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Facies, depositional environments, and anatomy of the Subis build-up in Sarawak, Malaysia: implications on other Miocene isolated carbonate build-ups

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Abstract

Isolated carbonate build-ups of Miocene age are important hydrocarbon reservoirs in SE Asia and globally. The architecture of the build-up rim and fore-reef talus is poorly understood. The Subis build-up is one of the cycle I–II carbonate outcrops exposed along the coastal Sarawak in an area of 5 × 6 km2, with an exposed thickness of 390 m. This provides an opportunity to document the composition and architecture of rim and talus deposits in an isolated build-up as an analogue for similar gas-bearing structures located offshore Central Luconia, in Malaysia, which were neither drilled nor cored so far. This paper documents sedimentological characteristics, lateral and vertical facies relationships, of the marginal sections of a build-up in a large quarry exposing the Subis Limestone. The Subis Limestone is composed of massive and branching corals, coralline red algae, benthic foraminifera, bivalves, gastropods, echinoids, and occasionally bryozoans and sponges. Eight microfacies types and four environments were defined to describe the Subis Limestone: outer talus, inner talus, reef rim, and lagoon. Nine genera of benthic foraminifera were interpreted, confirming an early Miocene age (cycle II) of the succession. Three major backstepping events were observed at the build-up, where they developed inward towards the center of the build-up.

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Fig. 1

(adapted and modified from Google Terrain Map, 2016)

Fig. 2

(modified from Dedeche 2012)

Fig. 3
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Fig. 7
Fig. 8

(adapted from Ali and Abolins 1999). These benthic foraminifera indicate shallow-marine reefoid, from fore-reef to protected back-reef environments (red rectangle)

Fig. 9

The environment chart is adapted from Ali and Abolins (1999)

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor Dr. Axel Munnecke for a thorough editorial work and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. We also gratefully acknowledge Dr. Manoj Mathew for help with the revision of the manuscript. The authors gratefully thank the generous support of the Debbestone Quarry management and staff (Mr. Albert Wong, Mr. Liabo, Mr. Lihan) and Ting King King from Shell Miri Malaysia. Lastly, we would like to thank all SEACaRL staff for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. South East Asia Carbonate Research Laboratory (SEACaRL), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Bandar, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

    Bing Bing Saw, Markus Schlaich, Michael C. Pöppelreiter & Syed Haroon Ali

  2. Department of Geology, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, 636011, India

    Mu. Ramkumar

  3. PETRONAS Carigali, PETRONAS Twin Tower, Kuala Lumpur, 50088, Malaysia

    Peter Lunt

  4. Faculty of Geoscience and Petroleum Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Bandar, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

    Jose Antonio Gamez Vintaned

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  1. Bing Bing Saw
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Correspondence to Bing Bing Saw.

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Saw, B.B., Schlaich, M., Pöppelreiter, M.C. et al. Facies, depositional environments, and anatomy of the Subis build-up in Sarawak, Malaysia: implications on other Miocene isolated carbonate build-ups. Facies 65, 28 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-019-0571-6

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