New Ideas Unlock Old Plays; Swan-East, Recent Gas Discovery Baltim Canyon Extension, West Delta Deep Marine, Offshore Nile Delta, Egypt

Abstract

The West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) concession, offshore Nile Delta, has seen extensive and prolific exploration and development projects starting in the mid–1990’s and continues today. It contributes to Egypt’s domestic and export gas supply through Rashpetco (Joint Venture between EGAS, Shell, and Petronas). Exploration in the offshore Nile Delta province has revealed several hydrocarbon plays ranging in age from Pleistocene to Oligocene and Cretaceous. Reservoirs include deep marine turbidites, fluvial systems, shoreface deposits, reefal build-ups and lagoonal facies. The Messinian in WDDM has been explored by 4 dedicated wells testing different plays and different structural and stratigraphic concepts. Two wells have proven the presence of commercial gas and the other two wells were dry. The Swan-East well is a recent gas discovery in the Abu-Madi Formation in the extension of the old known play of the Baltim canyon. It is located in the hanging foot wall of the Rosetta fault. It has a two-way dip component and two side seals forming a combined structural and stratigraphic trap. It is comprised of a set of complex channels and it countered 35m of net thermogenic gas and condensate pay. Swan-East was identified on the 3D seismic survey acquired in 2014 and the target had a positive AVO anomaly that conforms to the structure. Spectral decomposition is a very important attribute to define the prospects at this level, as it consist s of the unconfined braided fluvial channel system. The aim of this paper is to discuss how new ideas help to unlock old known plays, its impact on the portfolio and how it has de-risked other prospect/leads post-Swan-East discovery.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90355 © 2019 AAPG Africa Region, The Eastern Mediterranean Mega-Basin: New Data, New Ideas and New Opportunities, Alexandra, Egypt, September 6-7, 2019