Petroleum Characteristics And Its Resource Potential In The Oman Basin,Oman

Oman basin is located in the southeast of the Arabian Plate,the greatest part of it lies onshore Oman,its southern most edge extends into Yemen and its northern extent crosses the UAE states into offshore Iran.Oman basin is the most oil and gas enrichment passive continental margin basin in the Middle East.It is also the world's famous oil and gas bearing basin,which developed the Precambrian-Lower Cambrian source rocks and reservoirs.In the regional structure,the northern boundary of the basin is formed by the frontal nappes of the Oman Mountains,The eastern limit is formed by the crest of the Huqf Arch.The southern limit of the basin is the crest of the Qara Arch.To the west,the Oman Basin is separated from the Rub' al Khali Basin by the Butabul-Zauliyah,Ghudun-Khasfah and Lekhwair highs.Other sub-provinces are the Fahud,Ghaba and South Oman Salt Sub-basins,Makarem-Mabrouk High,Eastern Flank and Suneinah Foredeep.The basin has experienced six distinct tectonic evolution stages: Late Precambrian-Early Cambrian rifting stage,The Cambrian – Silurian intracratonic sag stage,Devonian-Carboniferous foreland basin evolution stage,Late Carboniferous-Early Triassic craton depression stage,Triassic-Late Cretaceous passive continental margin stage and the Late Cretaceous-Tertiary foreland basin evolution stage.The Oman basin is characterized by the development of the salt basin and ancient hydrocarbon source rocks.Four key source rocks supply a large amount of hydrocarbons to Oman Basin reservoirs: the source rock of the Sinian-Lower Cambrian Huqf Supergroup,The marine shale in the Lower Silurian Sahmah Formation of the Safiq Group,Organic rich limestone in the Upper Jurassic Hanifa/Diyab formations and the source rock consist of shale and argillaceous limestone of the Cenomanian Natih Formation.There are four petroleum systems present in the basin: the Diyab-Kahmah Petroleum System,the Huqf-Andam/Haushi Petroleum System,the Natih-Natih Petroleum System and the Safiq-Haushi Petroleum System.Resource evaluation of the Oman basin shows that,the undiscovered reserves may be 6672 MMboe,accounts for 19% of the total resources of the basin.The Oman Basin is very unevenly explored.The Eastern Flank may be mature,but many sub-basins have only been lightly explored.Potential is considered to remain in the following proven plays: the Ara and the Pre-salt Huqf Group Plays in the South Oman Salt Sub-basin,the Gharif and Al Khlata Formation Plays in North Oman,the Khuff Formation Play and the Haima Group Play.