What you know about The Ghawar Oil Field,

Saudi Arabia?
Bandar D. Al-Anazi
King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Introduction
The Ghawar Oil Field is by far the largest conventional oil
field in the world and accounts for more than half of the
cumulative oil production of Saudi Arabia. Although it is a
single field, it is divided into six areas. From north to south,
they are Fazran, Ain Dar, Shedgum, Uthmaniyah, Haradh
and Hawiyah. Although Arab-C, Hanifa and Fadhili reservoirs are also present in parts of the field, the Arab-D reservoir accounts for nearly all of the reserves and production.
The Ghawar Field was discovered in 1948. Production began
in 1951 and reached a peak of 5.7 million barrels per day in
1981. This is the highest sustained oil production rate
achieved by any single oil field in world history. At the time
that this record was achieved, the southern areas of Hawiyah
and Haradh had not yet been fully developed. Production
was restrained after 1981 for market reasons, but Ghawar
remained the most important oil field in the world. The
production of the Samotlor Field in Russia was greater
during the mid-eighties, but this was because production at
Ghawar was restrained. Development of the southern
Hawiyah and Haradh areas during 1994 to 1996 allowed
production from the Ghawar Field to exceed 5 million barrels
per day once again, more than Samotlor ever produced.

Information about The Ghawar Oil Field

This remarkable production history is because of the enormous size of the Arab-D reservoir in the Ghawar Field.
Alsharhan and Kendall (1986) provide a figure of 693,000
acres (2804 km2) for the productive area of the Ghawar Field.
This re p resents a single, pre s s u re-continuous re s e r v o i r.
Cumulative production by the end of 2000 was about 51
billion barrels of oil.
The anhydrite in the Upper Arab-D forms the seal for the
1,300 foot (396 m) oil column in Ghawar. It is composed of
sabkha evaporites and subaqueous evaporites with thin
carbonate interbeds that can be traced for hundreds of kilometers. The anhydrite thickens to the south at the expense of
the reservoir zones while the combined thickness remains
relatively constant.
The Arab-D reservoir at Ghawar comprises two major
shoaling-upward cycles deposited during a relative highstand in sea level (Mitchell et al, 1988). It is composed of
skeletal grainstones and packstones with ooid grainstones
locally common in the upper Arab-D. The diagenetic
processes that have affected the Arab-D reservoir include
dolomitization, leaching and recrystallization, cementation,
compaction and fracturing.
Interparticle porosity is abundant in the Arab-D reservoir in
the Ghawar Field and moldic porosity is also common.
Intercrystal pores are common in dolomites and microporosity
is abundant in both limestone and dolomite lithologies.

In the uppermost part of the Arab-D are occasional zones that

contain more than 10% of a stromatoporoid sponge known as
cladocoropsis. Where this facies is dolomitized, the relatively
fine-grained matrix is replaced by dolomite and the cladocoropsis is leached, causing a phenomenon described by
reservoir engineers as super-permeability. These superpermeable zones, where present, offer so little resistance to
fluid flow as to be difficult to model for reservoir engineering
purposes.
The source rock for the Ghawar oil is believed to be the
Tuwaiq Mountain Formation, which underlies the Hanifa. It
is Callovian and Oxfordian in age and reaches a thickness of
more than 300 feet (90 m) in the basinal area between the
Ghawar and Khurais Fields. That this moderate volume of
source rock should produce the largest accumulation of light
oil in the world indicates very efficient migration and entrapment. The fact that the Ghawar oil-water contact is substantially higher on the west flank than on the east indicates a
hydrodynamic gradient to the east, which may explain the
much larger volume of oil in Ghawar than in Khurais.
The Ghawar structure consists of two subparallel, northsouth trending structural crests, separated by a saddle. It is
about 174 miles (280 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide. In
the northern part of the field, the saddle dips below the initial
oil-water contact between Uthmaniya and Ain Dar, but the
two crests remain above it. The Fazran and Ain Dar areas are
along the western crest and the Shedgum area is along the
eastern crest. The three southern areas extend across both
crests. These crests existed at the time of Arab-D deposition
and the reservoir quality is best in the crestal areas. A map of
the Ghawar structure at Arab-D level in shown in Figure 1.
The oil-water contact at Ghawar dips to the northeast,
dipping more than 660 feet (200 m) between the southwest
end of Haradh and the Fazran area. The contact is consistently higher on the west flank of the field than on the east,
and a tar mat is associated with the original contact. Water
injection wells are completed above this tar mat for pressure
maintenance.
This peripheral waterflood project began in the early sixties
in the northern parts of the field. By the time that the
southern Hawiyah and Haradh areas were developed during
1994 to 1996, horizontal-drilling technology was available.
Horizontal injectors were completed above the tar mat to
provide line source distribution of water along the periphery
of the field.

Description of Ghawar Oil Field Reservoirs

Primary reservoirs are sandstones of the Permian Unayzah
and Devonian Jauf formations in the Central Arabia QusaibaPaleozoic total petroleum system (TPS), and basal transgressive marine sandstones and cyclic dolomitic shelf carbonates
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of the Late Permian Khuff Formation in the Gulf portion of the

TPS. Other reservoirs include clastics of the Pre-Qusaiba section
that are fault bounded and sourced laterally by the down-faulted
Qusaiba Shale Member. These Pre-Qusaiba clastic reservoirs
include the Cambrian-Ordovician Saq Sandstone, shallowmarine sandstones of the Ordovician Qasim Formation (Senalp
and Al-Duaiji, 2001), and Upper Ordovician glacial and
periglacial clastics of the Zarqu and Sarah Formations
(McGillivray and Husseini, 1992). Many of these Pre-Qusaiba
clastics have had some hydrocarbon shows but are poor-quality
reservoirs owing to silica cementation.
The Upper Permian Unayzah Formation is a complex succession
of generally red continental clastics consisting of braided-plain,
channel-fill, and eolian sand and flood-plain silt that were
deposited on the pre-Unayzah (Hercynian) unconformity
(Senalp and Al-Duaiji, 1995; Evans and others, 1997; Konert and
others, 2001). Regional surface and subsurface data indicate that
the Unayzah is widespread over much of the eastern Arabian
Plate (Al-Laboun, 1987). A recent study by Heine (in press)
showed that sandstones of the Unayzah in the southern Ghawar
area are cold-climate (periglacial) dunes deposited on an eroded
surface that trends across central Saudi Arabia, and possibly over
Bahrain and Qatar.

Figure 1. Structure map of the Ghawar and Abqaiq oil fields.

The Unayzah unconformably underlies the Upper Permian

Khuff Formation. Deposition of continental clastics of the
Unayzah re p resents a major change in sedimentation that
preceded a major marine transgression and widespread deposition of carbonates and evaporites of the Khuff Formation. The
Unayzah Formation is composed of cycles of crossbedded, fineto coarse-grained sandstones, siltstones, and claystones with thin
beds of argillaceous limestone. In central Saudi Arabia, the
lowermost part of the Unayzah consists of debris-flow gravels
and coarse clastics, which infill the Hercynian erosional unconformity on the underlying Qusaiba Shale (Senalp and Al-Duaiji,
1995). The Unayzah Formation fines upward into more distal,
braided-stream bars and channel-fill sandstones, and flood-plain
siltstones. The cyclic nature of the Unayzah suggests a fluctuating sea level. The upper Unayzah unit A is the principal reservoir, averaging about 20 percent porosity. Permeability of several
darcies is not uncommon; however, both porosity and permeability vary due to kaolinite and illite cements (McGillivray and
Husseini, 1992).
In the Greater Ghawar area, the principal Pre-Khuff hydrocarbon
reservoir in the southern area (Haradh substructure field at
Ghawar, and adjacent Sahba, Waqr, and Tinat fields) is the
Unayzah Formation, whereas the Lower to Middle Devonian Jauf
Formation is the main producing reservoir in the northern
Ghawar area (Ghawar substru c t u re fields: Hawiyah,
Uthmaniyah, and Shedgum). In the south Ghawar area, the
Unayzah is generally divided into two sandstone reservoir units
separated by a siltstone member (Wender and others, 1998). Gas
is produced from most Paleozoic reservoirs at Ghawar; however,
Qusaiba-sourced premium crude is produced from the Unayzah
at the Tinat field structure immediately to the southeast. The
Unayzah is missing in the north half of Ghawar field
(McGillivray, 1994) but is present in the south half of Ghawar,
where it thickens from 0 to greater than 152 m at Tinat field.
Porosity of the upper Unayzah-A pay zone ranges from 5 to 25
percent and averages about 12 percent (Wender and others, 1998).

Figure 2. Arabian Peninsula during Early Permian showing area of erosion or

nondeposition (blue dashed lines), known Unayzah dune fields (yellow area), probable glacial lake (blue area), and dominant wind direction (arrow) across central
eroded portion of Arabian Peninsula. Modified from Heine (in press).
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What you know about The Ghawar Oil Field, Saudi Arabia?
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The shallow marine sandstones of the Devonian Jauf reservoir

in the Ghawar area are well developed and commonly display
high (30 percent) porosities at a depth of 4,260 m. In the northern
Ghawar area, the Jauf reservoir ranges in thickness from 89 to
145 m. The giant gas-condensate discovery at the Hawiyah
substructure field at Ghawar is in Jauf sands. These Jauf sandstones are fine to medium grained, are weakly cemented by
authigenic illite clay, and lack the silica cement that is prevalent
and detrimental to reservoir quality of most other Pre-Khuff
sandstones. The authigenic illite is thought to inhibit quartz
cementation and to preserve porosity. At Ghawar field, and at
Abu Safah field in the offshore to the northeast of Ghawar, the
Jauf reservoir is sealed by a distinctive shale-silt layer that is
referred to informally as the D3B zone (Wender and others,

1998). The Late Permian-Early Triassic Khuff Formation unconformably overlies the Unayzah Formation. Gas was discovered
in carbonate rock reservoirs of the Khuff in the Awali field
domal structure of Bahrain in 1949. The Khuff Formation is
ranked as the largest reservoir formation of non-associated gas
in the world with recoverable reserves estimated at about 750
TCF (Konert and others, 2001). Khuff reserves include the
largest gas field in the world at North dome (field), Qatar,
discovered in 1971; its total reserves are estimated at 500 TCF
(Alsharhan and Nairn, 1997). The Khuff Formation produces
primarily gas that probably formed by the cracking of oil
(Bishop, 1995). Locally, the quality of Khuff gas depends upon
the amounts of non-hydrocarbon gases, mainly H2S, CO2, and
N2. The amount of H2S increases with increasing temperature
and depth, reflecting in-place conversion of hydrocarbon gases
to H2S by the thermochemical reduction of anhydrite sulphate
(Konert and others, 2001).
In eastern Saudi Arabia, the Khuff Formation is divided into five
units or members designated as Khuff A through E. However,
throughout the Gulf region the Khuff may comprise as many as
seven designated units or members (Al-Jallal, 1995). Most of the

Figure 3. Stratigraphic column and technostratigraphic events of the Paleozoic

section in the Greater Ghawar area. Modified from Abu-Ali and others (1999;
2001).

Figure 4. Stratigraphic section, major tectonic events and stratigraphic units that
make up the Greater Paleozoic, Jurassic and Cretaceous petroleum systems of the
eastern Arabian Peninsula. Modified from Jawad Ali and Al-Husseini (1996),
Wender and others (1998), Janahi and Mirza (1991), Chauba and Al-Samahhiji
(1995) and Mendeck and Al-Madani (1995).

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Khuff is composed of carbonates and evaporates; major siliciclastic facies increase towards the west. As many as four of the
five units may be reservoirs and correspond to four depositional
carbonate-anhydrite cycles where transgressive carbonate rocks
are capped by regressive anhydrite facies. The Khuff Formation
thickens from about 260 m in southwestern Saudi Arabia to more
than 915 m in the central Rub al Khali Basin, 1,220 m in Oman.

Arabian American Oil Company Staff, Ghawar Oil Field, Saudi Arabia, Bulletin of the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Volume 43, #2, 1959.

Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Impact of 3-D Seismic on Reservoir Characterization and
Development, Ghawar Field, Saudi Arabia, AAPG Studies in Geology #42 and SEG
Geophysical Developments Series #5, AAPG/SEG, Tulsa, 1996.

References
Alsharhan, Abdulrahman S. and Kendall, Christopher G. St. C., Precambrian to
Jurassic Rocks of Arabian Gulf and Adjacent Areas: Their Facies, Depositional Setting, and
Hydrocarbon Habitat, Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists,
volume 70, #8, 1986.

Bramkamp, R. A., Sander, N. J., and Steinecke, M., Stratigraphic Relations of Arabian
Jurassic Oil, Habitat of Oil, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 1958.
Levorsen, A. I., Geology of Petroleum, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1954.
Mitchell, J. C., Lehmann, P.J., Cantrell, D. L., Al-Jallal, I.A. and Al-Thagfay, M.A.R.,
Lithofacies, Diagenesis and Depositional Sequence; Arab-D ember, Ghawar Field, Saudi
Arabia,SEPM Core Workshop #12, Houston, 1988.

United States Energy Information Administration, The Petroleum Resources of the

Middle East, 1982.
Total Petroleum Systems of the Paleozoic and Jurassic, Greater Ghawar Uplift and
Adjoining Provinces of Central Saudi Arabia and Northern Arabian-Persian Gulf by
Richard M. Pollastro Version 1.0, 2003.

Bandar D Al-Anazi is a student in King Saud University in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Department. He
joined in KSU in 2003. He is member in Society of Petroleum Engineers, American Association of Petroleum
Geologists, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Dhahran Geosciences Society, Candidate Fellowship the
Geological Society of London, Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts, European Association of
Geoscientists & Engineers, Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists, The Edinburgh Geological Society
and the Geological Society of South Africa. He was a secretary of SPE-KSU chapter from 2004-2006 and he was
elected as president for the chapter from 2006-2007.

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