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The Lower Cretaceous Chouf Sandstone of Lebanon: A Regional Reservoir Level in the Levant?

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Arabian Plate and Surroundings: Geology, Sedimentary Basins and Georesources

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Abstract

The lowermost unit of the Cretaceous succession onshore Lebanon is a widespread prominent sandstone formation traditionally known as the “Grès de Base”. The formation commonly consists of sandstones with some claystones, shales, lignites and locally volcanic rocks. Based on outcrop samples taken in the central and northern parts of Mount Lebanon the petrographical composition of the typical Chouf Sandstone is dominated by monocrystalline quartz (85–95%) indicating a well-sorted sandstone. Sedimentological observations suggest that the Chouf Formation deposited in fluvial, coastal plain and deltaic environments. The Barremian Chouf Sandstone is variable in thickness, ranging from a few metres to more than 700 m. Some abrupt lateral isopach variations are interpreted to be the result of deposition in individual extensional mini-basins located in a much larger overall basin extending into neighbouring Syria, Jordan and Israel/Palestine. Due to the lack of subsurface information, the isopach values were estimated from remote sensing observations of the Chouf outcrop geometries in NW Lebanon. Assuming a syn-rift origin for this formation, the thickness measurements were interpreted in the context of numerous half-grabens with the master normal faults trending WNW-ESE. The petrography of the Chouf Sandstone exposed at the surface suggests a potentially moderate to good reservoir in the subsurface as well. U–Pb detrital zircon geochronology of eight Chouf rock samples collected in NW Lebanon confirms this interpretation in agreement with earlier findings on age equivalent sandstones, some 400 km to the south. The good reservoir potential of these regional Neocomian to Barremian sandstones is mostly due to their recycled nature from quartz-rich Cambrian-Ordovician sandstones. Age-equivalent sandstones are proven reservoirs in the broader region, therefore the Chouf play could be a viable petroleum exploration target in both offshore and onshore Lebanon.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the helpful and constructive comments by two anonymous reviewers. We are thankful to Sami Khomsi and Francois Roure for their invitation to contribute to this Special Issue of Arabian Journal of Geosciences. Conversations about the geology of Lebanon and Syria with Chris Walley, Ramadan Ghalayini, Nicolas Hawie, Don Rusk and Barry Wood were very helpful. The U–Pb detrital zircon data from the intra-Chouf tuffit layer was provided by Mihai Ducea. We acknowledge the thin-section descriptions by Roman Sauer, Szabolcs Harangi and Sandor Jozsa. Most of the figures in this paper were drafted by Peter Pernegr.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. OMV Exploration & Production, Vienna, Austria

    Gabor Tari, Chloe Asmar, Jonathan Church, Andras Zamolyi & Mohammad Fallah

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    David Schneider

  3. Department of Geology, IFP Energies Nouvelles, Paris, France

    Fadi H. Nader

  4. Department of Geodynamics and Sedimentology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Bernhard Grasemann, Harald Bauer & Georg Hatzenbichler

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  1. Faculty of Earth Sciences, King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Earth Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Sami Khomsi

  2. Géosciences, IFP Energies Nouvelles, RUEIL MALMAISON CEDEX, France

    François M. Roure

  3. Geophysics, King Abdulaziz University Geophysics, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Mansour Al Garni

  4. Faculty of Earth Sciences, King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Earth Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Ammar Amin

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Tari, G. et al. (2020). The Lower Cretaceous Chouf Sandstone of Lebanon: A Regional Reservoir Level in the Levant?. In: Khomsi, S., Roure, F., Al Garni, M., Amin, A. (eds) Arabian Plate and Surroundings: Geology, Sedimentary Basins and Georesources. Regional Geology Reviews. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21874-4_2

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