--> Abstract: Multi Surface Restoration and Petroleum System Evaluation in the Gulf of Suez, by Isabelle Moretti and Julien Gargani; #90078 (2008)

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Multi Surface Restoration and Petroleum System Evaluation in the Gulf of Suez

Isabelle Moretti1 and Julien Gargani2
1Exploration, Cepsa, Madrid, Spain
2Geology-Geochemistry-Geophysic, Institut Français du Petrole, Rueil Malmaison, France

The restoration tools are useful in hydrocarbon exploration to improve the geometry of the model and therefore reduce the uncertainty on the prospects but also at large scale to study the evolution of the basin versus time. We will present an integrated study including a 3D structural model, a multi surface restoration of the synrift series and a petroleum system modeling of the Gulf of Suez. This work has various goals: first to have a 3D model of the Gulf where up to now only cross-sections have been done, then to get surface restorations in order to understand the various depot center during the rift evolution and finally to understand the quantitative difference between the HC rich southern part of the Gulf and the less prolific northern part.

Salt deposits exist in the Gulf as in the Red Sea, it means that they have been periodically isolated from the Open Ocean. Based on the restoration we have shown that the threshold of the Zafrana structure, a fold inherited form the Syrian arc compression, has isolated the southern part of the Gulf and the Red Sea (not yet connected to the Indian Ocean) from the Mediterranean Sea during the Upper Miocene. The northern part, the North Darag basin and the Suez area, was just a gulf of the Mediterranean Sea. This different paleoenvironnments lead to different petroleum systems, the seal formed by the evaporates is older in the central and southern parts and the confined synrift petroleum system is very efficient. At the opposite, northward, the salt is thinner, only Messinian in age, and the early synrift deposits poorest in term of Organic content.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas