Abstract The Penguins Cluster of fields are owned jointly (50:50) by Shell UK Ltd (Shell) and Esso Exploration and Production UK Ltd (Esso), with Shell as the operator. The cluster was discovered in 1974 and is composed of a combination of oil and gas condensate accumulations located 50–65 km north of the Brent Field, at the northern end of the North Viking Graben. Two main producing reservoirs are present: the Penguins West Field (Penguin A) consists of an Upper Jurassic Magnus Sandstone Member reservoir, while the Penguins East Field (Penguin C, D and E) consists of a Middle Jurassic Brent Group reservoir, underlain by currently undeveloped Statfjord and Triassic (Cormorant) reservoirs. The Magnus reservoir is composed of turbidite sands with an average porosity of 15% and permeabilities of 0.10–300 mD. The Brent reservoirs are composed of deltaic shoreface deposits with an average porosity of 14% and permeabilities of 0.01–1000 mD. The fields were brought on stream in 2003 as a subsea development via what at the time was the world's longest comingled tieback to the Brent Charlie facility. A total of nine producing wells have been drilled from four subsea manifolds, producing c. 78 MMboe to date through depletion drive.

Abstract The development of laser ablation techniques using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry has enabled the routine and fast acquisition of in situ U–Pb and Pb–Pb isotope ratio data from single detrital grains or parts of grains. Detrital zircon dating is a technique that is increasingly applied to sedimentary provenance studies. However, sand routing information using zircon analysis alone may be obscured by repeated sedimentary reworking cycles and mineral fertility variations. These biases are illustrated by two clear case studies from the Triassic–Jurassic of the Barents Shelf where the use of U–Pb geochronology on apatite and rutile and Pb–Pb isotopic data from K-feldspar is highly beneficial for provenance interpretations. In the first case study, U–Pb apatite ages from the (Induan – Norian) Havert, Kobbe and Snadd formations indicate an evolving provenance and identify possible episodes of storage within foreland basins prior to delivery onto the Barents Shelf. In the second case study, U–Pb rutile and Pb isotopic analyses of K-feldspar from the Norian–Pliensbachian Realgrunnen Subgroup provide a clear distinction between north Norwegian Caledonides and Fennoscandian Shield sources and suggest that a similar approach may be used to test competing models for sand dispersal for this Subgroup in regions farther north than this study.

ABSTRACT The Minjur Formation crops out along the eastern rim of the Arabian shield and consists of alternating sandstone and shales with minor carbonates. Informally subdivided into lower and upper units, the Minjur Formation records depositional environments ranging from alluvial to marginal marine with tidally influenced channels. The stacking patterns reflect delta or shoreline progradation and retrogradation, recording an overall coarsening upward character. In outcrop, the Minjur Formation was dated as Norian by conodonts near the base. In the subsurface, palynology has established a fourfold biostratigraphic subdivision extending from latest Carnian–early Norian to latest Rhaetian–Pliensbachian (Triassic–Early Jurassic). This study improves the understanding of Minjur stratigraphy and presents a depositional model based on surface–subsurface correlation. Subsequent to a period of subaerial exposure in the west, transgression in the early middle Norian was marked by marginal marine environments, with peak marine influence in the mid–late Norian and corresponding to the maximum flooding interval Tr80. This was followed by development of a gently inclined alluvial or coastal plain. An intra-Rhaetian hiatus separates the Lower Minjur Formation from the Upper Minjur Formation (base of TSS AP7[?]), and a variety of depositional environments are represented, including alluvial fans proximally, grading to fluvial to coastal plain and shallow marine environments distally.

ABSTRACT Upper Triassic and Lower to Middle Jurassic strata in the Plomosas uplift of central Chihuahua accumulated in backarc and rift settings, respectively. The succession, as much as ~3250 m thick, consists of four stratigraphic units. The Cerro El Carrizalillo Formation (Carnian–Norian), a volcanic-lithic shallow-marine succession deposited in the (newly named) El Carrizalillo backarc basin, is characterized by predominantly Triassic detrital zircon ages. The overlying Plomosas Formation consists of three members: (1) the Cerro de Enmedio Member (Hettangian–Toarcian), a succession of conglomerate, siltstone, and shallow-marine carbonate strata deposited during the onset of extension in Chihuahua; (2) the Cerro Nevado Ignimbrite Member (176 ± 1 Ma; late Toarcian), a widespread ash-flow tuff; and (3) La Sofía Member (Aalenian–Callovian?), consisting of alluvial-fan conglomerate, fluvial sandstone, tidal sandstone and siltstone, and delta-plain red beds characterized by rapid facies changes, lithic compositions, and diverse Proterozoic, Paleozoic, and Triassic detrital zircon ages characteristic of a rift-basin setting. The extensional basin in which the Cerro de Enmedio and La Sofía members accumulated is termed the Plomosas basin. Improved age control provided by U-Pb maximum depositional ages from detrital zircon and U-Pb zircon analyses of the ignimbrite indicates that the Cerro El Carrizalillo Formation is partly correlative with the Chinle Formation of the Colorado Plateau, and the Plomosas Formation is equivalent to eolianites of the Glen Canyon and San Rafael Groups of the Colorado Plateau. Detrital zircon ages and sandstone textures are consistent with both proximal and distal sediment sources along the Laurentia-Gondwana suture and adjoining Grenville basement of Laurentia, including sources in northern Mexico and the composite Appalachian orogen. Although the depositional setting of the Cerro El Carrizalillo Formation was not connected to fluvial systems of the Chinle Formation, subsequent eolian transport of voluminous sediment to the overlying Cerro de Enmedio and La Sofía members from the Colorado Plateau ergs is suggested by the composition and texture of some sandstone, thick siltstone accumulations, and detrital zircon characteristics that broadly resemble those of the Colorado Plateau eolianites. Thick siltstone in the upper part of La Sofía Member is interpreted as deflated fine-grained sediment that was transported downwind from a time-equivalent erg to accumulate in shallow-marine and coastal-plain settings of the Plomosas basin.