As widely reported by media today, ZhenHua Oil – under the local subsidiary name Qurnain Petroleum Limited – has discovered what it claims to be an oil field of more than 8 billion barrels in reserves.
The location of the discovery, at a depth of around 1,900 m, is very interesting to start with. The exploration licence named al-Qarnain is located in the southwest of Iraq, close to the border with Saudi Arabia. This means that the discovery is way out of the traditional oil plays that are located more in the northern and eastern parts of the country. To come in with an 8 billion barrel discovery in such a frontier area is therefore quite remarkable on its own.
The area where the discovery was made belongs to the platform or stable shelf area that occupies large swathes of southwestern Iraq. Cross-sections suggest that there is not too much folding going on anymore in that part of the country, which may have been a reason why the mapping of closures is complicated in the area, possibly hinting at stratigraphic trapping as well.
Also, assuming the source rock and kitchen are located at a more proximal position in the foreland to the northeast, oil migration, biodegradation and heavy oil might have been a risk too. However, this article mentions that a light crude was tested at 3,248 b/d, which may mean that there is either a local source or long-distance migration has kept the oil properties fairly benign.
A contact in Iraq has confirmed that the reservoir in which the oil has been found is the Lower Jurassic Mus Formation, which is known to be a shallow marine carbonate succession in the area and which correlates with the Marrat Formation in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Then there is the well name that is associated with the discovery – Shams-11. We checked this with our contact in Iraq, as the most logical question to ask is what the previous Shams wells were about, if the discovery well was number 11 indeed. It now appears that the well name should be Shams-1 rather than 11, which makes more sense.
The timing of this press release is also interesting. In the midst of tensions between Iran and the US, with the Strait of Hormuz still mostly closed, here is the announcement of an 8 billion barrel discovery that includes the construction of a “fast track” pipeline. As more often seems to be the case, the timing of announcements like this from China could well be carefully chosen.
