Geology of the Safaga Concession, northern Red Sea, Egypt

Abstract

The northern Red Sea is important to geologists because of its location at the junction of the African and Arabian plates, and because of its close proximity to the major oil reserves discovered in the adjacent Gulf of Suez. The Safaga Concession was acquired by ESSO in 1974 to explore the petroleum potential of the northern Red Sea. During the following seven years approximately 8700 km of seismic were shot and five wells were drilled. The drilling disclosed thick units of Lower Miocene Clastics and Middle-Upper Miocene evaporites comparable to the section in the Gulf of Suez. These units overlie granitic-type basement rocks. Seismic and other geophysical surveys indicate a large number of structural anomalies beneath the evaporite section. Seismic definition of the anomalies is poor because of the excessive thickness of the evaporite section as well as the structural complexities of the underlying sediments. Although commercial deposits of petroleum were not discovered, both source and reservoir rocks, of poor to fair quality, were found in the Lower Miocene section. The absence of pre-Miocene sedimentary rocks including both potential source and reservoir rocks present in the Gulf of Suez, has decreased the hydrocarbon potential of this area.