FELT, VINCE L., JONAS W. BAILEY, BOB A. HUTTON, and MIKE G. SIMPSON, Amoco Egypt Oil Company, Cairo Egypt

Abstract: The Control of Regional Geologic Processes on the Architecture of the Nile Delta Hydrocarbon System

Three play types have been discovered in the Nile Delta and are expected to yield gas reserves in excess of 20 TCF. Understanding these play types in the context of plate tectonics, sea level fluctuations, and sediment supply may yield new opportunities. The deepest play type has been discovered in Middle Miocene slope to basin floor fans typified in Temsah and Wakar fields. Sand and gravel of this system were probably derived from rift highlands associated with the opening of the Gulf of Suez.

Messinian sea level fluctuations created incised valley plays in 2000-meter deep paleo-canyons. Transgressive sands backstepping up the canyon floors created excellent reservoirs in the Baltim trend. Associated basinal facies may offer additional plays in deeper waters. Thick evaporites deposited during Messinian time played a key role in later Plio-Pleistocene tectonics. Numerous Pliocene discoveries have been made in traps set up by listric growth faults soling into Messinian evaporites. Pliocene depositional systems range from delta front to turbidite fans. Since the discovery of the Denise Field in 1995, Pliocene proven gas reserves of the Nile Delta has experienced explosive growth through identification of seismic bright spot/flat spot plays on extensive 3D seismic coverage.

Present day plate tectonic and salt tectonic activity controls the topography and distribution of sediments on the sea floor of the Nile Delta.Tectonic activity, sea level fluctuations, and variations in sediment supply has likely influenced the architecture and hydrocarbon system of the Nile Delta since the Miocene.

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