Depositional And Diagenetic Controls On Porosity Evolution Of The Miocene Dam Formation Carbonates; Al-lidam Area, Eastern Saudi Arabia
Osman Abdullatif, معاذ عبد التواب محمد علي صالح
كلية العلوم-جامعة الملك فهد للبترول والمعادن · السعودية
The Miocene Dam Formation in the Al-Lidam area of eastern Saudi Arabia consists of a succession of mixed siliciclastic-carbonate sequences that were deposited during Miocene (Burdigalian) times. Stratigraphic equivalents of the Miocene Dam Formation occur as hydrocarbon reservoir intervals in the Arabian Plate in Iraq and Iran.Previous studies have demonstrated that reservoir quality in carbonate rocks is mainly controlled by depositional setting and post-depositional diagenesis. Carbonate minerals are more susceptible to diagenesis than are their siliciclastic counterparts. This diagenetic susceptibility is mainly due to the high chemical reactivity of carbonate minerals. Diagenetic processes can be either porosity enhancing and/or porosity destructive.In this study, based on description of the lithology, sedimentary structures, texture, fossil content, and diagenetic features, fifteen lithofacies were identified within the Miocene Dam Formation in the study area. These lithofacies were deposited on, a low angle dipping, carbonate ramp under supratidal, beach, intertidal and shallow subtidal conditions. Carbonate diagenesis has been examined using different analysis tools, including: thin-section petrography, SEM, XRD, XRF and cathodoluminescence. These analyses tools have shown that the studied succession, especially the intertidal grainstones and packstones, are influenced by extensive meteoric diagenesis that led to formation of moldic and vuggy porosity. In addition to these dissolution related porosities, meteoric diagenesis is also observed in the form of meniscus, microstalictitic and equant calcite cement. Marine diagenesis was also observed, but it was restricted to the beach grainstone and subtidal quartz wacke-packstone lithofacies, in the form of aragonite and high magnesium calcite cement on the grain margins. Shallow burial conditions were inferred by grain contacts represented by point, suture and concavo-convex contacts. In some intervals, such as in the mud-dominated wackestones, hairline-thick fractures were observed. Mimetic dolomitization for the whole succession was also observed. The association of dolomite with evaporites minerals led to the interpretation that dolomitizationas sabkha-evaporative dolomitization model.Sequence stratigraphic approach was used in order to link the diagenetic processes to depositional setting and relative sea level fluctuations. Three fourth-order, shallowing-upward sequences were identified in the study area, and they are separated by two sequence boundaries. A clear relation between sequence surfaces and diagenetic processes was observed; the meteoric related diagenetic processes and dolomitization increase upwards (towards the sequence boundary) in each sequence. Porosity and permeability measurements have shown that the highest values are associated with the high stand systems tract (HST) of each sequence, followed by the transgressive systems tract (TST) and the low stand systems tract (LST). This was attributed to the fact that the (HST) is dominated by more grainy sediments in association with dissolution related porosities, while the (TST) and (LST) are dominated by muddier sediments with less influence of meteoric dissolution. The results of this study might help in understanding of diagenetic processes, and consequently the porosity and permeability distribution within hydrocarbon reservoirs.