- Title
- Reservoir rock preoperty and hydrocarbon potentieal in the offshore gamtoos and algoa basins, South Africa
- Creator
- Mokoele, Salmina Phuti
- Subject
- Hydrocarbon reservoirs
- Subject
- South Africa -- Gamtoos River
- Subject
- Gamtoos Estuary (South Africa)
- Date
- 2022-07
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27981
- Identifier
- vital:71409
- Description
- Various research methods were employed to evaluate reservoir rock properties and source rock maturity for hydrocarbon potential in the offshore Gamtoos and Algoa basins, including lithostratigraphy, facies analysis, petrography, geophysics, geochemistry and basin modelling. Sedimentary facies were identified in the Gamtoos Basin along with their inferred depositional systems, mainly from the synrift I and II successions. This was also supplemented by lithostratigraphic evaluation of 12 wells across the study area. Facies analysis was applied to describe different rock types with depositional signatures by using the following parameters: grain fabric/texture, primary sedimentary structures, and fossil contents. Different types of lithofacies and biofacies were recorded indicating variations in bioturbation from low to high intensities. The results revealed a total of 15 types of facies from five cores, which were further subdivided into 8 types of sandstones, 3 types of siltstones, 3 types of mudstones and 1 type of conglomerate. Furthermore, five facies associations FA1 to FA5 were recognized from core evaluation: hemipelagite facies association, fine-grained, thinly bedded heterolithic sandstone-mudstone facies association (low-density turbidity flows), medium to coarse grained massive sandstone facies association high-density turbidity flows, debrites hybrid facies association and coarse grained conglomerate facies association. In terms of lithostratigraphic sequence, they correspond with fine- to medium-grained massive sandstone units of the Ta division, horizontal laminated sandstone units of the Tb division, fine to medium grained wavy laminated sandstone units of the Tc division, parallel laminated siltstones intercalated with fine grained ripple and lenticular sandstones of the Tc to Td divisions and fine grained massive, bedded siltstone units of the Te division. Both the Gamtoos and Algoa offshore basins comprise wells with proven source rock presence. Results from geochemical evaluations have revealed the presence of significant quantities of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (Kimmeridgian, Tithonian, Berriasian, Valanginian and Hauterivian) source rock intervals. The wells used for this research intersected a total of 25 source rocks across the various age groups with an average thickness of 70 m. Source rocks with hydrocarbon potentials were intersected at Kimmeridgian, Tithonian, Berriasian, Valanginian and Hauterivian successions. The source rocks indicate good to excellent quality of hydrocarbons with the potential to generate both oil to gas. For example, Tithonian source rock shows a tremendous petroleum generation potential with mostly type II (oil prone) and type II/III (oil to gas prone) kerogen. The data suggests that the Tithonian source rock was mainly deposited in marine depositional settings with planktons being the main source of kerogen. Some of the kerogen could have originated from limited quantities of algae (marine settings) and terrestrial plants. The source rock indicates a potential to generate variable hydrocarbons from oil, wet gas and dry gas. The Kimmeridgian and Tithonian source rocks range from main oil window to post gas mature zone. In the south-eastern part of the offshore Gamtoos Basin, deep marine shale source rocks were deposited between the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian age and these marine conditions continued throughout the synrift stage. The Algoa Basin indicates the deposition of deep-water shale source rocks resulting from a transgression period. The Berriasian source rock indicates a range in maturity from the early oil to gas windows in the Gamtoos graben between 126 Ma and present day. The source rock further shows a maximum transformation ratio of 100 percent at well Ha-D1 in the Gamtoos Basin. The Valanginian source rock indicates a range in maturity from early to late oil windows in the Algoa Basin with extremely low rates of transformation at a maximum of 24.67 percentage at well Hb-B1. The Hauterivian source rock dominantly plots within the early to main oil windows with vitrinite values between 0.6 and 0.8 percent. Results obtained from this research indicate the presence of moderate to good quality source rocks from the Kimmeridgian, Tithonian, Berriasian, Valanginian and Hauterivian. Majority of the source rocks have type III kerogen which is most likely to generate gas. The study area shows the presence of good quality source rocks with good petroleum generation potentials. The source rocks also show the ability to generate and expel hydrocarbons. The deeper sections of the grabens indicate high maturity levels with source rocks dominantly in the gas and late oil windows while the flanks are indicative of lower maturity stages between early and main oil windows. The best source rocks were mainly intersected and modelled from the synrift section while the upper transitional to drift sections indicate good quality reservoir rocks. The upper sections of the study area show a tremendous improvement in the quality of the reservoirs with porosity levels recorded to be up to 26 percent. The porosity levels increase up to 17 percent at well Ha-B2. This generally improved the potential for good reservoirs in the area from what has been intersected by the wells to the entire study area with the presence of effective traps and seals. The influence of hydrothermal alteration and chlorite cementation is quite low at these shallower sequences which further improved the quality of these reservoirs. Some of the sandstones intersected from the synrift sections range from very fine to coarse grained in texture with very low permeability and porosity due to extensive carbonate cementation, and also affected by hydrothermal alteration resulted from the extensive faulting in the area.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 2022
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xxii, 276 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Geology
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | PhD thesis-Final version-S. Mokoele.pdf | 40 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |