--> Abstract: Salt Tectonics and Play Types, Offshore Atlantic Morocco, by Gabor Tari, Marek Kaminski, Charlton Miller, David Valasek, and Gary Walters; #90072 (2007)

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Salt Tectonics and Play Types, Offshore Atlantic Morocco

Gabor Tari1, Marek Kaminski2, Charlton Miller2, David Valasek2, and Gary Walters2
1AllyGabor Geoscience, Bellaire, TX
2Vanco Energy Company, Houston, TX

The Moroccan salt basin is still one of the underexplored West African salt basins. There are several play types offshore which were defined by extensive 2D and 3D reflection seismic surveys. In the Safi segment of the margin there are at least eight different play types, mostly salt-related. Combination structural inversion-stratigraphic traps include Middle Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous basin floor fans with potential hydrocarbon charge from deeply buried gas-prone Lower Jurassic marine shales. Another type of combination trap include toe-thrust anticline structures associated with the leading edge of the allochthonous salt. Other salt-supported plays are represented by subsalt structural traps and ponded turbidites in the updip salt-withdrawal minibasins. Beneath the present-day upper slope, several turtle and raft structures can be found as the result of pronounced downdip translation on a salt detachment surface. In the Ras Tafelney segment of the Moroccan margin, the salt tectonics is more advanced and therefore almost all the play types are salt-related. Tertiary structural-stratigraphic traps include submarine channel systems influenced by several salt diapirs/tongues close to the edge of the salt basin. The salt-cored toe-thrust anticlines provide spectacular structures but may have an uneven reservoir distribution within the Upper Cretaceous sequence. There are several traps associated with salt tongues and diapirs defining the classical salt-flank play. A large number of salt sheets and canopies provide for the Gulf of Mexico-style subsalt play. The subsalt traps include of anticlinal structures and truncation traps within the Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic strata. Outboard of the salt basin, the Neocomian (and Middle Jurassic?) inverted basin floor fan play represents yet another untested play type. These large, low-amplitude anticlines were formed during the mid-Tertiary as the result of the deepwater manifestation of the Atlasic inversion onshore.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece