The upper zone of the Lower Cretaceous Kharaib Formation (151–177 ft [46–54 m] thick in the studied wells) is a major oil reservoir in several giant oil fields. Wide variations in porosity and permeability of this zone have been shown to result from both the inhibition of burial cementation by oil in the crest of each field and localized cementation adjacent to stylolites, combined with the more subtle influence of widely varying depositional mud content and grain size. The present study examines these relationships in closer detail, using core and petrographic observations from two wells on the oil-filled crest and two wells on the water-filled flanks of a giant domal oil field.

Although porosities are higher overall in the crestal cores, each well shows wide variations within each of seven main groupings of the samples by depositional texture. This heterogeneity results mainly from the distribution of clay, which is concentrated along depositional laminations and causes widely varying porosity losses in all textures by promoting stylolite development and associated calcite cementation. Higher clay abundance (and lower porosity) within the upper and lower 12–17 ft (4–5 m) of the reservoir reflects increased influx of siliciclastic fines across the epeiric Barremian carbonate platform immediately following and preceding, respectively, third-order falls in global sea level. Most (95%) of porosity-permeability data from the studied wells lie within Lucia rock-fabric class 3, showing distinct but relatively subtle differences between texture groups, whereas a subordinate part of the data from the upper, relatively mud-poor third of the reservoir plot at higher permeabilities. Development of a predictive model for the petrophysical heterogeneity of this example requires a combination of the following: (1) a diagenetic model for porosity controls; (2) the use of a modestly higher porosity-permeability transform (upper class 3) in the upper part of the reservoir than in the lower reservoir (lower class 3); and (3) a recognition of the scattered and widely varying occurrences of exceptionally high permeabilities in the upper reservoir.