Contribution to Petroleum Exploration of Recent Geophysical Surveys Offshore Egypt

Michel Chanliau, Alain Bruneton

Results will be presented from three geological surveys acquired in 1986 and 1987 offshore Egypt as part of a long-term agreement with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation. The Nile Delta survey, comprising 1,300 km of seismic, gravity, and magnetic data, outlines the major factors that influenced the recent structural and sedimentary evolution of the Egyptian continental margin: the Nile Delta system, deposition of Messinian evaporites, and tectonics related to the Mediterranean ridge. Geology input is based on well data from 18 recent deep wells tied to this survey and scattered along the delta. The offshore north Sinai survey reveals that the geomorphological system known as the Syrian arc, which is well developed in northern Sinai, extends offshore the continent l slope, resulting in deep, broad anticline features trending northeast-southwest. For the Gulf of Suez survey, 2,250 km of regional seismic lines were acquired, tying 110 significant wells to permit accurate seismic calibration.

Peg-leg multiple generation, ray-path distortion by complicated tectonics, and poor penetration through thick evaporites have long been the challenges that rendered seismic exploration in the Gulf of Suez extremely difficult. New ideas for both acquisition and processing have revealed small-scale block faulting (and its influences on sedimentary processes) and have improved understanding below salt. A study of the geodynamics of the area, largely based on these data, was recently produced. Interpreted profiles and sketch maps, illustrating the tectonic modeling of both pre-rift and syn-rift sedimentary series, will be displayed and discussed.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91032©1988 Mediterranean Basins Conference and Exhibition, Nice, France, 25-28 September 1988.