Morocco's Rif Foreland Basin Offers a Major New Oil and Gas Play

J. Christian Pratsch

Morocco contains a number of distinct basins, each with its specific geological history. No major producible oil and gas have yet been found in spite of major past efforts. However, in the Rif Foreland Basin in onshore northwestern Morocco a large yet unexplored new oil and gas play exists. This play is centered on two distinct major depocentres lying in front of the Rif Thrust Belt; they are known from published gravity and magnetic data and should contain thermally mature Mesozoic source beds. The oil and gas reserve potential here lies in the class of 0.5-1.0 billion BOE or higher, with new oil and gas reserves of hundreds of million BOE or more per discovery.

Oil source beds are known from the southern Prerif Basin flank in several Jurassic carbonate and shale units; gas may be generated in additional Paleozoic and Neogene source beds. Potential reservoirs range from Paleozoic, Triassic and Jurassic clastics to Jurassic carbonates and Miocene/Pliocene sandstones. Traps will be structural and stratigraphic. Small oil production of some 7.0 million BO has been obtained along the basin's south flank. Oil generation, migration and entrapment occurred since Early Miocene. Modern seismic data permit mapping down to basement. The key to successful low-cost low-risk exploration here lies at reliable seismic data acquisition following a detailing fill-in gravity survey.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995