Have a reservoir or ore problem needing an economic solution?

Here is what we can do

Saltwork's professional expertise encompasses a range of subsurface skill sets dealing with carbonate, evaporite and brine studies. Listed below are summaries of some of the problem sets  we solved in the last few years. If you or your company would like to involve us in one or more of your current or future projects please let us know, so we can tell you what we can do to help out.

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Globigerinid reservoirs, Indonesia

The course focuses on reservoir quality and its subsurface prediction. To understand the unique nature of wireline indicators in various carbonates, the participant must first gain a rockSedimentological logging, thin sections, SEM, wireline and stable isotope analysis of core and cuttings recovered from variable-quality Late Miocene globigerinid sands shows the best quality reservoirs are internalite deposits. Periodic passage of internal waves (solitons) over otherwise muddy carbonates of the upper slope converted mud-dominant wackestones and mudstones into grain-dominant packstones and grainstones.

Reservoirs accumulated as fairways of cross-bedded foraminiferal sands laid down in mechanically-reworked sweet-spots. The sand deposition was focused into submarine-gully-backflow thicks, within wave-reworked deeper water swash zones, on the upper slope and outer platform. Isotopic analysis of matrix and cements shows that post-depositional alteration in the reservoir s minimal.
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These gullied and channelled globigerinid sand bodies (internalite deposits) are seismically resolvable and cut into bed-parallel sandy slope-parallel reflectors. This seismic signature indicates regions where internal-wave orbitals and swash zones intersected the carbonate slope south of the Madura Ridge (water depths ≈100-300m). It gives a new exploration paradigm that is quantitatively based on a deeper understanding of depositional and diagenetic evolution, within a tectonic and climatic framework.

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Dallol Potash evaluation, Ethiopia

Study of core and outcrops in the Dallol region of the Danakhil depression, Ethiopia, shows the complexity of potash minerals and their alteration. Previous work failed to differentiate the three main stages and styles of potash precipitation; 1) Primary kainitite associations in the primary textured subaqueous succession, 2) Secondary sylvinite in basin margin phreatic interfaces and 3) Hydrothermal sylvinite associated with geothermally-driven fluids and hydrothermal karst breakouts across the uplifted region in the vicinity of the Dallol Mound. This new understanding better defined the viability of various mining techniques.

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Thrust seals in the Amadeus Basin, Australia

Integration of FMI and CAST image logs with conventional wireline-derived mineralogy is used to characterise the halokinetic Bitter Springs evaporites (and equivalents) atop the main regional thrust level.

A new model was constructed from kinetic and tectonic textures that redefine the timing and nature of the brecciated anhydrite and halite levels across much of the basin. 

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Reservoir slivers in the South Oman salt basin

A comprehensive study was completed of the depositional, diagenetic and halokinetic controls in carbonate-sliver reservoirs, encased in the Ara Salt, in the South Oman Salt Basin.

The integration of wireline, core and seismic defined a new model that broke out a new stratigraphy with exploration and development implications at both the regional and local scales. 

John Warren

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Principal investigator

John is the principal expert and technical coordinator for Saltworks. His career spans more than 30 years in salty systems. Currently, he splits his time between various projects within SaltWork Consultancy Pte Ltd. and modular teaching/research commitments at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. His interests encompass; Wireline Analysis, Carbonate and Evaporite Systems, Economic Geology and Potash exploration and development.

John has written four books on economic aspects of these topics. He has also contributed chapters covering these topics in several books and has published more than 60 scientific articles. If you want to access some of these papers, check out the publications section.

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