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The case of the missing clay, aluminium loss and secondary porosity, South Brae Oilfield, North Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

Ó. M. McLaughlin ,
R. S. Haszeldine ,
A. E. Fallick  and
G. Rogers
Ó. M. McLaughlin
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Glasgow, Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
R. S. Haszeldine
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Glasgow, Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
A. E. Fallick
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, Isotope Unit, East Kilbride, G75 0QU, UK
G. Rogers
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, Isotope Unit, East Kilbride, G75 0QU, UK
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Abstract

Upper Jurassic sandstones of the South Brae Field were deposited as a submarine fan complex. The earliest formed concretionary ferroan calcite cement passively encloses detrital feldspars which originally formed more than 10% of the rock. Later non-ferroan calcite at the concretion margins was precipitated from a more aggressive fluid. This fluid dissolved up to half of the feldspars and micas originally present, but little or no clay was precipitated. Aluminium must have been lost from the system.

A late dissolution event has enhanced porosity by up to 8%. Feldspar was again reduced in volume by about half, leaving only ∼2% in the rock today. Very minor amounts of fibrous illite and kaolinite (<1%) form the last diagenetic cement. Aluminium must have again been lost from the system.

As the Kimmeridge Clay Formation (KCF) encloses and interdigitates with the South Brae sandstones, a local source of organic acids is quite possible. These acid solutions may have increased the mobility of Al. The Al from the feldspars must have therefore been transported vertically into the KCF, or more probably transported laterally by compactional flows out of the basin (up to 10 km) during release of overpressured basinal water.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 1994 , pp. 651 - 663
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1994

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