<p> The Spraberry Formation is a Leonardian age submarine fan deposit restricted to the Midland Basin. The formation consists of very fine-grained sandstone, medium to coarse grain size siltstones, organic shales and carbonate mudstones. These rocks show variability in sedimentary structures and bedding types varied from thinly laminated to convolute laminations. Bioturbations were present in some samples and soft sediment deformation, such as water escape features, sediment loading and flame structures. </p><p> The Spraberry Formation is a naturally fractured reservoir with low porosity and low matrix permeability. Porosity measured varied from 2% in rocks with poor reservoir quality such as the argillaceous siltstone and mudstone while good reservoir rocks had an average porosity of 9%. Seven lithofacies were identified based on sedimentary structures, grain size and rock fabrics. Petrographic analysis showed four porosity types: (1) intragraular porosity; (2) dissolution porosity; (3) fracture porosity and (4) intergranular porosity. Fractured porosity was only observed in the argillaceous siltstone lithofacies. </p><p> The prominent diagenetic influences on the Spraberry Formation are: quartz cementation, quartz overgrowth, illtization of smectite, feldspar dissolution, clay precipitation, carbonate cementation, formation of framboidal pyrite and fracture formation. These diagenetic features were observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and in thin sections. Generally, petrophysical properties, such as porosity and permeability, vary gradually from reservoir rocks to non-reservoir rock. Observed trends where: 1) increasing organic and argillaceous content with decreasing porosity and 2) increasing carbonate sediments and calcite cements with decreasing porosity. Mineralogical analysis from FTIR showed an abundance of quartz and calcite, while illite is the prominent clay mineral observed in all samples.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1557545 |
| Date | 25 July 2014 |
| Creators | Dada, Olamide |
| Publisher | University of Louisiana at Lafayette |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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