Geological Behavior (GBR)

The Western Desert is located in Egypt and it consists of a few extensional coastal rift-basins. It started as rifts and was formed during the Jurassic time in association with the opening of the Tethys Sea. There were three major tectonic events that occurred in Western Desert within Jurassic to Eocene time and resulted in NE-SW trend and NW-SE trend normal fault, and inversion of Western Desert basin due to rifting of Neo-Tethys followed by South America & Africa Atlantic rifting and Transpressional Syrian Arc event which had contributed to the formation of hydrocarbon trap. The generation, migration and accumulation of hydrocarbon started in the Late Cretaceous (95–90 Ma) and it continues to the present time. There is proven petroleum system named as Khatatba-Khatatba petroleum system within the Western Desert. The source of hydrocarbons is the Middle Jurassic Khatatba organicz-rich shales which contains type II- III and type III kerogen source migrated into Khatatba sandstones reservoir rock. Khatatba sandstones are mostly quartz arenite, which composed mainly of more than 95 % quartz. These sandstones have high porosity and high permeability with well sorted and are mostly subangular to subrounded grains. Masajid carbonate acts as regional seal within the basin. Hence, the Western Desert of Egypt has a significant hydrocarbon potential for exploration or development targeting on inversion structure.