Dukhan Field is a large

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

-producing field extending over an area of approximately 80 km in

Dukhan Dukhan ( ar, دخان) is a city in the western municipality of Al-Shahaniya in the State of Qatar. It is approximately west of the capital, Doha. Dukhan is administrated by Qatar's state oil agency QatarEnergy and is the site of the first oi ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

. The first well was drilled in 1939/1940 and the first export of petroleum from Dukhan went out in 1949. The field produces up to of crude oil per day.

Overview

The onshore Dukhan field, located along the west coast of the peninsula, is the country's largest producing oil field. The field is roughly long and between to wide. It contains four reservoirs: Khatiyah, Fahahil and Jaleha/Diyab, three are oil reservoirs, and one contains non-associated gas. Oil and gas are separated in four

degassing Degassing, also known as degasification, is the removal of dissolved gases from liquids, especially water or aqueous solutions. There are numerous methods for removing gases from liquids. Gases are removed for various reasons. Chemists remove ga ...

stations: Khatiyah North, Khatiyah Main, Fahahil Main and Jaleha. Stabilized crude is transported by pipeline to the Mesaieed port.

History

Exploratory drilling was initiated in 1938 on the Dukhan anticline and, in 1939, the initial oil well was struck in the Number 3 Limestone of the Qatar Formation. Operations were put on hold temporarily in 1942 due to the Second World War but were resumed in 1947. In 1949, oil was discovered in two reservoirs of the Upper Jurassic Arab Formation known as Arab C and Arab D. On 28 March 1953, a massive fire erupted at well DK35, which was drilling the Arab-D reservoir.

Geology

The Dukhan Field is situated on the Dukhan

anticline In structural geology, an anticline is a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of an anticline. A typical anticline is convex up in which the hinge or crest is the ...

, a group of folds which runs in a NNW to SSE direction parallel with the western coast. The Dukhan anticline, with its thin lengthened structure and moderately steep dips stands out from the greater part of the neighboring folds. This has prompted some geologists to associate its formation with deep-seated salt movement. The overall length of the anticline is roughly 80 km above the lowest closing contour. Jebel Nakhsh lies at the southern boundary of the anticline. The Dukhan anticline demonstrates a range in the extremity of folding along its length; the folding of the northern part being more pronounced than the southern. Intricate mapping of the anticline was carried out in 1948–49.

References

Foreign ministry of Qatar's description of Dukhan Field
* The Qatar Oil Discoveries, Rasoul Sorkhabi, Ph.D., in GEO ExPro Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 1 - 2010 http://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2010/01/the-qatar-oil-discoveries Oil fields of Qatar {{oilfield-stub