Hydrocarbon Potentials of Fractured Basement in Red Sea Region, Saudi Arabia

M.A. Yassin¹, M.M. Hariri¹, and O.M. Abdullatif¹

Abstract

With the recent difficulties in discovering conventional hydrocarbon traps, hydrocarbon potential of fractured basement has become important. The current focus is to explore unconventional targets like the fractured basement. Fractured basement hydrocarbon is found in many countries including Venezuela, Brazil, USA (California, Kansas, and Texas), North Africa (Morocco, Libya, Algeria, and Egypt), Middle East (Yemen), West Siberia Basin, China, Southeast Asia in Vietnam, and Indonesia. Those basement related hydrocarbon discoveries encouraged considering shallow basement in other areas as target for exploration. Among those, the fractured basement in Saudi Arabia which is poorly understood and it is expected to be new target for exploration activities especially in the Midyan Peninsula. Some of the published work for the Midyan Peninsula showed some seismic lines with shallow basement targets and it need to revisit to evaluate the basement hydrocarbon prospectivity. The main objective of this work is to use fractured basement analogs from different areas to promote basement plays in the Red Sea region. The main problem in fractured basement reservoirs is that, hydrocarbon entrapped within the fracture network rather than within the matrix porosity in the conventional reservoirs. Satellite images of the Red Sea region were used to interpret lineaments of the basement outcrops analog, then orientation and length analysis were performed for those lineaments. Natural fractures within basement are two types base on their origin, tectonic and non-tectonic fractures. Tectonic origin fractures based mainly on stresses, different stresses often create different types and distribution of fractures. The non- tectonic origin is mainly related to cooling of large intrusive magmatic bodies. Fractured basement reservoirs are difficult, unpredictable, complicated, risky, but opportunities to add new plays and new reserves are great. Therefore, the fractured basement reservoir analogs can provide valuable database that might help to understand, predict and assess potential reservoirs.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90188 ©GEO-2014, 11th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition, 10-12 March 2014, Manama, Bahrain