AN EARLY OLIGOCENE OIL SEEPAGE AT THE SOUTHERN RIM OF THE NORTH-SEA BASIN, NEAR LEUVEN (BELGIUM)

Citation
Ed. Vanriessen et N. Vandenberghe, AN EARLY OLIGOCENE OIL SEEPAGE AT THE SOUTHERN RIM OF THE NORTH-SEA BASIN, NEAR LEUVEN (BELGIUM), Geologie en mijnbouw, 74(4), 1995, pp. 301-312
Citations number
15
Categorie Soggetti
Geology,"Mining & Mineral Processing
Journal title
ISSN journal
00167746
Volume
74
Issue
4
Year of publication
1995
Pages
301 - 312
Database
ISI
SICI code
0016-7746(1995)74:4<301:AEOOSA>2.0.ZU;2-5
Abstract
A prominent chocolate-coloured horizon at the top of the Kerkom Sand ( Oligocene, Tongeren Group) near Pellenberg in the Leuven area (Belgium ), has traditionally been interpreted as the illuvial zone of a podsol type soil. Observed features however are equally compatible with an o rigin as an oil-saturated reservoir sand. In fact, organic geochemical analyses indicate strongly that a fossil oil seepage is the most like ly interpretation. The time of oil impregnation may be related to an i mportant tectonic re-arrangement, which started at the very end of the Eocene, and probably triggered the leakage and migration of oil from traps in the southwest of the Netherlands. The oil migrated through po rous sands up the gentle northern flank of the Brabant Massif, guided by clayey seals till it reached the surface. The presence of a fossil oil seepage in the Leuven area, means that possible traps, downdip of the Pellenberg outcrop, may contain accumulations of oil.