INTERPRETATION OF MAGNETIC AND GRAVIMETRIC SIGNATURES IN RELATION TO GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURES OF PETROLEUM INTEREST IN THE WESTERN PART OF THE CENTRAL BASIN OF THE DR CONGO

Abstract

The Cuvette Centrale is a sedimentary basin stretching from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Angola. The existence of hydrocarbons in this large basin is demonstrated by the presence of indications on the DR Congo side and by the discovery of hydrocarbons by the Ngoki well (Republic of Congo) diagonally across the Lokoro sub-basin (DR Congo). In view of this evidence, the four boreholes drilled in the DR Congo's Cuvette Centrale have not reported the presence of hydrocarbons. With this in mind, this study reinterprets the geophysical data (magnetism and gravimetry) to highlight geological structures of petroleum interest. After processing and interpretation, we understand that the region contains interesting structures linked to hydrocarbon trapping. These include anticlines and faults. We discovered that there is a close relationship between the geological structures of these two countries (DR Congo and R Congo). They are all made up of the same geological structures separated by two major strike-slip faults crossed by the Congo River (NE-SW direction). These are the Dextre Fault, which displaces the compartments on the DR Congo side in a SW-NE direction, and the Senestre Fault, which runs NE-SW.