RESEARCH ARTICLE Facies analysis and distribution of Late Palaeogene deep-water massive sandstones in submarine-fan lobes, NW Borneo Muhammad Jamil 1,2 | Numair Ahmed Siddiqui 1 | Muhammad Usman 3,4 | Ali Wahid 5 | Muhammad Umar 6 | Nisar Ahmed 1 | Izhar Ul Haq 1 | Mohamed A. K. El-Ghali 7 | Qazi Sohail Imran 1 | Abdul Hadi Abd Rahman 1 | Shiqi Zhang 3 1 Department of Geosciences, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia 2 Department of Earth Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Abbottabad, Pakistan 3 School of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum, East China, China 4 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy 5 Institute of Geology, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan 6 Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Haripur, Haripur, Pakistan 7 Department of Earth Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman Correspondence Muhammad Jamil, Department of Geosciences, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar, 32610 Perak, Malaysia. Email: jamil287@gmail.com Funding information Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, Grant/ Award Numbers: 16880, FRGS/1/2019/ STG09/UTP/03/1; Yayasan UTP, Grant/ Award Number: 015LC0-363 Handling Editor: M. Ramkumar Deep-water massive sandstones (DWMS) are characterized by large volumes of sand accumulations which are considered as potential reservoir intervals in deep-marine envi- ronments. Lithological variations and bed thickness statistics are used to interpret the distribution of massive sandstones in a deep-marine fan-lobe system. These massive sandstones are interpreted based on lithological heterogeneities and detailed facies anal- ysis in seventeen exposed sections of the Late Palaeogene deposits in Sabah, NW Borneo. Sedimentary logs containing details of lithology textures and structures were used to recognize nine sedimentary facies of DWMS. These lithofacies were then grouped into three sedimentary facies associations: (1) massive facies association with basal part of turbiditic Bouma sequence, (2) massive facies association having soft- sediment deformation structures, and (3) massive facies association with erosional features. The facies analysis portrays inner to middle submarine fan deposition and was later applied to reconstruct the distribution of a channel-lobe complex. Individual sand- stone bed thicknesses vary from 1 m to more than 8 m and the number of massive sandstones in submarine lobes range from less than 10% to more than 50%. The thick- nesses of massive sandstones in channels are more than 8 m, whereas distal lobes have thicknesses from 1–2 m only. These sandstones are concentrated in channels, proximal and medial lobe settings that can also be verified from calculating the average of all max- imum thickness of massive sand intervals that is, 8.91 m. The lithological heterogeneities and the processes associated with the deposition of these massive sandstones are vital for potential hydrocarbon reservoirs in the deep-marine environments around the globe. KEYWORDS bed thickness statistics, channel-lobe complex, Crocker submarine fan, deep-water massive sandstones, facies analysis and facies association, NW Borneo, West Sabah Basin 1 | INTRODUCTION The term ‘deep-water massive sandstones’ (DWMS) is used to describe the massive sandstones present in deep-marine environments (Johansson et al., 1998; Stevenson & Peakall, 2010; Stow & Johansson, 2000). The study of DWMS became the focus of emerging research over the last two decades and the concept is readily applicable to several deep-marine sandstone deposits across the globe including Received: 16 July 2021 Revised: 16 June 2022 Accepted: 5 July 2022 DOI: 10.1002/gj.4553 Geological Journal. 2022;1–19. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/gj © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1