Impact of depositional facies on the distribution of diagenetic alterations in the Devonian shoreface sandstone reservoirs, Southern Ghadamis Basin, Libya

• Depositional facies have strong impact on distribution of diageneic alterations.
• Upper shoreface display limited diagenetic alterations and high reservoir quality.
• Middle and lower shoreface display strong diagenetic alterations and hence poor reservoir quality.
• Kaolin dominates the coarser-grained sandstones, whereas quartz overgrowths and illite dominates the fine grained.

The middle Devonian, shoreface quartz arenites (present-day burial depths 2833-2786 m) are important oil and gas reservoirs in the Ghadamis Basin, western Libya. This integrated petrographic and geochemical study aims to unravel the impact of depositional facies on distribution of diagenetic alterations and, consequently, related reservoir quality and heterogeneity of the sandstones. Eogenetic alterations include the formation of kaolinite, pseudomatrix, and pyrite. The mesogenetic alterations include cementation by quartz overgrowths, Fe-dolomite/ankerite, and illite, transformation of kaolinite to dickite, illitization of smectite, intergranular quartz dissolution, and stylolitization, and albitization of feldspar. The higher energy of deposition of the coarser-grained upper shoreface sandstones combined with less extensive chemical compaction and smaller amounts of quartz overgrowths account for their better primary reservoir quality compared to the finer-grained, middle-lower shoreface sandstones. The formation of kaolin in the upper and middle shoreface sandstones is attributed to a greater flux of meteoric water. More abundant quartz overgrowths in the middle and lower shoreface is attributed to a greater extent of stylolitization, which was promoted by more abundant illitic clays. This study demonstrated that linking the distribution of diagenetic alterations to depositional facies of shoreface sandstones leads to a better understanding of the impact of these alterations on the spatial and temporal variation in quality and heterogeneity of the reservoirs.