--> Abstract: The Sierra Leone-Liberia Deep-Water Province - From Unexplored Segment of the West Africa Margin, by J. F. Flinch, J. L. Huedo, H. Verzi, H. Gonzalez, R. Gerster, A. K. Mansaray, L. Rodriguez-Blanco, A. Herra, I. Brisson, and J. Gerard; #90090 (2009).

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The Sierra Leone-Liberia Deep-Water Province - From Unexplored Segment of the West Africa Margin

Flinch, Joan F.1; Huedo, José L.1; Verzi, Hernán 1; González, Héctor 1; Gerster, Ricardo 1; Mansaray, Abdul K.1; Rodriguez-Blanco, Leticia 1; Herra, Adela 1; Brisson, Ignacio 2; Gerard, Jean 2
1 West Africa Exploration, Repsol, Madrid, Spain.
2 Geological Disciplines, Repsol, Madrid, Spain.

The offshore West African margin located between Guinea Conakry and Ivory Coast is a frontier area. The neighboring offshore regions of Sierra Leone and Liberia have had only a few exploration wells drilled on the continental shelf. Exploration focused on the classical Aptian-Albian tilted block play that produces in the Baobab, Espoir, Lion and Tano fields of Ghana and Ivory Coast.

The deepwater areas of this steep morphological margin are undrilled and the details of its history remain largely unknown. The main play in the slope is Upper Cretaceous turbidites, consisting primarily of amalgamated channel-levee complexes, pinching out towards the steep continental slope in stratigraphic traps. Post-rift Albian and Cenomanian-Turonian shales constitute the main potential source rocks of the deepwater part of the margin. The structure of the margin is the result of Lower Cretaceous low-angle extensional tectonics, and gravitational extension and related toe-thrusting associated with Upper Cretaceous to Tertiary uplift on the shelf.

Petroleum systems modeling of this margin is a major challenge due to many unknowns, including (1) the complex structural evolution related to the role of transform and extensional faults during the Tertiary, (2) the location of the continent-ocean boundary and its implications for heat-flow through time, and (3) the dating of the deepwater stratigraphy section due to the lack of deep-water wells.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90090©2009 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, June 7-10, 2009