--> The Emerging Deepwater Province of Northwest Egypt, Krois, Peter; Hannke, Katie; Novotny, Bernhard; Bayoumi, Tarek; Hussein, Hussein; Tari, Gabor, #90100 (2009)

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The Emerging Deepwater Province of Northwest Egypt

Krois, Peter1
 Hannke, Katie2
 Novotny, Bernhard3
 Bayoumi, Tarek3
 Hussein, Hussein3
 Tari, Gabor1

1OMV Exploration & Production GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
2
OMV (
UK) Ltd, London, United Kingdom.
3
OMV (
Egypt), Cairo, Egypt.

The offshore basins of Northwest Egypt represent an underexplored region in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin. The Matruh Trough is located along this segment of the Egyptian offshore and covers an area of about 10,000 km2. This trough, trending almost perpendicular to the coastline, is located west of the Nile Delta province and north of the Western Desert and its offshore part extends across a relatively narrow shelf into the deepwater.

The Obaiyed Offshore block, covering most of the Matruh Trough, is considered as a prospective undrilled deepwater block downdip from the numerous gas and oil fields of the
Western Desert petroleum province. At least five deepwater play types have been identified in the block. Most of them are related to a large shale detachment system and therefore are considered unique to the Matruh Trough. The numerous listric-fault bounded supra-detachment structures, providing repeatability and consequently low finding costs, are very similar to the classical raft play of the Lower Congo Basin.

Outside the offshore Matruh Trough, another important untested deepwater play type is related to a prominent syn-rift hinge-zone striking obliquely to the coastline. A recently acquired 1,500 km2 3D seismic survey images very well this trend with prospects appearing analogous to some significant discoveries in equatorial
West Africa.

In the ultra-deepwater of
Northwest Egypt, the Messinian subsalt play also remains untested. However, its exploration potential is considered very similar to other deepwater regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, including the area of the recent discoveries of Tamar and Dalit.


AAPG Search and Discover Article #90100©2009 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition 15-18 November 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil