Deep-water plays of the Mauritanian continental margin

Abstract

The coastal basin of Mauritania is emerging as a potential major petroleum province as a result of renewed exploration activity over the past five years. Two significant discoveries of oil and gas have been made at Chinguetti and Banda, proving that an effective petroleum system exists in this passive margin basin. The successful play type comprises Miocene turbidite channel reservoirs, sealed by fine-grained channel abandonment facies or a hemipelagic shale drape. The most prospective structures are associated with diapiric salt, although a variety of other structural styles, including compressional toe thrusts and rotated extensional fault blocks, are also present. The only source rocks proven to be effective in the immediate area occur in Cenomanian to Turonian deep-marine mudstones. However, regional evidence suggests that other intervals, including the Albian and the Paleocene, may also contain source facies. Future drilling campaigns by Woodside and other operators in the region will focus on realizing the value of existing discoveries through appraisal and tie-back exploration, while at the same time targeting new plays, particularly Late Cretaceous turbidites. Some of the major challenges to would-be petroleum explorers and producers in this basin centre around operating in a remote location almost totally lacking in infrastructure, and conducting activities in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner.