ABSTRACT
Outcrop analogs are used to improve the characterization of reservoir stratigraphy, to understand subsurface facies architecture and heterogeneity, and to overcome the limitations associated with large inter-well spacing within individual oil fields. This study characterized and modeled outcropping strata equivalent to the Upper Jurassic Arab-D carbonate reservoir in Central Saudi Arabia. The study presents qualitative and quantitative sedimentological and petrographic descriptions of lithofacies associations and interprets them within a high-order stratigraphic framework using geostatistical modeling, spectral gamma-ray, geochemistry, petrography and micropaleontology. The sedimentological studies revealed three lithofacies associations, which are interpreted as a gentle slope platform depositional environment comprising nine high-frequency sequences. The biocomponents of the study area show a lower degree of diversity than the subsurface Arab-D reservoir; however, some key biofacies are present and provide indications of the nature of the paleoenvironments. The geochemical results show a strong correlation between the major and trace elements and the reservoir facies, and suggest that the concentrations of elements and their corresponding spectral gamma-ray logs follow the same general upward-shoaling pattern. The 3-D geocellular model captures small-scale reservoir variability, which is reflected in the petrophysical data distribution in the model. This investigation increases the understanding of the stratigraphy of the Arab-D reservoir and provides a general framework for zonation, layering, and lateral stratigraphic correlations.
Stratigraphic aspects of the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous of Saudi Arabia
