Abstract As the Middle East is the prime hydrocarbon province in the world, it is not surprising that micropalaeontological biostratigraphy has been employed by the various national and international oil companies to provide chronostratigraphic, lithostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental control for surface and subsurface samples. The discovery of oil in Iran in 1908, followed by Bahrain in 1932, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in 1938, Qatar in 1939, Abu Dhabi in 1959, Oman in 1963 and Yemen in 1984, led to a proliferation of micropalaeontological laboratories in each country, and numerous taxonomic publications on the Mesozoic and Tertiary foraminifera. The early micropalaeontologists in the region were associated with British exploration companies and were therefore British, whereas those associated with micropalaeontological support of Saudi Arabian stratigraphy were from the United States. Pioneering micropalaeontologists in this region include F. R. S. Henson, T. F. Grimsdale, G. F. Elliott, F. E. Eames, A. H. Smout, R. Bramkamp, C. D. Redmond and N. J. Sander. Other significant micropalaeontological contributions of regional significance have been included, but a comprehensive inclusion of such works is beyond the concept of this chapter.

Abstract Middle and Late Permian reefs flourished for about 20 million years in the Tethys, the Panthalassan ocean, the Delaware Basin, the Zechstein Basin, and the Northwest Pangean era tonic basin Eight reef types, which were differentiated on the basis of their taxonomic composition, belong to four significantly different reef environmental settings: (1) The Tethyan carbonate factory has the highest taxonomic diversity of macro-reefbuilders, yields massive, probably zooxanthellate rugose corals, and is mud-rich. Reef domains occur along the southwestern shelf margin and on Cimmerian as well as Cathyasian terranes. Typical representatives are sponge reefs found in Tunisia or Oman and coral reefs described from China. (2) Epeiric reefs are dominated by micro-framework (e.g., microbial precipitates and low-grawing metazoans), largeamounts of synsedimentary, marine-phreatic cements, and few macro-reefbuilders. Classic localities are known from the Delaware and the Zechstein basins. (3) Reefs of some Panthalassan oceanic buildups (e.g., Mino terrane, Japan) are composed of caleimicrobes, low-growing metazoans, and large amounts of sediment, but macro-reefbuilders (large coralline sponges and massive rugose corals) are absent. (4) Cool-water reefs differ significantly from their tropical counterparts by depositional geometries and taphonomic history. The ethinoderm-and bryozoan-rich associations, which lack cosmopolitan Archaeolilhoporella hidensis , accumulated in biostromes on slightly dipping ramps and did not develop structures with significant relief. The faunas are reworked due to moderate synsedimentary cementation and high turbulence and are well known from the Northwest Pangean cratonic basin. Important Permian reefbuilders are microbes, Archacolithoporclla, Shamovella (formerly Tubiphytes ), coralline sponges, rugose corals, calcareous algae, bryozoans, and brachiopods. Algal-cement reefs with various percentages of microbial precipitates are a common reef type, lacking only in the high latitudes, and have a cosmopolitan character; Shamovella, Archaeolithaparelta , and sponges are common and widespread reefbuilders. Permian reef evolution is discontinuous and characterized by pulses of growth as well as the final demise of late Paleozoic communities followed by the severe gap without true metazoan reefs during the Scythian, The end-Permian mass extinction is twofold, comprising a pre-Lopingian and a Changhsingian event. The latest Permian reefs are restricted to the equator and are characterized by high diversities Intercalated sediments enriched in calcareous algae indicate global warming. Middle and Late Permian reefs bear an underestimated hydrocarbon reservoir potential, especially in (1) epeiric basins with occasional upwelling of hypersaline waters, (2) karatified and dolomitized Tethyan reefs, (3) carbonates related to upwelling at continental margins, and (4) cool-water carbonates with reefbuilders. Productive reservoirs are known from Tethyan reefs, including China, Thailand, and Tunisia.