New Play
Concepts in the Onshore Majunga Basin, Madagascar
Banks, Nigel1, Paul Jennings1
(1) Wilton Petroleum Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Historically, oil explorers have been
drawn to Madagascar by the tangible
evidence of hydrocarbon generation and migration provided by the Bemolanga tar sands located in the northern part of the
onshore Morondava Basin. However, despite
ongoing exploration since the 1960s no significant discoveries of either light
oil or gas have yet been made in any of Madagascar's sedimentary basins,
either onshore or offshore. Because of the tar sands, onshore exploration has focussed on the Morondava Basin in the southwest of the
country but more recent ideas suggest that the Majunga Basin in the northwest may be
more prospective.
Since the last phase of serious
exploration in the onshore Majunga Basin in the early 1990s
various review papers have highlighted the potential of both the failed Karroo rift basin and the more
westerly passive margin basin that was initiated in the early Jurassic.
Following a recent comprehensive re-interpretation of all existing geophysical,
well and outcrop data new play concepts have emerged that draw on proven
petroleum system models from elsewhere in Africa and beyond. These plays
and the associated prospects are entirely untested by previous wells.