Managing clastic reservoir heterogeneity I: sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the Minjur Sandstone at the Khashm-al-Khalta type locality (Central Saudi Arabia)

Abstract : The Late Triassic (Norian–Rhaetian) Minjur Sandstone provides a remarkable case study for understanding and modelling the spatial distribution of sand bodies in a fluvial-deltaic system. As such it has been studied in connection with the geological storage of CO2 in complex heterogeneous formations. Detailed sedimentological mapping of the formation’s vertical and lateral variations in and around the type section at Khashm al Khalta (Khashm al Minjur), which is the area of interpreted maximum inlet/outlet activity, has provided a relatively detailed picture of the sequence stratigraphy. As originally described, shallow-marine flooding with the development of tidal mud flats and carbonate facies occurred near the middle of the formation, splitting it into a lower member dominated by subtidal, brackish and scattered fluvial environments, and an upper member marked by the appearance of meandering point bars capped upward by very proximal deposits forming thick (20 m) coarse-grained sandstone bars that can be followed over several kilometers. The general trend at formation scale is thus upward thickening and coarsening sedimentation related to an increasing clastic influx and the development of fluvial systems, with the fluvial upper member being dominated by amalgamated sand bars. The sequence stratigraphy indicates nine depositional sequences involving four depositional environments: sabkha, tidal, estuarine and fluvial-continental. The lower Minjur is a transgressive tract of four sequences of which Sequence 4 reflects maximum flooding and correlates with maximum flooding surface (MFS) Middle Norian Tr80. Sequence 5 corresponds to a meander system at the base of the upper Minjur, and is followed by sequences 6 to 9 reflecting an increasing clastic influx generating amalgamated coarse-grained bars. The upper Minjur thus represents a highstand systems tract.