Claudine Sylvie Manga, Jean-Pierre Loule, and Jean-Jacques Koum

Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), P. O. Box 955 Yaounde, Cameroon

ABSTRACT: Tectonostratigraphic Evolution and Prospectivity of the Logone Birni Basin, North Cameroon - Central Africa

The Logone Birni Basin (LBB) is an intracratonic basin that formed in response to the Gondwana break-up and subsequent separation of the South American and African plates. It covers an approximate area of 27,000 km² in the northern part of Cameroon, in Central Africa. The LBB belongs to the West and Central African Rift System (WCARS) described by Genik in 1992. Significant oil discoveries have been made in sedimentary basins belonging to the WCARS as is the case for the Doba Basin in Chad. The later is thought to contain one billion barrels of recoverable reserves which are the reason for the construction of the Chad /Cameroon pipeline. From the aerogravity and aeromagnetic interpretation, the LBB is subdivided into three sub-basins from north to south :  the Makary Subbasin or Northern Logone Birni Basin (NLBB), the Zina Subbasin or Central Logone Birni Basin (CLBB) and the Yagoua Subbasin or Southern Logone Birni Basin (SLBB). The Makary and Zina subbasins are separated by the Kousseri Platform. The present investigation covers only the NLBB and the CLBB where sufficient seismic data are available.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90906©2001 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado