Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T16:04:27.313Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A petrographic study of the Rotliegendes Sandstone reservoir (Lower Permian) in the Rough Gas Field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

M. W. Goodchild  and
J. H. McD. Whitaker
M. W. Goodchild
Affiliation:
British Gas Plc, 59 Bryanston Street, London W1A 2AZ, and Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The diagenetic history of the Rotliegendes Sandstone reservoir in the Rough Gas Field was studied using thin-sections, XRD analyses and SEM. The Rotliegendes comprises a sequence of fine-grained fluvial sheet-flood sandstones and coarse, gravelly, low-sinuosity channel sandstones, with thin aeolian interbeds, overlain by a sequence of aeolian dune and interdune sandstones. Early, environmentally-related diagnesis (eogenesis) shows a marked variability with sedimentary facies. Within aeolian sandstones, poikilotopic anhydrite and fine, rhombic dolomite are preserved. Fluvially-derived sandstones typically contain infiltrated detrital clays and early authigenic mixed-layer clays, together with coarse, framework-displacive dolomite. Feldspars show varying degrees of alteration within all facies. These eogenetic features reflect patterns of groundwater movement during the Rotliegendes and early Zechstein. Mineral dissolution and precipitation were controlled by the chemistry of the groundwaters. Burial diagenetic (mesogenetic) features are superimposed on eogenetic cements. Authigenic clays have been converted to illitic clays. In addition, mesogenetic chlorite has formed and quartz and strongly ferroan dolomite cements are recognized. These minerals may be related to clay diagenesis within the underlying Carboniferous Coal Measures. Early, framework-supporting anyhdrite, and both phases of dolomite, have been partially dissolved, creating secondary porosity. This is attributed to the action of acidic porewaters, generated by the maturation of organic material within the Carboniferous. Post-dissolution kaolinite, gypsum and minor pyrite infill secondary pores. Gas emplacement from the Late Cretaceous onwards effectively halted further diagenetic reactions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1986 , pp. 459 - 477
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albrandt, T.S. & Fryberger, S.G. (1982) Introduction to aeolian deposits. In: Sandstone Depositional Environments (Scholle, P. A. and Spearing, D., editors). Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Memoir 31, 410 pp.Google Scholar
Boles, J.R. (1981) Clay diagenesis and effects on sandstone cementation (case histories from the Gulf Coast Tertiary). Pp. 143–168 in: Clays and the Resource Geologist (Longstaffe, F. J., editor). Min. Ass. Can., Short Course Hdbk. 7.Google Scholar
Boles, J.R. & Franks, S.G. (1979) Clay diagenesis in Wilcox Sandstones of southwest Texas: implications of smectite diagenesis on sandstone cementation. J. Sedim. Petrol. 49, 55–70.Google Scholar
Burley, S.D. (1984) Distribution and origin of authigenic minerals in the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group, UK. Clay Miner. 19, 403–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, C.D. (1983a) Geochemistry of porosity reduction and enhancement in clastic sediments: In: Petroleum Geochemistry and Exploration of Europe. (Brooks, J., editor). Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 12, 379 pp.Google Scholar
Curtis, C.D. (1983b) A link between aluminium mobility and destruction of secondary porosity. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull. 67, 380–384.Google Scholar
Foscolos, A.E. & Powell, T.G. (1979) Catagenesis in shales and occurrence of authigenic clay in sandstone, North Sabine well H-49, Canadian Artic Islands. Can. J. Earth. Sci. 16, 1309–1314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fryberger, S.G., Al-Sari, A.M. & Clisham, T.J. (1983) Eolian dune, interdune, sand sheet and siliciclastic sabkha sediments of an offshore prograding sand sea. Dhahran area, Saudi Arabia. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull. 67, 280–312.Google Scholar
Glennie, K.W. (1970) Desert Sedimentary Environments (Developments in Sedimentology 14). Elsevier, Amsterdam. 222 pp.Google Scholar
Glennie, K.W. (1984a) The structural framework and the pre-Permian history of the North Sea area. In: Introduction to the Petroleum Geology of the North Sea (Glennie, K. W., editor). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. 236 pp.Google Scholar
Glennie, K.W. (1984b) Early Permian-Rotliegendes. In: Introduction to the Petroleum Geology of the North Sea (Glennie, K. W., editor). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. 236 pp.Google Scholar
Glennie, K.W., Mudd, G.C. & Nagtegaal, P.J.C. (1977) Depositional environment and diagenesis of Permian Rotliegendes sandstones in Leman Bank and Sole Pit areas of the UK Southern North Sea. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 135, 25–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodchild, M.W. & Bryant, P.B. (1986) The geology of the Rough Gas Field. In: The Habitat of Palaeozoic Gas in N.W. Europe (Brook, J., Goff, J. and van Horne, B., editors). Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Hower, J., Eslinger, E.V., Hower, M.E. & Perry, E.A. (1976) Mechanism of burial metamorphism of argillaceous sediments: 1. Mineralogical and geochemical evidence. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 87, 725–737.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moncure, G.K., Lahann, R.W. & Siebert, R.M. (1984) Origin of secondary porosity and cement distribution in a sandstone/shale sequence from the Frio Formation (Oligocene). In: Clastic Diagenesis (McDonald, D. A. and Surdam, R. C., editors). Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Memoir 37, 434 pp.Google Scholar
Patterson, R.J. & Kinsman, D.J.J. (1977) Marine and continental groundwater sources in a Persian Gulf coastal Sabkha. Pp. 381–397 in: Studies in Geology 4, Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol.Google Scholar
Perry, E. & Hower, J. (1970) Burial diagenesis in Gulf Coast pelitic sediments. Clays Clay Miner. 18, 165–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossel, N.C. (1982) Clay mineral diagenesis in Rotliegendes aeolian sandstones of the Southern North Sea. Clay Miner. 17, 69–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, V. & McDonald, D.A. (1979a) The role of secondary porosity in the course of sandstone diagenesis. Pp. 175–207 in: Aspects of Diagenesis (Scholle, P. A. and Schluger, P. R., editors). Spec. Publ. Soc. Econ. Miner. Paleont., Tulsa, 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, V. & McDonald, D.A. (1979b) Texture and recognition of secondary porosity in sandstones. Pp. 209–225 in: Aspects of Diagenesis (Scholle, P. A. and Schluger, P. R., editors). Spec. Publ. Soc. Econ. Miner. Paleont., Tulsa, 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreiber, B.C. (1986) Arid shorelines and evaporites. In: Sedimentary Environment and Facies (2nd ed.) (Reading, H. G., editor). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. 614 pp.Google Scholar
Seeman, U. (1982) Depositional facies, diagenetic clay minerals and reservoir quality in Rotliegendes sediments in the southern Permian Basin (North Sea): a review. Clay Miner. 17, 55–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surdam, R.C., Boese, S.W. & Crossey, L.J. (1984) The chemistry of secondary porosity. In: Clastic Diagenesis (McDonald, D. A. and Surdam, R. C., editors). Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Memoir 37, 434 pp.Google Scholar
Taylor, J.C.M. & Colter, V.S. (1974) Zechstein of the English sector of the Southern North Sea basin. In: Petroleum and the Continental Shelf of North West Europe, 1, Geology (Woodland, A. W., editor). Applied Science Publishers, Barking, Essex, 501 pp.Google Scholar
Walker, T.R. (1967) Formation of red beds in modern and ancient sediments. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 78, 353–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, T.R. (1976) Diagenetic origin of continental red beds. In: The Continental Permian in West, Central and South Europe (Falke, H., editor). Reidel Publ Co., Dordrecht, Holland. 352 pp.Google Scholar
Walker, T.R., Waugh, B. & Crone, A.J. (1978) Diagenesis in first cycle desert alluvium of Cenozoic age. southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 89, 19–32.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar