Examples of deep-water play types in the Matruh and Herodotus basins of NW Egypt

Abstract

Numerous deep-water play types have been identified along the transform margin of NW Egypt. A large segment of the offshore Matruh Basin has play types related to a prominent shale décollement within the Matruh Canyon. The footwalls of the growth faults associated with the shale detachment provide fault-controlled three-way closures very similar to the well-known rafts in the Lower Congo Basin in West Africa. As updip extension transitions to downdip contraction, some thin-skinned toe-thrust imbrications can be found in the ultradeep-water part of Matruh Basin. Another important play type in the deep-water offshore Matruh Basin is related to the prominent syn-rift “hinge zone” of an interpreted transform margin of the eastern Mediterranean. This play type could serve as a play opener along the transform margin of NW Egypt and NE Libya. The offshore Matruh and Herodotus basins of NW Egypt represent an underexplored region of the Mediterranean, with only one deep-water well drilled along the margin to date.

Geology of the Ionian Basin and Margins: A Key to the East Mediterranean Geodynamics

“…Most of these faults seem to root onto the Albian‐Aptian shales, accommodating a limited amount of finite motion. The same type of structures is reported along the Egyptian margin close to the margin edge (Tari et al, ). Steckler and ten Brink () addressed this type of selective reactivation close to former continental margins, with a specific application to the Levant margin.…”

“…The main rifting phase related to the formation of the Levant margin occurred from latest Triassic to early Middle Jurassic time (Gardosh et al, 2010;Gardosh & Druckman, 2006;Garfunkel, 1998Garfunkel, , 2004. The architecture of the Levant and Egyptian margins and the orientation of the Eratosthenes seamount (approximately NE-SW, Figure 1) and transform faults ( Figure 1; Montadert et al, 2014;Tassy et al, 2015) support a NW-SE direction of extension (e.g., Barrier et al, 2008;Chamot-Rooke, Rangin, et al, 2005;Frizon de Lamotte et al, 2011;Gardosh et al, 2010;Gardosh & Druckman, 2006;Garfunkel, 1998Garfunkel, , 2004Garfunkel & Derin, 1984;Tari et al, 2012). Evidence for rifting over the same period is also reported in Libya (Arsenikos et al, 2013), Tunisia , and Sicily (Basilone et al, 2010;Basilone, Sulli et al, 2016).…”

“…A central question is the timing of formation of these deep basins in the general framework of the successive Tethys openings. The best structural and stratigraphic constraints are from the far east Levant margin (e.g., Ben-Avraham et al, 2002;Collin et al, 2010;Gardosh et al, 2010;Gardosh & Druckman, 2006;Garfunkel & Derin, 1984;Hawie et al, 2013;Steinberg et al, 2018) and Egyptian margin (e.g., Camera et al, 2010;Moustafa, 2008;Tari et al, 2012;Tassy et al, 2015;Yousef et al, 2010), which were thoroughly studied in the recent years because of their offshore petroleum potential. Several studies support the occurrence of polyphased rifting from Late Palaeozoic to Trias leading to extreme continental thinning (<10-km crust) in the Levant Basin and oceanic spreading in the Herodotus Basin in Early to Middle Jurassic time, with a preferred approximately NW-SE oriented extension (e.g., Barrier et al, 2008;Ben-Avraham et al, 2006;Frizon de Lamotte et al, 2011;Gardosh et al, 2010;Gardosh & Druckman, 2006;Garfunkel, 1998Garfunkel, , 2004Garfunkel & Derin, 1984).…”

Distribution and geological control of mud volcanoes and other fluid/free gas seepage features in the Mediterranean Sea and nearby Gulf of Cadiz

“…While the abundance of MVs within the Mediterranean Sea supports the presence of petroleum systems at depth, and thus of various potential source rocks and reservoirs, there are no reliable data on the nature, ages and depths of the sedimentary layers from which fluids may originate. Within the Gulf of Cadiz (Maldonado et al 1999) as well as along the Egyptian continental margin (Dolson et al 2005;Tari et al 2012), Mesozoic source rocks have been hypothesized, chiefly from comparison with known oil fields from nearby onshore areas. Cretaceous rocks have been documented among the various clasts collected in cores of mud breccia from the external Calabrian Arc (Rossi and Sartori 1981;Morlotti et al 1982), the Mediterranean Ridge (Akhmanov 1996;Cita et al 1996aCita et al , 1996bHuguen et al 2001b) and the Anaximander Mountains (Huguen et al 2001b;Lykousis et al 2009).…”

Combined qualitative and quantitative regional interpretation of the thermal results of magnetic data in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

“…The modern tectonic structure of the East Mediterranean Region can be linked to the evolution of the Neotethys Ocean (Ben-Avraham and Ginzburg, 1990;Robertson et al, 1991;Ben-Avraham et al, 2002). The Levant margin (Garfunkel and Derin, 1984;Ben-Avraham et al, 2002;Gardosh and Druckman, 2006;Colin et al;2010;Gardosh et al, 2010;Hawie et al, 2013;Steinberg et al, 2018) and Egyptian margin (Camera et al, 2010;Yousef et al, 2010;Tari et al, 2012;Tassy et al, 2015) contain prominent stratigraphic constraints that shed light on the timing of formation of the deep basins in East Mediterranean (Tugend et al, 2019).…”