Impact of Regional 3D Seismic on Understanding Complex Rift-Related Deformation: Southern Gulf of Suez, Egypt
By
Yasser Badr1, Yasser AbdEl Latif1, Ashraf Elamir1, Ahmed Fouda1, Ibrahim Hanbal1, Ivar Mundal2, Joseph T. Piombino3
(1) GUPCO, New Maadi - Cairo, Egypt (2) BP, Forus, Norway (3) BP, Houston, TX
The B-Trend of the southern Gulf of Suez, Egypt, is a prolific structural
trend with several moderate sized oil fields and significant additional
potential. Our current exploration effort is focused on the pre-rift section
in
rotated, normal-fault bounded blocks.
Previous 3D interpretation in the area were based on several small field-size
post-stack depth-migrated 3D surveys. Data quality was hampered by limited
aperture and multiple interference which severely degraded the image beneath the
shallow, multiple generating, Miocene evaporite section
. Steeply dipping fault
blocks were very poorly imaged. The interpretation of these datasets emphasized
a NE-SW
cross
fault trend as the main control on individual hydrocarbon pools
within in the larger rift-parallel trend.
We recently acquired a regional 3D survey covering the southern Gulf of Suez,
and the entire B-Trend. The new survey was both post-stack and pre-stack depth
migrated and showed major improvement in imaging compared to previous data, as
well as a significantly expanded view of the structural trends away from the
existing fields. The new regional interpretation suggests that a N-S fault
orientation has significant control on the major structural traps, with less
emphasis on the previously identified cross
-fault trend. This later
interpretation is supported by outcrop observations on the exposed, western rift
margin.