An Investigation on Hydrocarbon Indicators in The Nile Delta

By

 Refaat Zaki¹, Abdel Rahman Morsi², Stefano Volterrani³

(1) Centurion Petroleum Corporation, Cairo, Egypt (2) Centurion Petroleum Corporation, (3) WesternGeco, Cairo, Egypt

 Significant gas reserves were discovered in the sedimentary section of the Nile Delta of Egypt. Gas bearing sands of different depositional systems were encountered in the Miocene and Pliocene sediments. Seismic amplitude anomalies have been associated with the Upper Paleocene deltaic sands of El Wastani formation, the Middle and Lower Paleocene sands of Kafr El Sheikh formation, the Upper Miocene fluvial channel sands of the Abu Madi formation, and the deep sand beds encountered in the steep dipping tilted fault blocks of Sidi Salim and Qantara/Teneh formations of Middle and Lower Miocene age.

This paper addresses the validity of seismic direct hydrocarbon indicators for the gas bearing sands of the Nile Delta. The data were processed using high resolution, well log data guided techniques. Several 2D dynamite lines and data from five wells were re-processed. Well log data was optimally edited through an integrated log analysis routine. The seismic processing sequence and the processing parameters were optimized by using ‘Well Driven Seismic Processing’. The seismic resolution was maximized through a calibrated processing sequence, including post-stack space adaptive wavelet processing and inversion. Pre- and post stack seismic attributes were compared for discriminating between high seismic amplitudes due to hydrocarbon occurrence and lithological variations.

This study highlights the possibility of having significant hydrocarbon reserves in the on-shore Nile Delta that have not yet been discovered.