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The nature and age of basement host rocks and fissure fills in the Lancaster field fractured reservoir, West of Shetland

View ORCID ProfileR. E. Holdsworth, R. Trice, K. Hardman, View ORCID ProfileK. J. W. McCaffrey, View ORCID ProfileA. Morton, View ORCID ProfileD. Frei, E. Dempsey, View ORCID ProfileA. Bird and View ORCID ProfileS. Rogers
Journal of the Geological Society, 177, 1057-1073, 30 January 2020, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2019-142
R. E. Holdsworth
1Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, , UK
2Geospatial Research Ltd, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Lead)], [Funding acquisition (Lead)], [Investigation (Lead)], [Methodology (Lead)], [Project administration (Lead)], [Supervision (Lead)], [Writing - Original Draft (Lead)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Equal)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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  • ORCID record for R. E. Holdsworth
  • For correspondence: r.e.holdsworth@durham.ac.uk
R. Trice
3Hurricane Energy plc, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Lead)], [Data curation (Lead)], [Funding acquisition (Lead)], [Investigation (Equal)], [Project administration (Lead)], [Resources (Lead)], [Validation (Lead)], [Writing - Original Draft (Supporting)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Equal)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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K. Hardman
1Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Supporting)], [Visualization (Lead)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
K. J. W. McCaffrey
1Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, , UK
2Geospatial Research Ltd, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Equal)], [Data curation (Lead)], [Formal analysis (Equal)], [Investigation (Equal)], [Methodology (Equal)], [Writing - Original Draft (Supporting)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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  • ORCID record for K. J. W. McCaffrey
A. Morton
4HM Research, , UK
5CASP, University of Cambridge, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)], [Investigation (Supporting)], [Writing - Original Draft (Supporting)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Supporting)]
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  • ORCID record for A. Morton
D. Frei
6Department of Earth Sciences, University of the Western Cape, , South Africa
Roles: [Data curation (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)], [Investigation (Supporting)], [Methodology (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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  • ORCID record for D. Frei
E. Dempsey
7Department of Geography, Geology and Environment, University of Hull, , UK
Roles: [Data curation (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)], [Investigation (Supporting)], [Methodology (Supporting)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Supporting)]
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A. Bird
7Department of Geography, Geology and Environment, University of Hull, , UK
Roles: [Data curation (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)], [Investigation (Supporting)], [Methodology (Supporting)]
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S. Rogers
8Golder Associates Ltd, , , Canada
Roles: [Data curation (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)]
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  • ORCID record for S. Rogers
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Abstract

Hosting up to 3.3 billion barrels of oil in place, the upfaulted Precambrian crystalline rocks of the Lancaster field, offshore west of Shetland, give key insights into how fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs can form in such old rocks. The Neoarchean (c. 2700–2740 Ma) charnockitic basement is cut by deeply penetrating oil-, mineral- and sediment-filled fissure systems seen in geophysical and production logs and thin sections of core. Mineral textures and fluid inclusion geothermometry suggest that a low-temperature (<200°C) near-surface hydrothermal system is associated with these fissures. The fills help to permanently prop open fissures in the basement, permitting the ingress of hydrocarbons into extensive well-connected oil-saturated fracture networks. U–Pb dating of calcite mineral fills constrains the onset of mineralization and contemporaneous oil charge to the mid-Cretaceous and later from Jurassic source rocks flanking the upfaulted ridge. Late Cretaceous subsidence and deposition of mudstones sealed the ridge, and was followed by buoyancy-driven migration of oil into the pre-existing propped fracture systems. These new observations provide an explanation for the preservation of intra-reservoir fractures (‘joints’) with effective apertures of 2 m or more, thereby highlighting a new mechanism for generating and preserving fracture permeability in sub-unconformity fractured basement reservoirs worldwide.

Supplementary material: Analytical methods and isotopic compositions and ages are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4763237

Thematic Collection: This article is part of the Geology of Fractured Reservoirs collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/the-geology-of-fractured-reservoirs

  • © 2020 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Journal of the Geological Society: 177 (5)
Journal of the Geological Society
Volume 177, Issue 5
September 2020
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The nature and age of basement host rocks and fissure fills in the Lancaster field fractured reservoir, West of Shetland

R. E. Holdsworth, R. Trice, K. Hardman, K. J. W. McCaffrey, A. Morton, D. Frei, E. Dempsey, A. Bird and S. Rogers
Journal of the Geological Society, 177, 1057-1073, 30 January 2020, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2019-142
R. E. Holdsworth
1Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, , UK
2Geospatial Research Ltd, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Lead)], [Funding acquisition (Lead)], [Investigation (Lead)], [Methodology (Lead)], [Project administration (Lead)], [Supervision (Lead)], [Writing - Original Draft (Lead)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Equal)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for R. E. Holdsworth
  • For correspondence: r.e.holdsworth@durham.ac.uk
R. Trice
3Hurricane Energy plc, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Lead)], [Data curation (Lead)], [Funding acquisition (Lead)], [Investigation (Equal)], [Project administration (Lead)], [Resources (Lead)], [Validation (Lead)], [Writing - Original Draft (Supporting)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Equal)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
K. Hardman
1Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Supporting)], [Visualization (Lead)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
K. J. W. McCaffrey
1Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, , UK
2Geospatial Research Ltd, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Equal)], [Data curation (Lead)], [Formal analysis (Equal)], [Investigation (Equal)], [Methodology (Equal)], [Writing - Original Draft (Supporting)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for K. J. W. McCaffrey
A. Morton
4HM Research, , UK
5CASP, University of Cambridge, , UK
Roles: [Conceptualization (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)], [Investigation (Supporting)], [Writing - Original Draft (Supporting)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for A. Morton
D. Frei
6Department of Earth Sciences, University of the Western Cape, , South Africa
Roles: [Data curation (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)], [Investigation (Supporting)], [Methodology (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for D. Frei
E. Dempsey
7Department of Geography, Geology and Environment, University of Hull, , UK
Roles: [Data curation (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)], [Investigation (Supporting)], [Methodology (Supporting)], [Writing - Review & Editing (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
A. Bird
7Department of Geography, Geology and Environment, University of Hull, , UK
Roles: [Data curation (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)], [Investigation (Supporting)], [Methodology (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for A. Bird
S. Rogers
8Golder Associates Ltd, , , Canada
Roles: [Data curation (Supporting)], [Formal analysis (Supporting)]
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for S. Rogers

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The nature and age of basement host rocks and fissure fills in the Lancaster field fractured reservoir, West of Shetland

R. E. Holdsworth, R. Trice, K. Hardman, K. J. W. McCaffrey, A. Morton, D. Frei, E. Dempsey, A. Bird and S. Rogers
Journal of the Geological Society, 177, 1057-1073, 30 January 2020, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2019-142
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  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Geological setting of the Lancaster field
    • The Lancaster field
    • U–Pb zircon dating of host basement rocks
    • U–Pb dating of calcite vein fill
    • Discussion
    • Conclusions and implications
    • Acknowledgements
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