Significance of reef limestones as oil and gas reservoirs

in the Middle East a nd North Africa

by H. Stewart Edgell

Edgell, H. S., (1997), "Significance of reef limestones as oil and gas reservoirs in the Middle
East and North Africa", 10th Edgeworth David Symposium, University of Sydney, Australia.

Abstract: The oil reservoirs of the Middle East and North Africa contain some 70% of the
world's known oil reserves and about 50% of the world's natural gas reserves. Most of these are
contained in high-energy carbonate platform sediments, or in fractured limestones of large,
doubly plunging anticlines. A considerable proportion of oil and gas reserves of the region also
occur in Cretaceous sandstones of similar structures. Oil exploration in the vast sedimentary
basins of the Middle East and North Africa is still primarily at the stage of drilling simply folded
surface, or seismically defined structures. It has not yet reached the stage of exploration for
stratigraphic traps and reefs. Nevertheless, a significant number of reef and fore reef limestone

reservoirs
Limestonehave been found
reservoirs by drilling,
in fringing and a very
reef, barrier reef,few have
fore reefbeen
and recognized in seismic
back reef shoal faciesprofiles.
can be
recognized in parts of the region, as well as open shoal reefs. Reef walls are rare in the
subsurface of the area, either because they are too narrow or because they have been eroded.
There are no known atoll-type fringing reefs and isolated reef bioherm reservoirs in Libya are
best compared to buried platform reefs, or reef knolls.
Different organisms have acted as reef builders in epeiric seas of the geologic past, and most
ancient reefs are not built of hexacorals as with present-day reefs. A compound fringing reef belt
some 800km long ranging in age from Middle Eocene to Middle Miocene extends along the
foreland shelf of the Persian Gulf margin sag-interior sag basin from Iraq into Iran. In the giant
Kirkuk oil field, there is a 610m oil column mostly in reef, fore reef and shoal reef limestones.
The main fringing reefs cross the Kirkuk anticlinal axis in a 20km wide belt and are Oligocene
limestones. They are composed of larger Foraminifera, calcareous algae and corals, such as

Actinactis.
Lower Miocene reef limestone reservoirs also occur in the Asmari Limestone of certain Iranian
oil fields, such as Haft Kel and Gachsaran. The Ras Gharib oil field on the eastern edge of the
Gulf of Suez also produces from a Middle Miocene 'Nullipore' fringing reef reservoir, really an
algal Lithothamnion reef. Lower Tertiary (Paleocene) buried platform reefs, or coral-algal
bioherms form spectacular permeable limestone reservoirs of the Intisar (Idris) A, B, C, D and E
oil fields in the Sirte Basin of eastern Libya.
Rudist reefs occur in the Middle Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Sarvak Formation limestones of oil
fields in the productive Bangestan Group on the Karun Shelf of southwest Iran. The Middle
Cretaceous Mauddud and Mishrif formations also contain rudist reef reservoirs on local
structural highs of the offshore United Arab Emirates. The Augila oil field in eastern Libya
contains a rudist reef reservoir of similar age. In the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) Shuaiba
Formation limestone reservoirs of the U.A.E., there is a large rudist reef buildup with calcareous

algae and orbitolinids. This forms a subcircular reef trend in eastern Arabia and the eastern
1
Persian Gulf, including the large Bu Hasa, Shah, Sirri and Shaybah oil fields, bordered
basinward by a belt of fore reef detritus.
Permian reef limestones with abundant fusulinids, algae and corals occur in the thick Dalan
Formation exposed in the High Zagros Ranges of southern Iran. They are also believed to
contribute to the large gas reservoirs of the Aghar, Dalan, Kangan, and Pars gas fields. Reef
Dalan complex limestone reservoirs of the Middle East and North Africa contain ultimate
recoverable oil reserves estimated to be about 64 billion barrels.

Introduction

In the Middle East and North Africa, an area of more than 14 million square kilometres, shallow
water carbonates are very common both in outcrop and the stratigraphic sequence. This
immense, largely desert region is the largest marine carbonate province in the world (Fig. 1)
extending over a maximum east-west width of 8370 km and up to 4180 km from north to south.
In this vast area of dominantly limestones and dolomites, petroleum exploration has already
revealed a number of significant reef, and reef related oil and gas reservoirs.

Figure 1: Map of the Middle East and North Africa.

These consist of fringing reefs in the Eocene and Oligocene of giant Kirkuk oil field in Iraq,
where fore reef and back reef limestones are also productive, and fringing reefs in some of the oil
fields of southern Iran. Known barrier reefs are limited to Middle Eocene limestone reservoirs of

the western Kirkuk Field, and the only possible case of a reef wall reservoir to-date is in the
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Oligocene limestones of the Bai Hassan oil field of Iraq. A well-developed fringing reef buildup
of rudists forms major oil reservoirs in the Lower Cretaceous of Bu Hasa and Shah fields of Abu
Dhabi, the Shaybah-Zarrara fields of eastern Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, as well as in fields in
Oman, offshore Qatar and Iran. In the giant Bu Hasa oil field, fore reef facies of the Cretaceous
rudist reef are also productive.
Some of the clearest examples of reef limestone reservoirs are found in the subcircular Paleocene
reef knolls of the Sirte Basin in Libya, which were probably srcinally platform reefs. Atolls are
as yet unknown in the subsurface of the region.
A primary reason that reef or reef related limestone reservoirs are so far relatively few in the
Middle East and North Africa is that most exploratory drilling is still at an early stage with most
emphasis on structure drilling. In addition, most known oil and gas fields are caused by basement
uplift, deep-seated diapirs, or fold fractured limestones. The majority of carbonates in the region
appear to have accumulated as shallow water, low-energy deposits of the open shelf, carbonate
ramp type with a reef margin being rarely formed. An analogue for past carbonate depositional
environments is the present-day Persian Gulf, a remnant of the Tethys, where carbonates are
currently being widely accumulated, although reefs account for only a very small percentage of
the area.
Despite these apparent limitations, there is considerable geological knowledge of various reef
facies in the stratigraphic successions of the Middle East and North Africa. The pioneering
studies have been those in Iraq on Kirkuk and nearby anticlinal structures by geologists of the
former Iraq Petroleum Company, especially Henson (1950), van Bellen (1956) and Dunnington
(1958). Much of this early work was based on detailed petrographical and paleontological studies
of thin sections from cores and well cuttings. For example, van Bellen examined over 20,000
thin sections from 45,000 feet of drilled wells in the Kirkuk oil field and vicinity to reach his
conclusions on Eocene and Oligocene reef facies. In southern Iran, Thomas (1950, 1952) and
Kent et alii (1951) have made reef studies of the major Oligo-Miocene Asmari Limestone
reservoir Formation, while Edgell (1977) has studied the shoal reef facies of the Permian Dalan
Formation. In Abu Dhabi, Harris (1968), Wilson (1975) and Alsharhan (1985) have evaluated
the buried Cretaceous rudist reef reservoirs. In North Africa, studies by Terry and Williams
(1969) of the platform reef Paleocene Intisar "A" (Idris) oil field and of productive Cretaceous
rudist reef facies in the Augila oil field (Williams, 1968) have proved that buried reef limestones
constitute major oil reservoirs.
The petroleum potential of buried reef facies in the Middle East and North Africa is now
beginning to be better understood. Seismic profiles of reef knolls, or platform reefs, are now
known in the Sirte Basin of Libya and are actively followed up as attractive new petroleum
prospects. Oligo-Miocene reef trends have now been established in Iraq and Iran and have
proved to be very productive where crossed by anticlinal traps. An example is the Alborz No.1
Well drilled on an anticline 10km north of Qum, northern Iran, which encountered a narrow,
very permeable Oligocene reef and blew wild at 110,000 BOPD in 1958 before blocking itself
with a natural obstruction. Knowledge of Lower Cretaceous rudist reef trends in the eastern
Persian Gulf Basin is now well established and contributes to the development of giant oil fields,
such as Bu Hasa (Abu Dhabi), Shaybah (Saudi Arabia), and Sirri (offshore Iran).
An estimated 64 billion barrels of ultimate recoverable oil reserves are now known in the Middle
East and North Africa, comprising about 7.5% of the presently known oil reserves in the region.
Although reef limestones and related reef facies are never likely to account for more than 10% of

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the region's oil reserves, they are still very significant oil producers and future petroleum
prospects.

Types of ancient reef facies

Exploration and exploitation wells, as well as outcrops in the dominantly carbonate province of
the Middle East and North Africa, indicate the stratigraphic relationships of distinct reef facies.
The principal types distinguished are fringing reefs, barrier reefs, reef walls, shoal reefs, reef
knolls (platform reefs), and bank reefs formed over submerged highs (Fig. 2a).

Figure 2a: Reef facies and sedimentary environments (Henson, 1950).

Back reef and fore reef facies are also associated with these reefs, and the whole combination of
facies in any given case is referred to as a reef complex. Wilson (1975) recognizes 9 facies belts
on a rimmed platform (Fig. 2b). From sea to shore, these are 1) basin facies, 2) open marine
neritic facies, 3) toe of slope carbonates (to storm wave base), 4) foreslope talus, 5) organic
build-up (reef), 6) platform lime sand belt, 7) open platform (wackestone, mudstone), 8)
restricted platform, and 9) platform evaporites (sabkha). Reef wall facies are rare, being observed
in the Lower Cretaceous of Bu Hasa and the Oligocene of Bai Hassan, having elsewhere been
either been eroded, or missed as very narrow belts due to the low density of drilling. Detrital

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limestones associated with reefs are much more important than the latter both in relative bulk
and as oil carrier beds and reservoirs.

Figure 2b: Reef and associated facies belts on a rimmed shelf (Wilson, 1975).

Fringing reefs are found along the foreland shelf part of the Persian Gulf Basin (a margin sag-
interior sag basin) in limestones of the Miocene, Oligocene, Eocene, and Cretaceous
(Maastrichtian, Cenomanian and Aptian). The best known fringing reef in the Middle East
extends through the giant Kirkuk oil field of Iraq (Fig. 3) ranging in age from Middle Eocene to
Oligocene. The Kirkuk reefs are really compound fringing reefs.

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 Figure 3: Fringing reef (Oligocene) of Kirkuk oil field (Dunnington, 1958).

Reef wall limestone reservoirs are seen in the higher part of the Lower Cretaceous of the Bu
Hasa oil field of Abu Dhabi where 170m of rudist reef forms the core of this giant field (Harris,
1968; Wilson, 1975). They are also known in the Oligocene of the Bai Hassan oil field, where
44m of coral reef wall were encountered (van Bellenr, 1956).
Barrier reefs are as yet only rarely known despite the huge North African-Middle East Permian
to Cenozoic carbonate province. In the area between Kirkuk and Mosul in northern Iraq, Middle
Eocene reefs are classed as barrier reefs and pass northeastward into chemical limestones of a
wide, back reef lagoon (van Bellen, 1956). The Middle Eocene (Lutetian) limestones of the
Khurmala and Avanah domes in the Kirkuk oil field have developed as barrier reefs.

Bank reefs have developed over submerged tectonic uplifts and occur in the Upper Cretaceous
(Maastrichtian-Campanian) of northern Iraq and in the Lower to Middle Eocene and Oligocene
of western Syria (Henson, 1950).
Open reef shoals occur where patches of larger Foraminifera, such as Peneroplidae,
Amphisteginidae, Alveolinidae, and larger rotalids mix with Mollusca and Echinoidea to form
shell banks typically in the Tertiary carbonate formations of the Middle East, especially in Iran
and Iraq. They are also found in the fusulinid-coral shoal reef build-ups of the Upper Permian in
southern Iran (Fig. 4).

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Figure 4: Shoal reef biofacies (fusulinid-coral) Upper Permian, Iran (Edgell, 1977).
Diagrammatic biofacies cross-section of the Upper Permian from the Hejaz-Arabia-to the
Qashqai Sarhad-Iran.

Fore reef shoals are situated in shallow areas seaward of the fringing reef and the reef talus
(Facies 2 of Wilson, 1975), where there are high concentrations of larger Foraminifera. In the
Tertiary limestones of the region, major shoal reef forming organisms are Nummulitidae,
Lepidocyclinidae, Operculinidae, Miogypsinidae, and Alveolinidae, while in the Cretaceous
Orbitoididae and Orbitolinidae are the principal constituents of fore reef shoals. In the United
Arab Emirates and its offshore, a northerly belt of permeable Lower Cretaceous shoal grainstone
with abundant fragmented orbitolinids forms important oil reservoirs in the Bab and Zakum
fields.

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 Figure 5: Fore reef rudist detritus, Aptian, Bu Hasa oil field (Wilson, 1975).

Talus slope deposits consist of accumulated reef debris and broken shell fragments. Due to their
high porosity and permeability talus slope deposits probably account for more oil production in
the Middle East and North Africa than reef limestones. An example is the extensive fore reef
rudist detritus of the Bu Hasa oil field of Abu Dhabi (Fig. 5). The trend of this rudist reef build-

up and its fore reef facies is now well established in the eastern Persian Gulf and Arabia (Fig. 6).

Figure 6: Trend of rudist reef build-up in the Persian Gulf and Arabia (Alsharhan, 1985).

Atolls, similar to those of the South Pacific, such as Funafuti and Kanton islands, are as yet
unknown in the stratigraphic sequences of the Middle East and North Africa.
Reef knolls, probably better described as platform reefs, are known from the large Sirte Basin of
Libya, where they form the subcircular Paleocene coral-algal bioherms of the productive Intisar
(Idris) "A", "B", "C", "D", and "E" oil fields. Intisar "A" Field (Fig. 7a) was described by Terry

8
and Williams (1969). The Intisar "D" oil field is a typical example (Fig. 7b), being 5km in
diameter with an initial oil column of 291m, so that the buried reef was full to spill point. When
discovered in 1967 the initial well yielded 75,000 BOPD due to permeability as high as 500
millidarcies and srcinal stock tank oil in place was estimated at 1.8 billion barrels (Brady et alii,
1980). Similar productive platform reefs occur in the Paleocene of discovery wells in the A1-NC
29B and A1-NC 29C concessions of the northwestern Sirte Basin. They contain build-ups of

scleractinian corals and encrusting calcareous algae, solenoporoid algal reef growth of
Parachaetetes asvapatii Pia, and colonial madreporarian corals, such as Porites.

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Figure 7a: Platform reef, or reef knoll, of the Paleocene coral-algal Intisar "A" field, Libya
(Terry and William, 1969).

10
Figure 7b: Platform reef, or reef knoll, of the Paleocene coral-algal Intisar "D" field, Libya
(Brady et alii, 1980).

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These Paleocene platform reefs of Libya can be distinctly recognized on seismic profiles (Figs.
8a and 8b). Features are the convex shaped reef top, overlying drape, break-up of reflectors at the
reef edge, almost no continuity of reflectors through the reef mass, and velocity sag under the
reef due to lower velocity for reef limestones than surrounding rocks.

Figure 8a: Seismic cross-section of the Intisar "A" reef, Libya (Terry and William, 1969).

Development of reefs responds to eustatic sea level changes. With regressive or constant sea
levels the reef tends to prograde or builds out over its own talus deposits (Fig. 9a). With
gradually rising sea levels, reefs are trangressive and backstep or build shoreward over earlier
reef accumulations. An example of a regressive reef is the Lower Cretaceous (Shuaiba
Formation) rudist reef in Bu Hasa Field, Abu Dhabi, which has gradually built northward,
progading over its fore reef detritus. A transgressive reef building shoreward over its earlier back
reef lagoonal facies is seen in Kirkuk oil field where Middle Oligocene reef and fore reef
deposits have built shoreward over the earlier Lower Oligocene reef.

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Figure 8b: Seismic cross-section over crest of Intisar "D" platform reef, Libya (Brady et alii,
1980).

Figure 9a: Regressive and transgressive reef growth patterns (Henson, 1950).

13
Kendall and Schlager (1981) have recognized a number of different types of reef response to
eustatic changes of sea level under terms such as "give-up", "catch-up", "back-step", "keep-up",
"prograde", and "spillout" (Fig. 9b).

Figure 9b: Reef growth response to eustatic sea-level changes (Kendall et alii, 1991).

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Reef builders of the past in the Middle East and North Africa

Whereas the framework builders of present-day and Tertiary reefs are corals, and to a lesser
degree calcareous algae, those of earlier eras have been quite different. The earliest framework
builders of shallow shoal to intertidal reefs in the Middle East were stromatolites of the
Proterozoic. These occur in the Khufai, Buah and Ara formations of the up to 4000m thick Hugf
Group in Oman, where they form domal and columnar branching bioherms. In the Buah
Formation linked domal stromatolites are up to 5m wide and 3m high (Fig. 10), as well as
narrow erect columnar stromatolites (Gorin et alii, 1982; Wright et alii, 1990).

Figure 10: Stromatolitic domes, Proterozoic Buah Formation, Oman. The earliest reef builders
(Wright et alii, 1990).

In dolomites interbedded in the dominantly evaporitic Ara Formation, columnar stromatolites

have been obvious framework builders (Fig. 11), and show considerable oil staining in
intercrystalline pores of the stromatolite laminae (Hughes-Clarke, 1988), indicative of the
Proterozoic srcin of oil in Oman (Edgell, 1991, 1996). These columnar stromatolites and their
entrapped sediment can be classified as the reef forming rock bafflestone (Embry and Klovan,
1972), where stalked organisms have grown up trapping sediment between them.

15
Figure 11: Columnar oil-stained Proterozoic stromatolites, Ara Formation, Oman as reef
framework builders (Hughes-Clarke, 1988).

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Siliciclastic deposits represent the Lower Paleozoic in the Middle East and most of North Africa
and there is a regional hiatus throughout the Arabian Platform and southern Iran, whereby
Devonian and Carboniferous strata are rarely present.
Permian limestones and dolomites of the Khuff Formation in Arabia are mainly platform
carbonates but their much thicker lateral equivalent in southern Iran is the Dalan Formation. This
thick carbonate formation thickens towards the northeast to over 1000m and extends as reefoid

or shoal reef limestone in a belt over 2000km long and 75km wide from Kuh-e Gahkum behind
Bandar Abbas to Kermanshah and the Iran / Iraq border and beyond into northeast Iraq and
southeast Turkey. This belt reaches a thickness of 1074m in Ushtaran Kuh and 1075m in Zard
Kuh in the High Zagros Ranges and has been described by Edgell (1977) as the fusulinid-coral
shoal reef facies of the Dalan Formation. It contains abundant rock-forming fusulinids, such as
Parafusulina, Neoschwagerina, Afghanella, and Eopolydiexodina (Fig. 12), together with the
tetracorals Iranophyllum, Stylidophyllum, Waagenophyllum and Wentzelella, as well as
numerous calcareous algae like Mizzia and Permocalculus. Although the thick reef facies of
these folded Permian carbonates in Iran and Iraq offer good hydrocarbon reservoir potential,
wells have not been drilled in them because of difficulty of access in the rugged terrain of the
High Zagros Ranges. However, the restricted, back reef Permian carbonate shelf of southern Iran
contains many long, narrow, doubly-plunging anticlinal folds. These have been found to contain
immense quantities of natural gas in the Kangan, Aghar, Nar, Varavi, Mand, and Dalan gas
fields, as well as oil in the latter. The large, offshore, diapiric Pars Field also contains very large
amounts of gas in Permian reservoirs. Reserves of these Permian gas fields are conservatively
estimated at 13.5 trillion cubic feet, or oil equivalent of 19 billion barrels (Carmalt and St. John,
1986). The huge North Field of offshore Qatar and offshore Iran is estimated to contain 300
trillion cubic feet of gas in the same Upper Permian reservoir carbonates of restricted to marine,
neritic environments. This is the oil equivalent of approximately 50 billion barrels.

Figure 12: Fusulinid shoal facies from the Permian Dalan Formation, Iran, with
Eopolydiexodina and Neoschwagerina (Sampo, 1969).

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Although Jurassic limestones form some of the most important oil reservoirs in the Middle East,
they do not seem to be developed in reef facies but owe their productivity to areas of highly
porous, high-energy grainstones covering much of the Arabian Shelf.
In the Lower and Middle Cretaceous of the Middle East and North Africa the dominant
framework reef builders in reefs have been the rudists. These peculiar, asymmetrical pelecypods,
with a coral-like appearance, grew in colonies in the shallow, warm waters of the Cretaceous,
especially during the Lower and Middle Cretaceous (Albian-Turonian). They built reefs and
formed oil reservoirs, such as that of the giant Bu Hasa oil field in Abu Dhabi (Fig. 5), where a
rudist reef in the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) Shuaiba Limestone reaches a thickness of 170m.
This rudist reef extends in a subcircular pattern through the eastern Persian Gulf and eastern
Arabia (Fig. 6). It also includes the oil fields of Sirri (offshore Iran), Idd al Shargi (offshore
Qatar), Safah (Oman), Wadi Rafashi (Oman), Al Huwaisah (Oman), Yibal (Oman), Shah (Abu
Dhabi) and the giant Shaybah-Zarrara Field (mostly in Saudi Arabia but extending into Abu
Dhabi).
Large rudists, such as Radiolites (Fig. 13), Durania, and Sphaerulites were also important reef
builders in the Cenomanian Bangestan Group of the Karun Shelf in southwest Iran and
contribute to the Cretaceous oil reservoir of Hakt Kel oil field.

Figure 13: Reef-forming rudist (Radiolites) from Sarvak Formation, Cenomanian, south Iran.

18
Rudists have also built up shoal banks or reefs in the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Barremian) of
the eastern Kirkuk oil field, where they form the so-called 'Second Pay'. In the Augila oil field of
the eastern Sirte Basin in Libya, Cretaceous fringing reefs flank granitic basement highs ( Fig. 14)
and their fore reef debris forms significant oil reservoirs.

Figure 14: Fringing Upper Cretaceous rudist reef reservoirs flanking basement highs, Augila oil
field, Sirte Basin, eastern Libya (Williams, 1968).

Upper Cretaceous deposits throughout most of southern Iran, Iraq and North Africa are

predominantly marly.
rudist Hippurites and Neritic to shoal reefbuilders,
other framework limestones of as
such thisthe
agelarger
occurForaminifera
in western Iraq with the
Orbitoides,
Omphalocyclus, and Loftusia. These contribute to the reservoir limestones of the Qaiyarah oil
field of Iraq, which contains large quantities of heavy sulphurous oil.
In the lowermost Tertiary (Paleocene) of Libya, local build-ups of scleractinian and
madreporarian corals, together with abundant calcareous algae (Fig. 15), form subcircular reef
knolls, or platform reefs, which act as excellent oil reservoir rocks.

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Figure 15: Palaeocene coral-algal reef facies of reservoir limestones in A1-NC 29B field, Sirte
Basin, north central Libya.

Middle and Upper Eocene limestones are widespread throughout the Middle East and North
Africa. They are often developed as thick shoal reef limestones composed mainly of Nummulites
(Fig. 16), with other larger Foraminifera, such as Discocyclina, and Asterigerina. In the northeast
part of the Kirkuk oil field (Khurmala Dome) such a shoal reef facies occurs forming a lower
part of the productive "Main Limestone". Similarly, in North Africa, the Middle Eocene
nummulitic shoal limestones of the Upper Gialo Limestone form the principal oil reservoir in the
Gialo Field of the southeastern Sirte Basin (Barr and Weegar, 1972).

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Figure 16: Middle Eocene nummulitic shoal reef facies with Nummulites gizehensis, N.
aturicus, and Discocyclina sp. Oil reservoir in Kirkuk and Bushgan fields (Sampo, 1969).

Oligocene reef, back reef, and fore reef limestones are the major oil reservoir beds of the "Main
Limestone" in Iraq and are well-known in the giant Kirkuk oil field. The Lower Oligocene back
reef and reef sequence was succeeded by transgressive Middle Oligocene back reef, reef and fore
reef facies, so that the later reef complex was deposited on the older reef complex. The main
framework builders in the reef and back reef were the larger Foraminifera Archaias kirkukensis,

and Praerhapidionina
hensoni delicata, with
together with peneroplids like the miliolids
Peneroplis Austrotrillina
evolutus howchini
in the back and( Heterotrillina
reef facies Fig. 17). In the
Oligocene fore reef, numerous Lepidocyclina and Nummulites intermedius occur. There is 44m
of real Oligocene coral reef in the Bai Hassan oil field of Iraq, taken to represent the reef wall
(van Bellen, 1956). However, in the Kirkuk area only fragments of reef organisms were found,
since the reef apparently moved forward to the southwest, crumbling the reef material behind.

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Figure 17: Oligocene back reef facies reservoir limestone, Kirkuk oil field with miliolids and
peneroplids (van Bellen, 1956).

The Asmari Limestone of Oligo-Miocene age occurs widely throughout southern Iran where it is
the major oil reservoir. Although Hull and Warman (1970) claim that this formation contains no
reef material, a coralline Upper Oligocene reef facies of the Asmari occurs in the High Zagros
Ranges (Sampo, 1969) in the vicinity of the Shurom oil field (Fig. 18).

Figure 18: Upper Oligocene reefal coral biolithic dolomite, Asmari Formation, High Zagros,
southern Iran. Reservoir rocks in Shurom oil field (Sampo, 1969).

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Also, Thomas (1950) has shown that reef development has taken place in the lower and middle
part of the Asmari Limestone in the prolific Gachsaran oil field. In this field, bryozoan-algal
shoal reef facies occurs, with Lithophyllum and Lithothamnion as the most important reef
builder (Fig. 19), together with Cycloclypeus and Lepidocyclina. Extending over at least
2000km, the Asmari Limestone is time-transgressive, being entirely Oligocene just north of the
Strait of Hormuz, Oligo-Miocene in the central part of southern Iran and Lower to Middle

Miocene on the Iran-Iraq border. It passes into Iraq, and is the main oil producing horizon in the
Jambur oil field, south of Kirkuk, where it is known as the Euphrates Limestone. Limestones of
the Asmari Formation are also productive in eastern Syria, where they are known locally as the
Jeribe Formation. They also extend into western coastal Lebanon with abundant reef algae, such
as Archaeolithothamnium, Corallina, Lithoporella, Lithothamnion, and Mesophyllum (Edgell
and Basson, 1975). Southeastward, the Asmari Limestone is found underlying the eastern
Persian Gulf and in the U.A.E. It also occurs in the downfaulted part of coastal Dhofar, Oman, as
an Oligocene shoal facies, nummulitic limestone (Edgell, 1955).

Figure 19: Miocene algal reef facies with Lithothamnion, southern Iran.

Miocene algal reef limestones of the so-called 'Nullipore Limestone', actually a Lithothamnion
reef accumulation, also form productive oil reservoir rocks in the Ras Gharib oil field (Fig. 20) in
an upfaulted block on the western side of the Gulf of Suez beneath a seal of the Miocene
Evaporite Group.

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Figure 20: Miocene Lithothamnion algal reef limestone reservoir, Ras Gharib oil field, western
Gulf of Suez (modified from Morgan - Barkouly, 1956).

Contribution of reef limestones to oil and gas reserves in the Middle East and North Africa

More than two-thirds of all the world's oil reserves are found in the Middle East and North
Africa. This amounts to some 830 billion barrels of ultimate recoverable oil, counting the
reserves of Saudi Arabia as being substantially larger than those officially given. In attempting to
assess the contribution of reef limestones in this region, recoverable oil reserves in reef facies of
all kinds have been considered, including fringing reef, barrier reef, platform reef, reef wall, back
reef, fore reef, and shoal reef facies.
The total ultimate recoverable oil reserves from carbonate reservoirs of all types of reef facies
are estimated to be about 64 billion barrels. Thus, only a little over 7.5% of recoverable oil in the
Middle East and North Africa is contained in reef or reef related limestone reservoirs. To keep
this in perspective, it should be added that oil reservoirs of the Middle East and North Africa
contain more than 18 times the known recoverable oil reserves of Australia and its offshore
areas, and considerably more than the known oil reserves of the Far East and Australasia.
Gas reserves from reef or reef related carbonates in the Middle East and North Africa are
difficult to estimate. This is because gas reserves are rarely given independently and all oil
produced yields a large amount of associated gas. All carbonate reservoirs in the Middle East and

24
North Africa contain huge gas reserves estimated at 1255 trillion cubic feet. If, as with oil
reserves, only a little over 7.5% are from ancient reef facies, this would still mean that over 96
trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in the region are from reef, or reef related reservoirs. This is
more than the very substantial gas reserves known in Australia and its continental shelf.

Conclusions

A review of carbonate reservoir rocks in the oil fields of the Middle East and North Africa shows
that almost all types of reef facies can be recognized in the subsurface, although barrier reefs are
rare, and atolls as yet unknown. Most of the oil in various reef facies is found in reservoirs of
Cretaceous and Tertiary age. However, oil has been found as far back as the Late Precambrian in
Proterozoic stromatolitic dolomites of Oman, where they form a few small oil fields, such as
Birba, Amal South and Athel fields (Edgell, 1991), and some of the earliest bioherms.
Framework builders of ancient reefs have often been quite different from those of the present-
day. They have included stromatolites, fusulinids, tetracorals, rudists, larger Foraminifera, and
various types of calcareous algae.
Slightly more the than 7.5% of the ultimate recoverable oil reserves of this immense carbonate
province is contained in reef or reef related limestones. This is estimated to be nearly 64 billion
barrels of ultimate recoverable oil reserves, considerably more than that known from the entire
Far East and Australasia. Gas reserves in limestones of reef facies in the region are comparable
to the very large gas reserves known from Australia and its offshore fields.
A low density of exploratory drilling and inadequate knowledge of subsurface reef reservoir
facies and their distribution may partly explain the relatively low percentage of oil reserves
known in reef facies in the Middle East and North Africa. Other factors are the emphasis on
structure drilling, and the large amounts of oil found in diapir, or basement induced anticlines, as
well as in folded and fractured limestone reservoirs. Perhaps the most compelling reason is that
the majority of carbonates in the region appear to have been formed as shelf, carbonate ramp
deposits without bordering reefs, or with very narrow reef environments.
Nevertheless, subsurface reef facies offer very attractive oil prospects in future oil exploration in
the Middle East and North Africa. This can be judged from the giant Kirkuk oil field of Iraq with
17 billion barrels of reserves and the Bu Hasa and Shaybah-Zarrara oil fields of Abu Dhabi and
eastern Saudi Arabia, each with reserves of at least 8 billion barrels. Even small buried platform
reefs provide very rewarding exploration prospects, as shown by the approximately 5km
diameter Paleocene Intisar "D" platform reef in Libya with an initial 1.8 billion barrels of oil
reserves. Reef limestone reservoirs generally have good porosity and permeability, thick oil
columns and prolific production.

References

Alsharhan, A.S. 1985. Depositional Environment, Reservoir Unit Evolution, and Hydrocarbon
Habitat of Shuaiba formation, Lower Cretaceous, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Amer.
Assoc. Petrol. Geologists, Bull., v. 69, no. 6, pp. 899-912.

25
Alsharhan, A.S., and Nairn, A.E.M. 1986. A review of the Cretaceous formations in the Arabian
Peninsula and the Gulf: Part 1. Lower Cretaceous (Thamama Group), stratigraphy and
paleogeography, Journal of Petroleum Geology, v. 9, no. 1, pp. 365-392.

Barr, F.T., and Weegar, A.A. 1972. Stratigraphic Nomenclature of the Sirte Basin, Libya,
Petroleum Exploration Society of Libya, 179 p., Tripoli, Libya.

Brady, T.J., Campbell, N.D.J., and Maher, C.E. 1980. Intisar 'D' oil field, Libya, in Halbouty,
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Edgell, H.S. 1955. Stratigraphy and Paleontology of Dhofar, Oman (unpublished report).

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paleoecologic zones, Geol. Rundschau, v. 61, pp. 672-686.

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field, Abu Dhabi, Second Regional Technical Symposium, Society of Petroleum Engineers,
Dhahran, pp. 149-187.

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Middle East, Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geologists, Bull. 34, pp. 215-238.

26
Hughes-Clarke, M.W. 1988. Stratigraphy and rock-unit nomenclature in the oil-producing area
of Oman, Journal of Petroleum Geology, v. 11, pp. 5-60.

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27
Wilson, J.L. 1975. Carbonate Facies in Geologic History, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 471 p.

Wright, V.P., Ries, A.C., and Munn, S.G. 1990. Intraplatformal basin-fill deposits from the
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The author

Professor Henry Stewart EDGELL (23/9/1927 - 13/4/2010)

Colin Edgell

Building: Bâtiment Esclangon

Room: Amphi Astier
Date: 2010-09-02 11:20 AM – 11:30 AM
Last modified: 2010-08-26

Professor Henry Stewart Edgell passed away in April 2010 at his home in Canberra, Australia.
He is survived by his wife and two sons. In his 80's he remained extremely passionate about

geology in particular
career. In the geology
his retirement of the Middle-East
he published a lengthy where he had spent
text Arabian a long
Deserts and distinguished
Nature, Origin and
Evolution (Springer 2006) and more recently had been working on a comprehensive
bibliography of the geology of the Middle-East. Professionally he will be remembered by
colleagues for his expertise, enthusiasm and generosity in sharing knowledge and information.
He will also be remembered by the many geology students (at universities in New Zealand,
Lebanon, Iran, Libya and Saudi Arabia) who he taught and inspired by his love of geology.
Professor Henry Stewart Edgell (known as Stewart) was born in Hobart, Australia. His interest in
geology started as a school boy collecting rocks and fossils. He attended the University of
Sydney and graduated with first class honours. After some years working for the Australian
Bureau of Mineral Resources (now the Australian Geological Survey Organisation), he travelled
to the USA and completed his PhD in geology at Stanford University. After attending Stanford,
Stewart worked for Richfield Oil Corporation mapping Utah and Idaho for prospective oil

structures as well
Richfield then as undertaking
selected site
him as their work ininthe
geologist Williston
a new and Ventura
concession in southbasins
Oman in
forWyoming.
which he
made the first geological map as well as helping to locate the Marmul oil field. Stewart's time in
Oman began a life-long love of the Middle-East, its people and its geology. It was during his
next position working for BP in south-west Iran that he met and married his wife Golbahar.
During his time in the Middle-East he became fluent in both Arabic and Farsi.
After 5 years in Iran, he returned to Australia to work for the Geological Survey of Western
Australia to establish their laboratory and undertake field work in the Kimberleys, Pilbara and
Perth basin. Returning to the Middle- East, Stewart was professor of geology at the American
University of Beirut for five years. In 1970 he was a UN economic geology expert and visiting
professor at the Center for Applied Geology, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. From 1971 to 1979 he was
professor of geology at Shiraz University - with a 2 year intervening period as chief
paleontologist for Occidental Oil Company in Libya. From 1979 to 1981 he was a professor in

geology at Garunis university in Benghazi, Libya. He returned to Australia in 1981 and worked
28
for Bass Strait Oil and Gas and then Occidental. In 1981 he joined ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia
and from 1986 to 1993 he was professor of geology at King Fahd University of Petroleum and
Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. In addition to his textbook Arabian Deserts - Nature, Origin
and Evolution, Stewart was the author of 40 geological publications. Throughout his career he
undertook geological consultancy work on projects throughout the world. Outside of his
professional work his hobbies were archeology, gardening, current-affairs and technology.
Professor Henry Stewart Edgell's substantial contribution to the study of the geology of the
Middle-East will be a lasting professional legacy.

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