A ‘Modified Carbonate Grain Flow’ Deposit Within the Oxfordian Sedimentary Succession: A Case Study From Burgan Area, Kuwait

Summary A grain flow unit was encountered within the Oxfordian Najmah Formation in one of the recently drilled deep wells in the southern Burgan area, Kuwait. The unit is about 55ft thick occurring at a depth of 11000ft within the kerogen rich source rock. It is dominated by packstone to grainstone facies with good hydrocarbon potential. It is delineated by spectral decomposition and model based seismic inversion. The resulted configuration has the characteristics of channel geomorphology – about 12km long and less than 1km wide. The traverse comprises a few crevasse splays and a fan-like feature at the tail end. The sedimentary process is inferred to be a cohesionless laminar flow through a fault controlled passage from west to east. It could have originated at the foot of the Rimthan Arch in the southwest which was separating the Gotnia intrashelf basin from the Arabian basin in the south.