Source provenance
Craig, J., Hakhoo, N., Bhat, G.M., Hafiz, M., Khan, M.R., Misra, R., Pandita, S.K., Raina, B.K., Thurow, J., Thusu, B., Ahmed, W. & Khullar, S. (2018). Petroleum systems and hydrocarbon potential of the North-West Himalaya of India and Pakistan. Earth-Science Reviews, 187, 109-185.
Cited by 30 units (30 published) · 0 field-level citations · 32 revision notes.
Comprehensive review of the petroleum systems and hydrocarbon potential of the NW Himalaya (India and Pakistan). For the Pakistan Upper Indus (Kohat-Potwar, Salt Range) and Central/Lower Indus (Sulaiman, Kirthar, Sindh) basins it characterises the source rocks (notably the Paleocene Patala Formation and the Eocambrian Salt Range Formation in the north, and the Cretaceous Sembar Formation in the south), reservoirs (Khewra, Datta, Lockhart, Sakesar, Lumshiwal, Goru, Pab, Habib Rahi/Sui, etc.), seals and the producing fields tied to them.
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Units citing this source
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Permian Amb Formation (Zaluch Group limestones with thin carbonaceous-shale interbeds) is among the Permian (Tobra-Amb-Wargal) reservoir horizons that have yielded oil and gas in the Potwar Basin.
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- Geological significance: Craig et al. (2018): the Upper Cambrian Baghanwala Formation (shales and interbedded sandstones) marks the top of the Cambrian in the Potwar Plateau/Salt Range; its top begins a major regional hiatus that lasts until the Permian. It is regarded as contemporaneous with the Khisor Formation salts south of Kohat.
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- Geological significance: Craig et al. (2018): the Early Eocene Bahadur Khel Salt of the Kohat Plateau (with the associated Jatta Gypsum) greatly increases structural complexity where present and forms a shallow detachment in the southern Kohat, giving the Kohat shortening two detachment levels (deep within the Salt Range Formation, shallow within the Palaeogene evaporites). Oil and gas have been produced from three Potwar Plateau fields associated with it.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the uppermost-Permian Chhidru Formation is listed among the potential Permian source rocks of the Upper Indus Basin (with the Dandot and Sardhai formations; Quadri & Quadri 1996; Wandrey et al. 2004).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Cretaceous Chichali Formation (glauconitic sandstones and basinal shales) is listed with the Lumshiwal among the youngest mature Mesozoic source rocks; its algal/microbial organic matter (anoxic marine) gives fair generation potential, best developed on the Punjab Platform and toward Hazara (Gakkhar et al. 2012).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Eocene Chorgali Formation (dolomitic limestones and calcareous claystones above the Sakesar) is named among the Eocene-age reservoirs producing oil and gas in the Potwar Basin (Khan et al. 1986).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): black shales of the Lower Permian Dandot Formation are listed (with the Sardhai and Chhidru formations) among the potential Permian source rocks of the Upper Indus Basin (Quadri & Quadri 1996; Wandrey et al. 2004).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Early Jurassic Datta Formation is a proven sandstone reservoir, producing oil and gas in the Dhulian, Toot and Meyal fields (Potwar Plateau) and the Chanda and Mela fields (Kohat Basin). It also has source potential in the NW Potwar Basin - Type II and mixed Type II/III kerogen, TOC 1-7.5 wt.%, HI mostly 340-500 mgHC/gTOC (Fazeelat et al. 2010). Notably, Tmax 424-436 deg C indicates it is only marginally mature despite burial >5,000 m, attributed to low heat flow and convective cooling by meteoric waters.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Palaeocene Hangu Formation (basal transgressive sandstone over the eroded top of the Cretaceous Lumshiwal) is a main reservoir in the Kohat Basin (with the Lockhart Limestone); the correlative Dhak Pass Formation is identified as a potential reservoir in the central Potwar Basin (Wandrey et al. 2004).
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- Geological significance: Craig et al. (2018): the Eocene Jatta Gypsum, where present in the Kohat Plateau (with the Bahadur Khel Salt), adds much structural complexity and contributes to the shallow Palaeogene detachment level of the Kohat fold-and-thrust belt.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Cambrian Jutana Formation (sandy carbonates and near-shore sandstones with fair-good reservoir properties) is a producing reservoir in the Kal and Rajian fields, and has produced oil in the Dhurnal Field.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Middle-Late Miocene Kamlial Formation (alluvial large-river sandstones, mudstones and caliche; >400 m thick, deposited 18-14 Ma per Johnson et al. 1985) forms, with the Murree, the overburden/seal component of the Rawalpindi Group - though seals in the Rawalpindi and Siwalik groups are not laterally extensive. Its base records a major provenance change from diversion of the palaeo-Indus (Nanga Parbat-Haramosh detritus).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Upper Cretaceous Kawagarh Formation (Late Cretaceous low-stand siliciclastics; present in the SE Salt Range and Kohat Plateau but not reported within the Potwar Basin) is listed among Cretaceous horizons (with the Lumshiwal and Moghal Kot) showing oil production and shows/seeps.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Cambrian Khewra Sandstone is a producing oil reservoir in the Adhi, Chak Naurang and Rajian fields (Khan et al. 1986) - the oldest (Early Cambrian) of the ~11 clastic/carbonate plays of the Potwar-Kohat Province; charged mainly by Infra-Cambrian (Salt Range Formation) source rocks.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): shelf carbonates of the Late Triassic Kingriali Formation are a producing reservoir in the Chanda Deep Field (Kohat Basin) and produce (with the Jurassic Datta and Cretaceous Lumshiwal) in the Chanda Field. The deepest well in the Kohat-Potwar Basin bottomed in the 'Kingriali Dolomite', with no direct evidence of Palaeozoic reservoir within the basin.
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- Geological significance: Craig et al. (2018): in the Kohat-area Eocene succession the Middle Eocene Kohat Limestone marks the culmination of a second Kohat transgression (restricted to NW Pakistan), overlain by the Upper Eocene Kohat Formation shales (Chharat Group); the underlying Middle Eocene Mami Khel red beds prograded over the deepest part of the Kohat basin before that second transgression.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Cambrian Kussak Formation (glauconitic shoreface sandstones and siltstones) has produced oil in the Misa Kiswal Field (Petroconsultants 1996).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Palaeocene Lockhart Limestone is a main fractured-carbonate reservoir in the Kohat Basin (with the Hangu Formation); the 2016 Makori-Deep-1 well (TD 5,067 m) flowed 2,202 BOPD plus 5.4 MMSCFD gas from the Lockhart, rising to 3,790 bbls oil plus 10.9 MMSCFD after acid stimulation. In the Dhurnal Field, where the overlying Patala has low TOC, the Lockhart (average TOC ~1.4 wt.%; Jaswal et al. 1997) is the effective source rock.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Cretaceous Lumshiwal Formation is a producing reservoir in the Manzalai, Makori, Mela and Chanda fields (Kohat); the 2016 Tolanj West-1 well (TD 4941 m) flowed 14.51 MMSCFD gas plus 34 bbls condensate from the Lumshiwal. It is also listed (with the Chichali) among the youngest mature Mesozoic source rocks.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Eocene Margalla Hill Limestone is listed among the Potwar producing reservoir formations (with the Bhadrar and Chorgali); in the Margalla Hill interval oil and gas has been produced from eight fields across the Potwar area. Craig et al. treat the Sakesar and Margalla Hill limestones as lateral/nomenclatural equivalents of the early Eocene outer-shelf carbonate.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Miocene Murree Formation is the youngest oil-producing horizon in the Potwar Basin, producing at Khaur (with the Sakesar) - Khaur being the first commercial Potwar oil discovery (1914, Attock Oil Co., a 65 m well on a thrust-faulted anticline, on production from 1922). Interbedded Murree shales, with the overlying Kamlial and Siwalik strata, provided the thick (6-7 km in the Hazara-Kashmir Syntaxis) molasse overburden that matured the Palaeocene source shales and act as seals/detachment horizons.
- Depositional environment: Craig et al. (2018): the Murree Formation is a heavily oxidised red-and-green fluvial molasse (continental to tidal-flat, with pervasive ~20 m fining-upward cycles of meandering tidal channels and pedogenic/gypsiferous horizons), sourced from the Himalayan thrust stack. Craig et al. explicitly state it was 'wrongly interpreted as a flysch deposit by Wandrey et al. (2004)' - it is fluvial, not flysch.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Eocene Nammal Formation (shallow-marine to lagoonal calcareous claystones and limestones) is, together with the coeval Patala shales, among the main source rocks of the Potwar Basin (Type II/III), and is listed among the Palaeocene-Eocene producing reservoir formations (Lockhart-Patala-Nammal-Bhadrar-Chorgali).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Palaeocene Patala Formation ('Patala Shale') is regarded as the primary source rock of the Potwar Basin - average TOC ~1.4 wt.%, Type II and Type III kerogen (Fazeelat et al. 2010; OGDC 1996), reaching maximum burial into the oil window at ~2 Ma (Law et al. 1998); in the Meyal area its thermally mature interval is a shale-gas prospect (Ali et al. 2017). This 'primary' status is qualified, however: oils from the Dhurnal, Pindori, Bhangali and Adhi fields contain <0.2% sulphur and differ in biomarkers from Patala-sourced oils, indicating more than one active source system in the basin (Khan et al. 1986; Malik et al. 1988; Fazeelat et al. 2010).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Eocene Sakesar Limestone is a producing reservoir - Pakistan's first commercial oil discovery, at Khaur in 1914, produced from Sakesar and Murree reservoirs. Its uppermost ~100 m also carries abundant Type III gas-prone organic matter with TOC up to 13 wt.% (unusually high for an outer-shelf carbonate), Tmax 440-448 deg C (mature, onset of generation, mainly gas); the ultimate source of many Potwar oil seeps is assumed to be Sakesar organic-rich shales and/or Patala coals/carbonaceous shales. The lower Sakesar is immature relative to the Patala in the Meyal area (Ali et al. 2017).
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Salt Range Formation is a proven 'Infra-Cambrian' source rock. Brown bituminous shales, oil shales and bituminous dolomites near its top (Eastern Salt Range, up to ~5 m thick; Gee 1989) carry Type II kerogen with TOC up to ~30 wt.% (locally up to 47.8 wt.% in the Dulmial-1 core) and HI up to 879 mgHC/gTOC (Ahmad & Alam 2007, 91 outcrop/core samples). The facies are thin and laterally inconsistent and are immature in the Eastern Salt Range, but where deeply buried in the Potwar Basin (generation from ~Late Cretaceous) they charge stacked Cambrian-Eocene fractured-carbonate reservoirs; oil in Karampur-1 is Salt Range-derived and geochemically resembles Baghewala (India) and Oman Infra-Cambrian oils. Jadoon et al. (2015) treat it as a frontier play with ~290 MMBO original recoverable reserves.
- Geological significance: Craig et al. (2018): the Salt Range Formation evaporites (halite, gypsum, marl, dolomite) form the primary regional top-seal and, critically, the basal decollement of the Salt Range-Potwar fold-and-thrust belt, decoupling the Phanerozoic cover from Precambrian basement. The basal detachment steps ~100 km south along the formation, transporting the hangingwall ~20 km south with little internal deformation, and is assumed to pinch out near the northern Potwar boundary - a fundamental control on trap geometry and prospectivity.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): platform carbonates of the Middle Jurassic Samana Suk Formation are a producing reservoir in the Manzalai, Makori, Mela and Chanda fields (Kohat Basin), and the 2016 Halini-Deep-1 well made an oil-and-gas discovery in the Jurassic Samana Suk.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Middle Jurassic Shinawari Formation carries gas-prone kerogen and has poor conventional reservoir characteristics (Zaidi et al. 2013), though it is listed among the main Kohat Plateau reservoir units alongside the Datta and Samana Suk formations.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Middle Miocene-Early Pleistocene Siwalik Group (~6 km of fluvial sandstones, clays and conglomerates - Chinji, Nagri, Dhok Pathan and Soan formations plus the Lei Conglomerate in Kohat-Potwar) has poor reservoir quality and discontinuous seals, but its thick shales/clays form the ultimate regional overburden that matured the Palaeocene-sourced Potwar oils; most recent trap-forming compression was ~5-2 Ma.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Lower Permian Tobra Formation is a producing reservoir with fair-good properties in the Kal, Rajian and Dhurnal fields (SE Potwar Plateau); its oil is generally attributed to Infra-Cambrian source rocks.
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- Economic importance: Craig et al. (2018): the Late Permian Wargal Formation acts as both source and reservoir - its carbonaceous shale interbeds are a source rock with average TOC ~1.0 wt.% (Jaswal et al. 1997) and vitrinite reflectance Ro 0.65-0.95% (Tobin & Claxton 2000), and oil has been produced from the Wargal Formation in the Dhurnal Field.