The Effect of Cimmerian Unconformity in Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Sediments and Its Impact in Hydrocarbon Exploration in Egypt: A Case Study in Western Wadi El Rayan Concession Area

Khamis Farhoud¹*, Raffaele Buonaguro¹, and Tarek Kamel^2
1Edison, Egypt
²Shell, Egypt
*[email protected]

The central part of the Western Desert in Egypt contains many hydrocarbon prolific sedimentary basins. The Abu El Gharadig Basin is one of the major basins, which originated in Mesozoic time. It contains a thick section of Jurassic and Cretaceous clastics and carbonates. Jurassic and Cretaceous reservoirs, sealed by sand and limestone, are oil and gas productive in this region. These reservoirs were charged from Jurassic and Cretaceous source rocks. A regional to local unconformity that occurs in the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous succession in the central Western Desert is related to the Cimmerian orogeny or event. This unconformity represent a major hiatus that occurred between the Late Jurassic limestone-dominated Masajid Formation and Early Cretaceous sand-dominated Alam El Bueib Formation. This time gap affected mainly the structural highs in the central part of the Western Desert and northern Sinai Peninsula. This unconformity is seismically detectable and mappable. We interpreted seismic images in the study area, in addition to outcrop analogues in northern Sinai for the equivalent time interval, in order to better understand one of the major play system in the Western Desert of Egypt.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90077©2008 GEO 2008 Middle East Conference and Exhibition, Manama, Bahrain