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In the Lower Indus Basin and the Sulaiman-Kirthar geologic province, fluvial sandstones and estuarine shales and limestones make up the Paleocene Ranikot Group. sandstones of the Ghazij Formation are conformably overlain by interbedded limestones and shales of the Eocene Kirthar Formation. The Kirthar was deposited in the Lower Indus Basin, Sulaiman-Kirthar geologic province, and Kohat Plateau (Iqbal and Shah, 1980; Shah, 1977). Nearshore sandstones and shales of the Oligocene Nari Formation and shales of the lower Miocene Gaj Formation make up the Momani Group.
The Lower Cretaceous Sembar Formation consists mainly of shale with subordinate amounts of siltstone and sandstone. The Sembar was deposited over most of the Greater Indus Basin in marine environments and ranges in thickness from 0 to more than 260 m (Iqbal and Shah, 1980). Rock-eval pyrolysis analyses of 10 samples from the Jandran-1 well in the Sulaiman Range of the foldbelt, indicate an average total organic carbon content (TOC) of 1.10 percent. The TOC values from the Sembar in two Badin area wells in the foreland portion of the Lower Indus Basin have TOCs ranging from 0.5 to 3.5 percent and averaging about 1.4 percent. A cross-plot of pyrolysis data on a modified van-Kreveln indicates that the organic matter in the Sembar is mainly type-III kerogen, capable of generating gas; however, additional proprietary data indicate the presence of type-II kerogen as well as type-III kerogen. With respect to the oil window (0.6 - 1.3 percent vitrinite reflectance), the Sembar ranges from thermally immature to over mature. The Sembar is more thermally mature in the western, more deeply buried part of the shelf and becomes shallower and less mature toward the eastern edge of the Indus Basin.
Geochemical analysis of samples from Habib Rahi Limestone in northern Sulaiman Range (Source Rock Evaluation Geochemistry Report, 1992) show its maturity level within early oil window having vitrinite reflectance values ranging between 0.600.70%. Organic rich argillaceous limestone within Habib Rahi contains type-II kerogen and as such constitutes good potential source rocks for oil generation. The reported Thermal Alteration Index (TAI) ranges between 2.0 2.5 with total organic contents (TOC) in the range of 1.10 8.15 % by weight. The limestone and marl units of Pirkoh member of Kirthar Formation contain TOC in the range of 0.4 3.5 %. The reported geothermal gradient of Ramak-1 well is around 1.5 oC/100 meters (Ramak-1 well Report, 1993).
Seals
To restrict the leakage, seepage and migration of hydrocarbons, impermeable horizon or regional top seal is essential. Fine-grained rocks such as shale or evaporites have the tendency as effective cap rocks. The Paleocene and Eocene successions of Northern Sulaiman ranges comprise thick shale horizons and are the potential sealing horizons underneath these ranges in addition to several intra-formational thick shale beds at various levels. The known seals in the system are composed of shales that are interbedded with and overlying the reservoirs. In producing fields, thin shale beds of variable thickness are effective seals. Additional seals that may be effective include impermeable seals above truncation traps, faults, and updip facies changes.
Traps
The tilted fault traps in the Lower Indus Basin are a product of extension related to rifting and the formation of horst and graben structures. The temporal relationships among trap formation and hydrocarbon generation, expulsion, migration, and entrapment are variable throughout the Greater Indus Basin. In the foreland portion, formation of structural traps pre-date hydrocarbon generation, especially in the Lower Indus Basin. In the Middle and Upper Indus Basins, traps may also have formed prior to hydrocarbon generation, although the temporal relationships between trap formation and hydrocarbon generation are not as distinct as in the Lower Indus Basin. The structural deformation in the foldbelt region is generally contemporaneous with hydrocarbon generation, suggesting that some of the hydrocarbons generated from the Sembar probably leaked to the surface prior to trap formation. Burial history reconstructions based on data from the Sakhi-Sarwar no. 1 well , located in the foreland part of the Middle Indus Basin, and the Shahdapur no. 1 well, located in the foreland part of Lower Indus Basin, indicate that
hydrocarbon generation began 40 and 65 Ma, respectively. The main differences in the hydrocarbon generation times between these wells are due to large differences in the thermal gradients; the present-day thermal gradient in the Sakhi-Sarwar well is 2.6C/km as opposed to 3.3C/km in the Shahdapur well. We interpret the critical moments for these wells at about 15 and 50 Ma, respectively. Based on these reconstructions, trap formation may have postdated the start of hydrocarbon generation in the foreland portion of the Indus Basin.
References
Petroconsultants, 1996, Petroleum exploration and production database: Petroconsultants, Inc., P.O. Box 740619, 6600 Sands Point Drive, Houston TX 77274-0619, USA or Petroconsultants, Inc., P.O. Box 152, 24 Chemin de la Mairie, 1258 Perly, Geneva, Powell, C. M.A., 1979, A speculative tectonic history of Pakistan and surroundings; some constraints from the Indian Ocean, in Farah, Abdul, and Dejohn, K.A., eds., Geodynamics of Pakistan: Geological Survey of Pakistan, p. 5-24. Quadri, V.N., Chughtai, S.A., Farani, Z., Quadri, G.J., Oil and Gas Development Corp., Islamabad, 2000, Here are recommendations in search of giants in Pakistan: Oil and Gas Journal, v. 98, no. 2, p. 57-60. Quadri, Viqar-un-Nisa, and Shuaib, S.M., 1986, Hydrocarbon prospects of southern Indus Basin, Pakistan, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 70, no. 4, p. 396-414. Quadri, Viqar-un-Nisa, and Quadri, S.M.G.J., 1996, Exploration Anatomy of success in oil and gas exploration in Pakistan, 1915-94, Oil and Gas Journal, May 13, 1996. Quadri, Viqar-un-Nisa, and Quadri, S.M.G.J., 1997, Indus basin off Pakistan contains few wells: Oil and Gas Journal, v. 95, i. 24. Quadri, Viqar-un-Nisa, and Quadri, S.M.G.J., 1998, Failure-to-success targets may lie in Pakistan basins: Oil and Gas Journal, v. 96, i. 1. Quadri, Viqar-un-Nisas, and Quadri, S.M.G.J., 1998, Pakistan has unventured regions, untested plays: Oil and Gas Journal, v. 96, i. 12. Scotese, C.R., 1997, PALEOMAP Software, PALEOMAP Project, http://scotese.com Scotese, C.R., Gahagan,L.M., and Larson, R.L., 1988, Plate tectonic reconstructions of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic ocean basins: Tectonophysics, v. 155, p. 27-48. Sercombe, W.J., Pivnik, D.A., Wilson, W.P., Albertin, M.L., Beck, R.A., and Stratton, M.A., 1998, Wrench Faulting in the Northern Pakistan Foreland, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 82, no. 11, p. 2003-2030.