Acknowledgements
My utmost gratitude goes to my thesis advisor, Dr. Christopher Kendall for allowing me to join his team, for his expertise, kindness, and most of all, for his patience. I believe that one of the main gains of this 2-years program was working with Dr. Kendall and gaining his trust and friendship. My thanks and appreciation goes to my thesis committee members, Dr. Jim Kellogg and Dr. Phil Moore. I am greatly indebted to my administrator, Mohammed Tayyib, in Saudi Aramco for nominating me to pursue a degree in geology. I wouldn't be performing this work without Mohammed's continual encouragement and support. I thank Saudi Aramco's management including my department managers Kamal Al-Yahya, and Saad Al-Akeel, and the higher management of the EXPEC ECC and Petroleum Engineering for their trust in me and providing me with this opportunity to acquire the knowledge and expertise in order to contribute to the support of the exploration program Saudi Aramco is presently engaged in. Bryan Clement's support and readiness to help made my work so much smoother, thank you Bryan. Above all, I thank my wife, Miyuki who stood beside me and encouraged me constantly, my thanks to my children, Usaama and Alaa for giving me happiness and joy, for my brothers, Adel, Khalid, Fuad, and especially Salah for being my best friend and for their continuous support and interest in what I do. Finally, I would like to thank my mother whose love is boundless and for my father who is my role model.