--> Abstract: Petroleum Systems and Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Levant Basin, Eastern Mediterranean, by Christopher J. Schenk; #90105 (2010)

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AAPG GEO 2010 Middle East
Geoscience Conference & Exhibition
Innovative Geoscience Solutions – Meeting Hydrocarbon Demand in Changing Times
March 7-10, 2010 – Manama, Bahrain

Petroleum Systems and Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Levant Basin, Eastern Mediterranean

Christopher J. Schenk1

(1) U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO.

The U.S Geological Survey is currently re-assessing the potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources in priority basins worldwide, including the Levant Basin. For this study, the Levant Basin is defined to the east by the Levant transform system, to the north by the Cyprus thrust system, to the west by the Eratosthenes terrain, and to the south by an assessment boundary with the Nile Delta Province, which was also assessed for undiscovered oil and gas resources. The Mesozoic-Cenozoic stratigraphic section in the Levant Basin is as much as 10 km thick and two main petroleum systems were defined within this stratigraphic section, as most of the volumes of oil and gas probably originated within these systems. The Mesozoic Composite Petroleum System includes potential and hypothetical oil and gas source rocks of Triassic, Middle to Upper Jurassic, Lower Cretaceous, and Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian, Santonian) age. Assessment Units (AU) within the Mesozoic Composite Petroleum System that were assessed for undiscovered resources include the Carbonate Reservoirs AU, which encompasses limestone and dolomite reservoirs of Jurassic through Miocene age formed in reef, fore-reef, back-reef, and deepwater environments and are largely in stratigraphic traps, and the Clastic Reservoirs AU which includes shelf-edge delta, incised valley fill, confined and unconfined slope systems, and basin-floor fan reservoirs in stratigraphic and structural traps. The Neogene Biogenic Gas System includes all source rocks in the Neogene that contributed to known post-salt occurrences of biogenic gas. The Neogene Biogenic Gas System includes the Neogene Reservoirs AU that encompasses clastic reservoirs of alluvial fan, fluvial, incised valley fills, shelf-edge delta, slope systems, and basin-floor fan origin in both structural and stratigraphic traps. Each of these AUs was assessed for potential undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in this frontier basin.