Geology of the Warda Discovery, Gulf of Suez, Egypt

VARGO, JAN M., MARY J. GREET, BARCLAY P. COLLINGS, CRAIG B. DAVIS, and M. H. MILLER, BG Services (U.S.)., Inc., Houston, TX

British Gas, as operator for its partners, Yukong Ltd., and Union Pacific Petroleum Suez Ltd., recently discovered the Warda field in the Gulf of Suez in November 1990. Discovery well Hb78-2, located 4 km off the mouth of the Wadi Araba on the west side of the north-central Gulf of Suez, reached a total depth of 8400 ft in Nubia clastics. Oil was tested in the Hb78-2 from five separate clastic intervals at a cumulative flow rate of approximately 7000 BOPD of 20-24 degree API with no water. Currently, an appraisal well program is underway to extend the limits of the field. This significant new-field discovery is located in a part of the Suez basin that was previously considered to have limited oil potential.

Geophysical assessment of the structure used exploration 3-D seismic coverage and concurrently acquired potential-fields datasets. The Warda structure at Kareen-Rudeis levels is a broad four-way closure, trending northwest-southeast, which drapes over older pre-Miocene tilted fault blocks. The Warda structure lies downthrown to a major "Clysmic" shoulder fault and is bounded on the northeast by another Clysmic "down-to-the-basin" normal fault. Cross faulting is noted at the deeper levels, and particularly influences the rift boundary faults.

According to burial-history modeling, oil generation occurred within the 4-5 million years after the Eocene-Senonian carbonate source rocks achieved onset of oil generation at a birthline of 10,000-11,000 ft subsea. The Cretaceous-Carboniferous Nubia sandstones apparently have acted as a conduit for oil migration from the adjacent Lagia hydrocarbon kitchen a few kilometers to the northeast.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91007© 1991 AAPG International Conference, London, England, September 29-October 2, 1991 (2009)