--> Implications of Sandia-1X well results in the hydrocarbon exploration offshore Morocco

AAPG Europe Regional Conference, Global Analogues of the Atlantic Margin

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Implications of Sandia-1X well results in the hydrocarbon exploration offshore Morocco

Abstract

There has been a reactivation of hydrocarbon exploration activity in the Morocco offshore in recent years, mainly targeting Jurassic and Cretaceous objectives. Most of these wells have been unsuccessful due either to lack of reservoir (target: clastic reservoir), or to the presence of biodegraded oil (target: carbonate reservoir). Well Sandia-1X (2015), is located 60km east of Fuerteventura, between the Canary Islands and the Moroccan coast in a water depth of 880m. It reached total depth of 3093mMD in the Paleocene-Lower Eocene. It is the only well drilled in Spanish territorial waters of the Tarfaya Basin to date. Sandia-1X well is situated in a special structural position within the Tarfaya Basin, to the South of the Essaouira Basin and the Agadir Canyon. The presence of the Canary Islands may play a key role retaining the sand prone turbidite deposits. Sandia-1X well penetrated the entire Tertiary section with good Miocene-Eocene sand packages that no other well had found so far; hence, increasing the chance of reservoir presence in the Morocco offshore.