List of Analogues for Highly Productive Rocks Around Salt Domes

Abstract

Abstract In the Dnipro-Donets depression, the Devonian salt during Carboniferous time became movable and created salt domes in the Permian, moving to the sea bottom and flowing therewith, forming bodies visible today as salt canopies and overhangs. These features are clear pieces of evidence of salt exposure on the surface, especially considering belts of reservoirs around salt domes. These reservoirs can be extremely prolific in some wells. Previous exploration targeting such deposits was driven mainly by drilling wells within the areas of known deep fields such as Medvedivske, Zakhidno-Khrestyschenske and others in the central part of the DDB. These reservoirs are composed of poorly sorted coarse material of wide variety of rocks including sandstones, carbonates, dolomites, igneous rocks of deep (granites), and shallow (diabases) formations. Currently, with the availability of 3D seismic surveys, these deposits become visible as bright spots and flat spots. Although it is not a 100% indicator due to fact that shallow salt canopies and lithology changes of rocks around salt domes may also interpret seismic reflections. It is good to mention that the Permian is an aridic environment with gradually losing water influx to the basin from base to top within the thickness of more than 1-2 kilometers. It could be utilized as boundary analogues to cover most of the possible intermediate scenarios in three areas. The first analogue is the outcropped salt dome in Solotvyno village in Carpathian mountains in western Ukraine close to the Romania border. This salt dome is an important example of showing the current deposition of transported coarse material from depth around salt domes. The second one is salt domes exposed as mountains of the Oman desert where it is possible to follow the material path approaching the salt uplift. And the third example is the Death Valley in Arizona, USA. The valley is an example of fans mostly deposited by gravity rather than permanent water flows. It good to mention that there are more examples that could be treated as direct analogues (the Zagros mountains in Iran) but they are not easily accessible for field trips if needed. For recognizing real targets vs artifacts, applying the knowledge of current deposition examples around the world would help dramatically (Western Ukraine, Oman, Death Valley in Arizona).