A New Approach for Basin-, Petroleum System- and Play Analysis: An Application to the West African Gabon Coastal Basin and the Conjugate Brazilian Almada-Camamu Basin

Beglinger, Suzanne ¹; Corver, Maarten ¹; Doust, Harry ¹; Cloetingh, Sierd ¹
(1)Tectonics, VU University, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Our objective is to demonstrate a newly developed method, which allows more easy and efficient comparisons between basins with a similar geological background, i.e. basins which could act as analogues for exploration purposes.

We apply the concept that sedimentary basins can be classified according to their structural genesis and evolutionary history. The classification is based on breaking the basins down into their tectonic and sedimentary cycles and stages. Common elements of petroleum systems and plays must be linked to these natural cycles or stages in basin evolution in order to improve the prediction of potential petroleum systems and plays occurring in a particular under-explored basin or region.

The significance of the approach is demonstrated by applying it to the Gabon Coastal basin (West Africa) and the conjugate Almada-Camamu basin (Brazil). Both basins have experienced a similar tectono-stratigraphic evolution and therefore share a lot of similarities, allowing us to identify analogous petroleum systems and plays proven in the Gabon Coastal Basin, but not yet discovered in the Almada-Camamu Basin. These include a second petroleum system in the syn-rift classified as lacustrine syn-rift PST, a new fluvio-marine transitional PST in the transitional cycle, and a new shallow marine early post-rift PST. Potential, but not yet proven, plays in the Almada-Camamu Basin include the fluvio-marine sandstones of the Serinhaem Formation in the transitional cycle, the carbonates of the early post-rift Algodoes Formation and the post-rift Urucutuca deep water turbidites.

The approach also allows for the recognition of important differences between basins. This ideally creates some concrete questions and/or suspicions which can be answered by more practical tools such as seismic- and/or well data interpretations. Therefore, this methodology is particularly useful to obtain a first glance impression of the tectono-stratigraphy, petroleum system- and play development and exploration history of potentially analogous basins.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90135©2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Milan, Italy, 23-26 October 2011.