Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.3, No.2, pp. 139-152, 1980

©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press, Ltd.

GEOLOGY OF THE MUSANDAM PENINSULA (SULTANATE OF OMAN) AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

R. Ricateau* and P. H. Riché**

*Exploration Manager, Elf Aquitaine Oman, P.0. Box 3352 Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman. (Current address:Elf Aquitaine Colombia, Apartado Aero 9l343, Bogota, Colombia).

**Exploration Manager for Middle East, SNEA(P), 92088 Paris La defense, Cedex 22, France. (Current address: c/o IFP, ENSPM,4 Ave de Bois-Préau, 92500 Rueil Malmaison France). The authors would like to thank: H.E. the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Petroleum and Minerals of the Sultanate of Oman who kindly authorised the publication of this article, the SNEA(P) Board of Directors who gave its agreement to issue the present results, the team of geologists who took part in the field survey, Mr. J. Biehler and Mr. C. Chevalier, and the geologists of SNEA(P) Central Exploration Laboratory who studied the samples.

Abstract

The Musandam peninsula (Sultanate of Oman) is a vast outcrop of carbonate rocks of Permian to Middle Cretaceous age. The facies of these formations relates them without doubt to the contemporaneous formations of the Arabian platform and there is a good analogy with the formations encountered in the wells drilled in the Persian Gulf west of the Musandam outcrops. After the deposition of these platform formations, several tectonic events deeply affected this area, and led to the present configuration: at the end of the Middle Cretaceous, a wide area emerged on the E edge of the Arabian platform, whereas on the W side of the Peninsula important halokinetic movements of the structures of the Persian Gulf persisted.