--> Abstract: Evaluating the Exploration Potential of the Paleozoic Section of the SeneGambia Basin, West Africa, by P. C. Brown and E. Malterre; #91012 (1992).

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ABSTRACT: Evaluating the Exploration Potential of the Paleozoic Section of the SeneGambia Basin, West Africa

BROWN, PETER C., Geocene International Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and EMMANUEL MALTERRE, Malterre Consulting Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada

This paper discusses the exploration potential of the paleozoic section of the SeneGambia basin, concentrating on integrating a structural analysis with a burial history and maturation study.

To date no wells in this basin have been drilled to evaluate the Paleozoic, although wells do penetrate the Paleozoic section, just below the breakup unconformity.

The study was therefore performed using regional seismic (utilizing a LandMark WorkStation), regional heat flow values, and local geochemical data.

The structural analysis was performed using Midland Valley Exploration's section balancing program to verify fault trajectories and correlations, while the burial histories were performed using Welte's program from IES.

The crux of the problem is a series of en echelon strike-slip faults that divide the basin into a Hercynian compressional regime to the north and an extensional basin to the south, in Casamance, unaffected by the Hercynian orogeny.

The suggestion is that convergence of the North American and African plate was oblique, with a small oceanic basin still open, well into the Carboniferous.

This whole section encompasses the pre-rift events prior to the onset of rifting and eventual breakup during Late Triassic-Early Jurassic. Maturation histories were evaluated following structural analysis, with comparisons made between the northern overthrust area and southern extension, in Casamance.

Various play types were identified and included the following: a subcrop play beneath the breakup unconformity, extensional rollover, thrust tip anticlines, and rotated half grabens.

This paper is the result of work performed while the authors were associated with Alconsult International Ltd., in a project commissioned by PetroCanada for the government of Senegal and Gambia.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91012©1992 AAPG Annual Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 22-25, 1992 (2009)