Lyell Collection
Geological Society, London, Special Publications
Lyell Centre  |   Lyell Collection  |   Subscriptions   |   Geological Society  |   Email alerts  |   Online bookshop  |   Help

Keywords:
Author:
Advanced search>>
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) FREE
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Glennie, K. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1986; v. 23; p. 3-22;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1986.023.01.01
© 1986 Geological Society of London

Regional Studies

Development of N.W. Europe’s Southern Permian Gas Basin

K. W. Glennie

Shell U.K. Exploration and Production

The Southern Permian Basin contains over 4.1 x 1012 m3 of recoverable non-associated gas, most of which is found in Early Permian Rotliegend sandstones. The most important source of this gas is Carboniferous coal deposited in a proto-Tethys foredeep basin. Where the coals were overlain by Rotliegend desert sands and by Late Permian Zechstein halite, the scene was set for creating important reservoirs for gas.

Deformation of the reservoir and seal to create a trap, and the generation and migration of Carboniferous gas, resulted from the structural history of the area, which was shaped in part by underlying crustal blocks and zones of crustal weakness. Much of this history was related to events most clearly expressed beyond the limits of N.W. Europe in the North Atlantic and Tethys:

(1) E.-W. tension, which gave rise to the oblique-slip-induced subsidence of many sub-basins within the Southern Permian Basin, caused the consecutive creation of the Viking-Central graben system and Rockall Trough, and ended with the crustal spreading of the Atlantic Ocean; and
(2) the early Mesozoic opening of Tethys, its Cretaceous closure and ensuing Alpine orogeny, which induced inversion in many areas of the Southern Permian Basin that are now gas bearing.