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Structural Regime and Its Impact on the Mechanism and Migration Marine and Petroleum Geology 71 (2016) 55e75 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine and Petroleum Geology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpetgeo Research paper Structural regime and its impact on the mechanism and migration pathways of hydrocarbon seepage in the southern Gulf of Suez rift: An approach for finding new unexplored fault blocks * Shawky Sakran a, Muhammad Nabih b, Ahmed Henaish b, , Abdelmohsen Ziko b a Cairo University, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Giza 12613, Egypt b Zagazig University, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Zagazig 44519, Egypt article info abstract Article history: A Natural active oil seepage occurs at the intersection of the NW-oriented rift coastal fault and a NE- Received 5 August 2015 oriented cross fault which bound the southwest dipping Little Zeit tilted fault block at the south- Received in revised form western side of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt. Detailed surface geological mapping followed by subsurface 28 November 2015 mapping using aeromagnetic, seismic and borehole data of Ras El Ush oilfield (the nearest oil field to the Accepted 2 December 2015 seepage) provide a reliable hydrocarbon migration pathway model of the area. Available online 10 December 2015 The proposed model suggests that hydrocarbons migrated upward at the intersection of a NE-oriented and the NW-oriented rift coastal faults where they found their way to the surface. The Nubia Sandstone Keywords: fi Gebel El Zeit occurs south of Ras El Ush oil eld in a trap door structure and probably entrapped some of the migrating À Oil seepage hydrocarbons while a probable oil-water-contact at 1000 m which resulted into the migration of hy- Hydrocarbon migration drocarbon through the damage zone of the northeast fault. Fault connectivity The original oil in place of the predicted reservoir is estimated to be more than 47.5 MMBO which Gulf of Suez rift encourages the design makers for more investigation of this reservoir to increase its certainty and putting it in the plan of the future investments. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction an elongated graben about 300 km long and 30 km wide between the Sinai Peninsula and the Eastern Desert of Egypt (Fig. 1). Various Natural hydrocarbon seepage was the incentive for exploration recognized source rocks deposited in distinct, well-defined envi- drilling by the pioneers of the petroleum industry as long ago as the ronments exist within the Gulf of Suez basin, and several models 1860s in Pennsylvania and Azerbaijan (Williams and Lawrence, for oil generation and oil/source correlations have been proposed 2002). Seepage has also given some of the first indications of the (Rohrback, 1982; Shahin, 1988; Mostafa, 1993; Robison, 1995; presence of petroleum in most of the world's petroleum producing Barakat et al., 1997). regions, with at least half the reserves proved by 1952 discovered Gebel El Zeit is located on the southernmost western shore of by drilling on or near seeps (Judd and Hovland, 2007). Hydrocarbon the Gulf of Suez (Fig. 1). At the southern end of Gebel El-Zeit, a seepage can, in selected geological settings, also delineate subsur- natural active seepage zone of oil occurs on the land surface in an face petroleum accumulations and provide information on hydro- area underlain by asphalt-saturated post-Miocene fractured lime- carbon charge type or oil quality. Therefore, the study of natural stone and coral reefs. Near the seep there are two ancient hand-dug hydrocarbon seepage has proven to be a valuable aspect in petro- wells. According to Harrell and Lewan (2002), pottery littering the leum prospectivity assessment and exploration. ground around these wells dates from the late Imperial Roman Since the beginning of the last century, the Gulf of Suez has been Period (1st e 6th centuries A.D.) and the Islamic Period (11th e 16th a highly prospective hydrocarbon location and the focus of much oil centuries A.D.), but also present are a few pottery shreds from the exploration. The Gulf of Suez is an intercontinental rift consisting of Middle Kingdom or second Intermediate Period (16th e 20th centuries B.C.). The presence of liquid petroleum, through which gas bubbles continually rise, indicates that the seepage is still active * Corresponding author. (Fig. 2). E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Henaish). This paper provides an integrated geological and geophysical http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2015.12.003 0264-8172/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 56 S. Sakran et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 71 (2016) 55e75 Fig. 1. Simplified geological map of Gebel El Zeit area and the location of oil seepage. study to afford a reasonable origin of the onshore active oil seepage succession of the Gulf of Suez province is generally characterized by of Gebel El Zeit area. 3 main depositional sequences relative to the Miocene rifting events, as: pre-rift sequence (including the Precambrian basement rocks and a sedimentary succession up to the Eocene); syn-rift 2. Stratigraphic setting sequences (Early-Middle Miocene successions) and post-rift sequence (Late Miocene to Recent successions). The first and sec- The Gulf of Suez stratigraphy has been discussed by many ond sequences include important hydrocarbon source and workers. According to Said (1962, 1990), the stratigraphic S. Sakran et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 71 (2016) 55e75 57 reservoir rocks while the third depositional sequence is important because of its evaporitic seal. The major sedimentary successions accumulated under different structural settings on the Precambrian Basement complex with distinct inter- and intraformational un- conformities and hiatuses of different magnitudes. In the Southern Gulf of Suez, the Precambrian basement rocks are overlain by a variably eroded section of Paleozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks. Fig. 3 is a generalized stratigraphic section for the Southern Gulf of Suez. The measured stratigraphic section in the study area (Fig. 4), which is about 1000 m thick, revealed that the exposed rocks vary in age from Precambrian to Recent (Base- ment rocks, Naqus, Raha, Wata, Matulla, Abu Gerfan, Gharamaul, Gemsa formations and Post-Miocene sediments). The oldest pre-rift rock unit at Gebel El Zeit is represented by the Precambrian granitic rocks which are intruded by acidic and basic dykes. The Precambrian rocks are unconformably overlain by the Fig. 2. Oil seepage at Gebel El Zeit area. Photo was taken on the 9th of February 2013. Fig. 3. Simplified stratigraphic section of the southern Gulf of Suez, modified after Schlumberger (1984, 1995) and EGPC (1996). 58 S. Sakran et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 71 (2016) 55e75 Fig. 4. Composite stratigraphic section of Gebel El Zeit area. See Fig. 3 for legend. Cambrian-Ordovician Araba Formation (Hassan, 1967) which at- brownish yellow sandstones. The Naqus Formation is likely corre- tains a thickness of 35 m, and is mainly composed of yellowish, red lated with the subsurface occurrences of Nubia “C” (Schlumberger, to orange, medium to coarse-grained sandstones and conglom- 1984). erate. The Araba Formation is dominant at the base of the Nubia The Naqus Formation is unconformably overlain by the Aptian- Sandstone across the entire region and lithologically corresponds to Albian Malha Formation which reaches 35 m thick and is composed the Nubia “D” stratigraphic interval recognized in the nearby oil of yellow to brown, orange to red, and pale earthy sandstones of wells (Schlumberger, 1984). It is overlain by the Upper Ordovician different grain sizes with subordinate sandy siltstone and claystone Naqus Formation (Said, 1971). It attains about 320 m thickness and interbeds rich in kaolinite. The Malha Formation is likely correlated is composed of medium to coarse-grained pale earthy yellow to with the subsurface occurrences of Nubia “A” (Schlumberger, 1984). S. Sakran et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 71 (2016) 55e75 59 It is overlain by the Cenomanian Raha Formation (Ghorab, 1961), which is about 35 m thick and is made up of alterations of sand- stones and shales of greenish gray to dark green color, but occa- sionally brown with ledges of fossiliferous limestone and dissected by numerous gypsum veins. The Raha Formation is conformably overlain by the Turonian Wata Formation (Ghorab, 1961). The Wata Formation attains 11 m thickness and consists of fossiliferous white to yellowish white limestone and varicolored fissile sandy shale. It is conformably overlain by the Coniacian-Santonian Matulla Formation (Ghorab, 1961). The Matulla Formation attains 80 m thickness and is composed of cross-bedded, varicolored, fossiliferous sandstones, earthy to dark green gypsifirous shales and hard, fractured, un- fossiliferous, yellow to yellowish brown dolomitic limestone. The syn-rift succession is represented by the Late Burdigalian Abu Gerfan Formation (Ghorab and Marzouk, 1967) which uncon- formably overlies the Matulla Formation. It attains 60 m thickness and is formed of yellowish brown to brown, hard, consolidated, massive, moderately indurated, grain-supported polymectic con- glomerates with a few argillaceous limestone interbeds. It is exclusively composed of bioclastic carbonate grains with a few chert pebbles which are tightly embedded in a sand-rich lime-mud matrix. The conglomerates of Abu Gerfan Formation were previ- ously named as Flint Conglomerate (Perry, 1983) and Nukhul For- mation (Evans, 1988). The Abu Gerfan Formation is unconformably overlain by the Late Burdigalian Gharamul Formation (Ghorab and Marzouk, 1967). It is composed of greenish, laminated marls with thin shale beds intercalations and yellowish brown dolomitic sandstone beds with gypsum intercalations. The Gharamul Formation reaches 100 m and is unconformably overlain by the Late Burdigalian- Early Lan- ghian Gemsa Formation. The Gemsa Formation reaches 250 m in thickness and consists of thick massive gypsum beds with thin intercalations of marls, shales, limestones and sandstones. Locally, the evaporite sequence is capped by dolomitic algal stromatolitic limestone patches. The Post-rift succession is represented by Plio-Pleistocene shale, sandstone and few limestone beds.
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