The Permo-Triassic section at Wadi Bih and Wadi Hagil in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates

Kamal, Rami A. (Saudi Aramco - [email protected]), Ian M. Billing (Saudi Aramco), Abduljaleel A. Abubshait (Saudi Aramco), Denis Vaslet (BRGM), Yves-Michel Le Nindre (BRGM), Christian J. Strohmenger (ADCO), Abdullah Al-Mansoori (ADCO) and Randy Demaree (Saudi Aramco)

Composite geological sections of approximately 3,800 ft of continuous bedded deposits of the carbonate Permian Bih and Hagil, and the Triassic Ghail formations at Wadis Bih and Hagil in eastern Ras Al Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, have been prepared.  The sections include a comprehensive documentation of bedding, composition, rock texture, mineralogy, sedimentary structures, depositional facies and facies stacking patterns.  Lateral variation and porosity were also carefully noted. The stratigraphy/sedimentology was complemented by a description of structural features including faults, folding, collapse features and brecciation.  Additionally, two teams of geologists took gamma ray readings along fixed intervals along the described composites.  The resultant traces were compared to wireline gamma ray logs from select wells in the subsurface of eastern Saudi Arabia and offshore Abu Dhabi.  This has resulted in a correlation scheme with the time equivalent Khuff Formation in the subsurface of eastern Saudi Arabia. The outcrop geology rendered from the descriptions was also compared with core descriptions of the Khuff Formation in the subsurface of Saudi Arabia with a bias towards understanding the geometries of Khuff reservoirs.  Finally, the Ras Al Khaimah section was compared to Khuff Formation outcrop sections over 1,000 km to the east in central Saudi Arabia.  The implications of this breadth of data capture are invaluable in concurrent efforts to create a unified model for the  Khuff formation across the Arabian Shelf.

Kamal, Rami, Billing, I.M., Abushait, Abduljaleel, Vaslet, Denis, Le Nindre, Yves, Strohmenger, Christian J., Al-Mansoori, Abdulla, and Demaree, Randy, 2004, The Permo-Triassic section at Wadi Bih and Wadi Hagil in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates: Geo 2004, Bahrain, Gulf Petrolink.