Evolution of Upper Carboniferous tight sandstone reservoirs in the Ruhr and Lower Saxony basins (NW Germany) of the Central European Variscan foreland

Foreland basins have been extensively explored for hydrocarbon resources, geothermal, and gas storage applications, and multidisciplinarily studied to reconstruct orogenic processes. In fact, in the case of the Late Carboniferous Central European Variscan foreland basin, numerous drill cores have been recovered by the hard coal industry and comprehensive geological data sets have been made available by research. These cores and data sets provide a continuous record of the tectono-sedimentary and reservoir evolution over time. For this purpose, we have compiled petrophysical and petrographic literature data of >450 mostly tight (porosity 5%, however, pore space is progressively clogged and the porosity preserving effect diminishes.