Comparison of deeply buried paleoregolith profiles, Norwegian North Sea, with outcrops from southern Sweden and Georgia, USA — Implications for petroleum exploration

Riber, Lars; Dypvik, Henning; Sørlie, Ronald; Naqvi, Syed Asmar Aal-E-Muhammad; Stangvik, Kristian Bendiksen; Oberhardt, Nikolas; Schroeder, Paul A.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.01.043

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 79 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…6h). These data suggest that the iso-structural Pl/Pl linear boundary (e.g., Riber et al 2016Riber et al , 2017, constituted by interlocked plagioclase crystals, is more stable than both glass-rich interfaces (Pl/Glgr and Px/Glgr) and of the noisomineralic interfaces (Px/Op). However, a decrease of 21% in the percentage of Pl/Pl interfaces can be related to the active reworking of sandy detritus in the beach environment of the Alicudi Island likewise fluvial (e.g., Heins 1995) and glacial environments (e.g., Caracciolo et al 2012) that can disrupt and weaken a polycrystalline grain enhancing intercrystals fracturing (e.g., Slatt and Eyles 1981).…”

Section: Filicudi Island (Fi-3)mentioning

confidence: 86%

The use of mineral interfaces in sand-sized volcanic rock fragments to infer mechanical durability

Pera

Morrone

2020

J. Palaeogeogr.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of mineral interfaces, in sand-sized rock fragments, to infer the influence exerted by mechanical durability on the generation of siliciclastic sediments, has been determined for plutoniclastic sand. Conversely, for volcaniclastic sand, it has received much less attention, and, to our knowledge, this is the first attempt to make use of the volcaniclastic interfacial modal mineralogy of epiclastic sandy fragments, to infer mechanical durability control at a modern beach environment. Volcaniclastic sand was collected along five beaches developed on five islands, of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (Alicudi, Filicudi, Salina, Panarea and Stromboli) from the Aeolian Archipelago, and one sample was collected near the Stromboli Island volcanic crater. Each sample was sieved and thin sectioned for petrographic analysis. The modal mineralogy of the very coarse, coarse and medium sand fractions was determined by point-counting of the interfacial boundaries discriminating 36 types of interfaces categories, both no-isomineralic and/or no iso-structural (e.g., phenocrystal/glassy groundmass or phenocrystal/ microlitic groundmass boundaries) and iso-mineralic interfaces, inside volcanic lithic grains with lathwork and porphyric textures. A total of 47,386 interfacial boundaries have been counted and, the most representative series of interfaces, from the highest to the lowest preservation, can be grouped as: a) ultrastable interfaces, categorized

show abstract

Section: Filicudi Island (Fi-3)mentioning

confidence: 86%

The use of mineral interfaces in sand-sized volcanic rock fragments to infer mechanical durability

Pera

Morrone

2020

J. Palaeogeogr.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Regional subsidence and burial occurred in the Late Cretaceous, blanketing the ridge in deep marine mudstones that are thought to form the regional seal (Ritchie et al 2011;Witt et al 2011;Trice 2014). Most cores of the basement-cover unconformity reveal little evidence of deep surface weathering of the exposed crystalline rocks, unlike other basement plays such as the Utsira High in the Norwegian North Sea (Riber et al 2017;Trice et al 2019). Thus, most of the basement-hosted oil in the Rona Ridge is probably hosted in fractures (Holdsworth et al 2019).…”

Section: ;mentioning

confidence: 99%

The nature and age of basement host rocks and fissure fills in the Lancaster field fractured reservoir, West of Shetland

Holdsworth

Trice²,

Hardman

et al. 2020

JGS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hosting up to 3.3 billion barrels of oil in place, the upfaulted Precambrian crystalline rocks of the Lancaster field, offshore west of Shetland, give key insights into how fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs can form in such old rocks. The Neoarchean (c. 2700–2740 Ma) charnockitic basement is cut by deeply penetrating oil-, mineral- and sediment-filled fissure systems seen in geophysical and production logs and thin sections of core. Mineral textures and fluid inclusion geothermometry suggest that a low-temperature (<200°C) near-surface hydrothermal system is associated with these fissures. The fills help to permanently prop open fissures in the basement, permitting the ingress of hydrocarbons into extensive well-connected oil-saturated fracture networks. U–Pb dating of calcite mineral fills constrains the onset of mineralization and contemporaneous oil charge to the mid-Cretaceous and later from Jurassic source rocks flanking the upfaulted ridge. Late Cretaceous subsidence and deposition of mudstones sealed the ridge, and was followed by buoyancy-driven migration of oil into the pre-existing propped fracture systems. These new observations provide an explanation for the preservation of intra-reservoir fractures (‘joints’) with effective apertures of 2 m or more, thereby highlighting a new mechanism for generating and preserving fracture permeability in sub-unconformity fractured basement reservoirs worldwide.Supplementary material: Analytical methods and isotopic compositions and ages are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4763237Thematic Collection: This article is part of the Geology of Fractured Reservoirs collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/the-geology-of-fractured-reservoirs

show abstract

“…Towards the north, the regional seal is younging and can be as young as Late Cretaceous chalk (Copestake et al 2003). In addition to fracture porosity, the unweathered basement exhibits intragranular and intercrystalline porosity (Riber et al 2015(Riber et al , 2017Lie et al 2016) and can therefore be classified as a Type I-II fractured reservoir. Outcrop analogues of the basement are found on the west coast of Norway on the island of Bømlo (Fig.…”

Section: The General Characteristics Of Each Basement Play and Onshormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6) by the presence and nature of clay minerals (kaolinite, and mixed layer illite and smectite) and upwardsincreasing alteration profiles, associated with the basement unconformity surface. The associated decomposition of the host rock leading to arenization and argillization is controlled primarily by feldspar and biotite dissolution, initially by fluid ingress via pre-existing fractures (Riber et al 2015(Riber et al , 2017.…”

Section: Fissuring and Weathering Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Fractured basement play development on the UK and Norwegian rifted margins

Trice¹,

Hiorth²,

Holdsworth³

2019

Geological Society, London, Special Publications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fractured crystalline basement reservoirs (basement) on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) have been underexplored. Over the last 12 years, Hurricane Energy has deliberately set out to explore basement potential by exploring and appraising the Rona Ridge, West of Shetland; and the Rona Ridge Lancaster Field is now being progressed towards being the first UK basement field development. The Norwegian basement play is also recognized as a potentially material resource through serendipitous oil discoveries, with the 16/1-15 well, drilled in 2011, being the first successful full-scale basement test on the NCS. Building on this success, the 2018 Rolvsnes appraisal well (16/1-28 S) has demonstrated the significant basement potential of the extensive Utsira High and confirmed the materiality of a Norwegian basement play. The Rona Ridge and Utsira basement discoveries are used as a comparison with two other, yet to be evaluated, prospective basement plays on the NCS, with the objective of establishing technical subject areas where future UKCS and NCS collaboration would aid in accelerating understanding of the UKCS-NCS basement play.

show abstract

Comparison of deeply buried paleoregolith profiles, Norwegian North Sea, with outcrops from southern Sweden and Georgia, USA — Implications for petroleum exploration

Cited by 21 publications

References 79 publications

The use of mineral interfaces in sand-sized volcanic rock fragments to infer mechanical durability

The use of mineral interfaces in sand-sized volcanic rock fragments to infer mechanical durability

The nature and age of basement host rocks and fissure fills in the Lancaster field fractured reservoir, West of Shetland

Fractured basement play development on the UK and Norwegian rifted margins

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About