High resolution sequence stratigraphic analysis of the Late Miocene Abu Madi Formation, Northern Nile Delta Basin

Abstract

Abu Madi Formation represents the Upper Miocene Messinian age in the Nile Delta basin. It consists mainly of sandstones and shale intercalations and because of its richness in hydrocarbon, it has been subdivided by the petroleum companies into Level-I, Level-II and Level-III, respectively according to the increase in the sandstone to the shale ratio.The Miocene cycle in the northern subsurface section of the Nile Delta encompasses three main formations namely from the base; Sidi Salim formation, Qawasim Formation and Abu Madi Formation at the top. The high resolution sequence stratigraphic analysis, using gamma ray responses, has been done for the Late Miocene formation in the northern part of the Nile delta subsurface section. For this purpose, the gamma-ray logs of ten deep wells, arranged in four cross-sections trending in almost north–south direction throughout the northern region of the Nile Delta, were analyzed.The analysis has revealed that the interpreted 4th order depositional cycles within Abu Madi Formation display great variations in both number and gamma ray responses in each investigated well, and cannot be traced laterally, even in the nearest well. These variations in the interpreted 4th order depositional sequences could be attributed to the presence of normal faults buried in the inter-area laying between the investigated wells.This finding matches with the conclusion of that Abu Madi Formation represents a part of the Upper Miocene Nile Delta syn-rift megasequence, developed during the Upper Miocene rift phase of the Red Sea – Gulf of Suez province in Egypt. Accordingly, in the sequence stratigraphic approach, the depositional history of Abu Madi Formation was strongly overprinted by the tectonic controls rather than the relative sea-level changes which are assumed to be of a secondary influence.Regarding the hydrocarbon aspects of the Abu Madi Formation, the present work recommends to direct the drilling efforts into the stratigraphic traps in the sandy intervals of the LST, TST and HST within the 4th order interpreted depositional sequences in both level-II and/or level-III.