--> Abstract: Kattaniya Fold Belt, Western Desert of Egypt: An Example of an Inverted Jurassic Rift Basin, by A. Bakr, M. Helmy, and P. Baltensperger; #90923 (1999)

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BAKR, ALY, MOHAMED HELMY, and PAUL BALTENSPERGER, Apache Corporation, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract: Kattaniya Fold Belt, Western Desert of Egypt: An Example of an Inverted Jurassic Rift Basin

The Kattaniya uplift is located in the Eastern part of the Western Desert of Egypt. This area represents a Jurassic rift basin with a recorded Jurassic sediment package exceeding 9000 ft which was subsequently inverted during Campanian through Eocene time. This package consists of the Safe member of Jurassic Khataba formation, a rich source rock which is responsible for much of the oil accumulated in Jurassic and Cretaceous reservoirs in the Western Desert. Pre-inversion hydrocarbon migration to the Southeast onto the Jurassic Rift shoulder charged post-rift Cretaceous reservoirs which existed as stratigraphic and structural traps. Remigration of hydrocarbons occurred contemporaneous with and post-inversion into structural traps located along a subsidiary compressional fold trend within the Khattaniya uplift (the El Sagha fold belt), on the southeast margin of the paleo-Jurassic rift basin. Some of the most prolific oil accumulation in the Western Desert occurs in Cenomanian and Albian reservoirs on the El Sagha fold belt.

The structural architecture is defined by asymmetric en-echelon compressional folds oriented slightly subparallel to the basinal axis of the Jurassic Rift Basin. Post inversion extension approximately 17 MMYBP reactivated northwest-trending Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous (Albian) normal faults which had formed intrabasinal half grabens associated with Jurassic rifting. These reactivated normal faults are manifested as a northwest transtensional fault system which transacts existing fold trends and act as the primary trapping mechanism for oil accumulations associated with inversion folds. These normal faults displace Oligocene basalt at the near surface throughout the area. Late extension has resulted in a recent structural architecture dominated by northeast-trending compressional folds bounded on the steep northwest limb by reverse faults and overprinted by a northwest-trending extensional fault system. 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90923@1999 International Conference and Exhibition, Birmingham, England