TOF neutron diffraction

We have measured P- and S-wave velocities on two amphibolite and two gneiss samples from the Kola superdeep borehole as a function of pressure (up to 600 MPa) and temperature (up to 600 °C). The velocity measurements include compressional (Vp) and shear wave velocities (Vs1, Vs2) propagating in three orthogonal directions which were in general not parallel to inherent rock symmetry axes or planes. The measurements are accompanied by 3D-velocities calculations based on lattice preferred orientation (LPO) obtained by TOF (Time Of Flight) neutron diffraction analysis which allows the investigation of bulk volumes up to several cubic centimetres due to the high penetration depth of neutrons. The LPO-based numerical velocity calculations give important information on the different contribution of the various rock-forming minerals to bulk elastic anisotropy and on the relations of seismic anisotropy, shear wave splitting, and shear wave polarization to the structural reference frame (foliation and lineation). Comparison with measured velocities obtained for the three propagation directions that were not in accordance with the structural frame of the rocks (foliation and lineation) demonstrate that for shear waves propagating through anisotropic rocks the vibration directions are as important as the propagation directions. The study demonstrates that proper measurement of shear wave splitting by means of two orthogonal polarized sending and receiving shear wave transducers is only possible when their propagation and polarization directions are parallel and normal to foliation and lineation, respectively.     

C-isotope Composition of Carbonates from Indravati Basin, India: Implications for Regional Stratigraphic Correlation

The Indravati Basin represents an unmetamorphosed and unfossiliferous sequence and shows a broad similarity in lithological association with other Purana Basins of Central India. The carbonates belonging to Indravati Basin have on average, moderately positive δ13 C values (up to +4.5). Numerous successions reported from other parts of world, show similar δ13 C values and contain evidence to suggest that the latest Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic period may represent an isotopically recognizable interval globally. The elevated δ13 C values of Indravati Basin are also correlatable with other Purana Basins in India including Upper Vindhyan Supergroup.     

A review of the occurrence, form and origin of C-bearing species in the Khibiny Alkaline Igneous Complex, Kola Peninsula, NW Russia

The Khibiny Complex hosts a wide variety of carbon-bearing species that include both oxidized and reduced varieties. Oxidised varieties include carbonate minerals, especially in the carbonatite complex at the eastern end of the pluton, and Na-carbonate phases. Reduced varieties include abiogenic hydrocarbon gases, particularly methane and ethane, dispersed bitumens, solid organic substances and graphite. The majority of the carbon in the Khibiny Complex is hosted in either the carbonatite complex or within the so-called “Central Arch”. The Central Arch is a ring-shaped structure which separates khibinites (coarse-grained eudialite-bearing nepheline-syenites) in the outer part of the complex from lyavochorrites (medium-grained nepheline-syenites) and foyaites in the inner part. The Central Arch is petrologically diverse and hosts the major REE-enriched apatite–nepheline deposits for which the complex is best known. It also hosts zones with elevated hydrocarbon (dominantly methane) gas content and zones of hydrothermally deposited Na-carbonate mineralisation. The hydrocarbon gases are most likely the product of a series of post-magmatic abiogenic reactions. It is likely that the concentration of apatite-nepheline deposits, hydrocarbon gases and Na-carbonate mineralisation, is a function of long lived fluid percolation through the Central Arch. Fluid migration was facilitated by stress release during cooling and uplift of the Khibiny Complex. As a result, carbon with a mantle signature was concentrated into a narrow ring-shaped zone.     

A GIS based hydrogeomorphic approach for identification of site-specific artificial-recharge techniques in the Deccan Volcanic Province

The Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP) of India, as a whole, faces a severe shortage of water despite receiving a high annual rainfall, this is primarily due to excess runoff and lack of water conservation practices. In this study, an attempt is made to identify zones favourable for the application and adaptation of site-specific artificial-recharge techniques for augmentation of groundwater through a Geographical Information System (GIS) based hydrogeomorphic approach in the Bhatsa and Kalu river basins of Thane district, in western DVP. The criteria adopted for the GIS analysis were based on the hydrogeomorphological characteristics of both basins extracted from the IRS-1C LISS-III data supported by information on drainage pattern, DEM derived slope, lineament density, drainage density, and groundwater condition. The integrated study helps design a suitable groundwater management plan for a basaltic terrain.