Diagenetic history and hydrocarbon potential of Upper Permian carbonate buildups, Wegener Halvoe area, Jameson Land basin, east Greenland

Journal Article · Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:5682553

Scholle, P A; Ulmer, D S ^[1]; Stemmerik, L ^[2]

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1. Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX (United States)
2. Greenland Geological Survey, Copenhagen (Denmark)

The Upper Permian of Jameson Land includes two carbonate sequences, the Karstryggen and Wegener Halvoe formations. The Karstryggen Formation contains hypersaline carbonates and localized evaporites that were heavily weathered and dissected prior to deposition of the overlying strata. The overlying Wegener Halvoe Formation represents an abrupt and extensive marine inundation over the underlying karstified Karstryggen surface. Bryozoan-brachiopod-algal-cement buildups of the Wegener Halvoe Formation are localized on karstic highs, and show up to 150 m of depositional relief. The diagenetic histories of the core and flank facies are very different. Core facies porosity was initially obliterated by marine cements, but repeated meteoric exposure altered unstable core facies constituents. This alteration produced extensive secondary porosity through grain and cement leaching with local collapse brecciation. Flank strata, however, underwent little sea-floor diagenesis, and low permeability and mineralogically stable grain composition protected these strata from meteoric alteration. Subsequent fracturing and hydrothermal fluid flow, however, flushed hydrocarbons and filled pores with ferroan calcite, barite, fluorite, galena, and baroque dolomite. This heating and flushing is thought to have been especially intense in the Wegener Halvoe region; thus, more basinal areas may still have reservoirs containing significant oil in equivalent Upper Permian limestones. If, as is likely, the sea level changes affecting the Greenland Permian were eustatic, then this study may provide significant clues to porosity development throughout the largely unexplored northern Zechstein basin and the Arctic basin of the Barent Sea. This study also provides some important connections to the probably time-equivalent Guadalupian carbonate reservoir rocks of west Texas-New Mexico and Wyoming.

• OSTI ID: 5682553
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States), Vol. 75:4; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
GREENLAND
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
RESERVOIR ROCK
DIAGENESIS
PETROLEUM GEOLOGY
CARBONATE ROCKS
EVAPORITES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
LITHOLOGY
MINERALOGY
PERMIAN PERIOD
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
MINERAL RESOURCES
PALEOZOIC ERA
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration