SOUVENIR COMMITTEE - Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Training Programme on “PALYNOLOGY IN FOSSIL FUEL EXPLORATION” [ September 10-17, 2012 ] INTRODUCTION TO DINOFLAGELLATES: CYST MORPHOLOGY AND TERMINOLOGY N.C. MEHROTRA Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53, University Road, Lucknow E-mail: mehrotrabsip@rediffmail.com, director@bsip.res.in The dinoflagellates are in today's environments an extremely diverse group of protists. The only dinoflagellates of importance to paleopalynogists are those which have a complex life cycle with a thin walled, motile, characteristically flagellate stage usually called the theca or thecate stage, and a nonmotile, thick-walled encysted stage, the cyst. Sporopolleninous cysts of dinoflagellates are common from Triassic rocks to present, mostly in marine environments, but also in sediments deposited in fresh and brackish water. Thecae of dinoflagellates of the order Peridiniales are divided into several series of more or less polygonal units, the plates. The lines of separation between plates and sutures, and the sum of the characteristics of the plates (i.e., their number, size, arrangement into series, shape, mutual contacts) constitute the tabulation. Certain aspects of the tabulation (number of plates in each series) may be abbreviated in a tabulation formula (or plate formula) using the form and symbols suggested by Kofoid. An unit area on the cyst corresponding to a thecal plate is a paraplate. Paraplates are delineated by parasutures (i.e., linear features which correspond in position to thecal sutures), or by nonparasutural features (e.g., intratabular processes or process groups) that are positioned in areas corresponding to the more central parts of the thecal plates. The sum of the characteristics of the paraplates constitutes the paratabulation formula. A paratabulation formula gives the number of evident paraplates in each series, but it does not include information on the morphological expression or on the size and mutual relationships of the evident paraplates. Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow 25
Training Programme on “PALYNOLOGY IN FOSSIL FUEL EXPLORATION” [ September 10-17, 2012 ] HIGHT IMPACT PALYNOLOGY IN HYDROCARBON EXPLORATION IN COMMERCIALLY PRODUCING BASINS OF INDIA WITH RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS OF BSIP NARESH C. MEHROTRA Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53, University Road, Lucknow – 226007, India E-mail: mehrotrabsip@rediffmail.com With the fast growing hydrocarbon exploration activities in India, a good amount of subsurface palynofossil data is continuously being generated from the various prospective sedimentary basins. Most of the exploration work was carried out by Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC), India's National Oil Company. However, with the opening of exploration activities to private operators in the last decade, a lot of geoscientific information has been generated. Palynological studies related to hydrocarbon exploration have been mainly published by Mehrotra and associates in the last decade from ONGC and Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany (BSIP). A comprehensive account of stratigraphic palynology in the commercially producing basins of India – Cambay, Mumbai Offshore, Cauvery, Krishna-Godavari (K-G) and Assam- Arakan has been given by Mehrotra et al. (2002). This has been quickly followed by publication of additional information on palynological biostratigraphy, source rock evaluation, palaeoenvironment and sequence biostratigraphy, particularly from the Western Offshore and K-G basins. It includes Atlas of dinoflagellate cysts from Mesozoic (Mehrotra & Aswal, 2003) and Tertiary (Mehrotra & Singh, 2003) of Krishna-Godavari Basin and significant palynological information from several exploratory wells in Mumbai Offshore (Mehrotra et al., 2002b and Kapoor & Swamy, 2007). Another major publication dealing mainly with stratigraphic ranges of significant palynofossils was published (Mehrotra et al., 2005). Recently Mehrotra et al. (2008) reviewed the available information on high resolution biochronostratigraphy of petroliferous basins based on dinoflagellate cysts and spore-pollen data. This presentation gives an updated account of palynostratigraphic, source rock evaluation and palaeoenvironmental information from several petroliferous basins, especially the Western Offshore and Krishna-Godavari (K-G), the two most prospective hydrocarbon bearing basins with special reference to application of Dinoflagellate Cysts in Hydrocarbon Exploration. Forty-three dinoflagellate biohorizons have been identified in the subsurface Tertiary sediments of Mumbai Offshore, facilitating a high resolution correlation of oil bearing horizons. Integrated palynostratigraphic data from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic has been compiled in a tabular form. Eighty-two dinoflgellate biohorizons have been identified and tied up with foraminiferal data. A very fine dinoflagellate based stratigraphic resolution has been achieved at most levels making it effective in geological modeling for hydrocarbon exploration research in both Western Offshore and Krishna-Godavari basins. In Cambay Basin, five dinoflagellate horizons have been identified with in Ypersian. In Cauvery Basin, dinoflagellate cysts have been found useful for precisely dating Cretaceous to Early Eocene sediments and are partly tied up with planktonic foraminifera. In Assam basin, seven biochronohorizons have been distinguished between Thanetian top to Priabonian. A recent research from BSIP showing first record of Type I matured, Liptinite organic matter facies from Late Neoproterozoic of Rajasthan is considered significant. This throws open an entirely new basin for hydrocarbon exploration from Neoproterozoic sediments in Rajasthan and other similar prospective basins in India. Another recent find of acritarchs and algae suggest a Cryogenian to Ediacaran age for the pre-Tertiary Sequence of Ganga Basin; this represents an extension of Marwar Super Group sediments. Organic matter maturation studies indicate possibility of hydrocarbons in Ganga Basin. This is a collaborative work of BSIP with ONGC. Limitations of present biostratigraphic studies and future areas of focus have been identified. The major petroliferous systems identified in Indian basins - Cambay, Western Offshore, K-G, Cauvery and Assam-Arakan have been briefly dealt with. Potential source rock facies have been identified and their distribution mapped in several promising areas for furthering exploration. Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow 26
Page 3 and 4: TRAINING ON PALYNOLOGY IN FOSSIL FU
Page 5: Contents From the Desk of Director,
Page 9 and 10: Training Programme on “PALYNOLOGY
Page 11: THE SPEAKERS • [ Profiles and Abs
Page 32 and 33: . Training Programme on “PALYNOLO
Page 47 and 48: THE TRAINEES • [ Profiles ] 3
Page 63: ABOUT LUCKNOW Luck Now, that you ar
Page 69: ABOUT Birbal Sahni Institute of Pal

SOUVENIR COMMITTEE - Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?