SEMINAR

ON
MAJOR OIL FIELDS OF THE WORLD

PRESENTED BY-
NABIN ADHIKARI
M.SC 4 TH SEM
ROLL NO-19
DIBRUGARH UNIVERSITY
Major oil fields of the world
Ghawar Field,
Saudi Arabia
• The largest
conventional oil
field in the world at
280 km by 30 km.
• Discovered in 1948,
started production in
1951.
•5 million barrels of oil
per day.
•The estimated amount
of oil in place is 71,000
million barrels
 GEOLOGY

Ghawar occupies an anticline above a basement fault

block dating to Carboniferous time
 Reservoir rocks are Jurassic Arab-D limestones with
exceptional porosity. 
Source rock is the Jurassic Hanifa formation, a
marine shelf deposit of mud and lime with as much
as 5% organic material, it is estimated that 1% to 7%
is considered good oil source rock.
The seal is an evaporitic package of rocks including
impermeable anhydrite.
Oseberg,
Norway
•Oseberg is an
offshore oil
field with a gas
cap in
the North Sea.
• The current
rate of
production is
3.78 million
barrels per day.
 GEOLOGY

The main reservoirs are sandstones of the Middle

Jurassic
The trap is a group of three easterly dipping tilted
fault blocks associated with westerly dipping normal
faults formed by rifting during the Late Jurassic on
the east side of the Viking Graben
The top seal is formed by Upper Jurassic Viking
group or Lower Cretaceous Cromer Knoll claystones.
The oil in Oseberg is sourced from the Upper
Jurassic Draupne formation
Bolivar Coastal
Field, Venezuela
•This onshore field
was discovered in
1917 and started
production in 1922.
• It is the largest oil
field in South
America with nearly
7,000 wells and oil
derricks
•The current rate of
production is 2.6
million barrels per
day.
 GEOLOGY

SOURCE ROCK IS THE Upper Cretaceous marine

carbonate rocks (calcareous shales and argillaceous
limestones) that make up the La Luna Formation
of Cenomanian–Campanian age. 
The Eocene unconformity represents the main seal 
RESEVOIR ROCK-SANDSTONE AND LIMESTONE
Burgan Field,
Kuwait
•Discovered in 1957,
is located in the
desert of Kuwait.
•considered the
world’s largest
sandstone oil field.
•Its current
production rate is 1.7
million barrels per
day.
•The estimated oil in
place is 44,000
million barrels.
 GEOLOGY

The oil is contained in the four main horizons

of Cretaceous age: Wara (sandstone), Mauddud
(limestone), Burgan Third Sand (3S) and Burgan
Fourth Sand (4S)
The Burgan field's structure is an anticlinal
dome having an elliptical shape and transected by
numerous radial faults.
The source rock that caps this formation is known as
the Mauddad Limestone.
Safaniya
Oil Field
• Largest offshore
oil field in the world
and is located in
the Persian Gulf
 Saudi Arabia.
• the field has a
producing
capability of more
than 1.2 million
barrels per day
•The oil field was
discovered in 1951.
 GEOLOGY

The main producing reservoir is the Safaniya which

is a cretaceous sandstone in the Wasia formation.
The field is an anticline structure with production
area of about 65 km long and 15 km wide.
shales and tight carbonates that seals the reservoirs
within the Safaniya Formation