Key Challenges to Realizing Full Potential in an Emerging Gas Giant Province: Nile Delta/Mediterranean Offshore, Deepwater, Egypt
Abstract:
The Nile Delta is an emerging giant gas province. Proven reserves are approximately 45 TCF. This resource has more than doubled in the last three years, largely from successful deep water exploration for Pliocene slope-channel systems. Proven reservoirs vary in age from Oligocene through Pleistocene. Source rocks include Jurassic coals and shales as well as Cretaceous, Oligocene and Lower Miocene shales.
A prominent Cretaceous mixed clastic and carbonate shelf edge aggraded vertically along the northern Egypt coastline, forming a steep fault-bounded shelf-slope break (the ‘hingeline’) which exerts the fundamental control on reservoir distribution in Tertiary age strata. In late Eocene time, northern Egypt was tilted toward the Mediterranean during regional uplift associated with the opening of the Gulf of Suez rift. Drainages systems shed reservoirs northward in a series of forced regressions. These regressions culminated in be-heading of the youngest deltas by subaerial erosion during the Messinian salinity crisis. Early Pliocene transgressions laid a thick sealing interval over the Messinian valley networks and renewed deltaic deposition began approximately 3.8 MA.
The stacked geometry of these various depositional systems has resulted in the primary play being slope-channel fairways in all levels. The Pliocene systems are only the shallowest targets in the basin and future large reserve growth my come from the pre-Messinian strata. Challenges to capturing the deeper prize remain 1) economic terms and drilling costs 2) high pressure 3) developing predictive models for pressure regressions in overpressure reservoir fairways 4) recognizing and exploiting ‘thin bedded’ low resistivity pay 5) optimization of wellbore patterns to develop multiple stacked objectives
Key Words
Nile Delta
Egypt petroleum geology
Deep water gas
Exploration
Sequence stratigraphy
Until the mid 1990’s, the Nile Delta was considered a minor hydrocarbon bearing province. Exploration had been confined to shallow water trends and a perceived weak gas market limited activity. Exploration focused on the Abu Madi valley network (Messinian) and the growth fault province of the eastern delta. The Pliocene deep water channel play did not begin until the discovery of the giant Simian field by British Gas in 1998.
This paper addresses the broad geological history of the delta, its petroleum plays and the challenges required to realize an ultimate basin resource in excess of 85 TCF of gas. Dolson et al. (2000) speculated that the Nile Delta could yield an additional 65 TCF beyond the 20 TCF that was known at the time. Since then, over 25 TCF of this potential has been realized.
Regional framework
Egypt’s geological history (Dolson et al., 2001) can be summarized in eight major tectono-stratigraphic events 1) Paleozoic craton 2) Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Tethyan margin rifting 3) Cretaceous passive margin and transgressions 4) Syrian Arc Inversion 5) Gulf of Suez rifting 6) Tertiary deltaic sedimentation (Nile Delta) 7) Messinian salinity crisis and 8) Pliocene deltaic progradation.
Figure 1 illustrates the distribution of Egypt’s basins. Near the vicinity of Cairo, a north-south series of Mesozoic interior lacustrine rift basins intersects the northeast-southwest oriented Tethyan margin rift basins. These northeast-oriented mixed marine and non-marine Tethyan margin rifts are filled with proven source rocks of the Khataba Formation (Figure 2), as well as several intervals of Cretaceous source rocks. The Khataba source rocks almost undoubtedly continue northeastward from the Western Desert underneath the Nile Cone. The location of proven gas fields in the Nile Delta is currently over continental crust and directly above the Jurassic rift systems.
To the west, the Herodotus basin lies on oceanic crust and sediment accumulation in the deepest parts of the Mediterranean offshore exceed 17,000 meters. The Tethyan margin rifts were transpressionally inverted during the Syrian Arc orogeny (Ayyad and Darwish, 1996; Moustafa et al., 1998; Moustafa and Khalil, 1990). This event consisted of intermittent uplift which culminated in the late Eocene. Many of the pre-Messinian structures in the Nile Delta are related to deformation caused by this event.
As the Gulf of Suez began to open in the late Eocene, Egypt was tectonically tilted northward toward the Mediterranean. Large volumes of clastics entered the basin through deep canyons incised along the coastline in Eocene and older carbonates. Oligocene reservoirs have only been lightly tested but clearly by-passed the shelf during these lowstand events and entered the deep basin. A major flooding event (Qantara transgression) resulted in widespread Lower Miocene seals and source rocks. This event was followed by large scale regressions which culminated in the Messinian salinity crisis, when the entire shelf system was subaerially exposed and deeply eroded. Subsequent transgressions resulted in deposition of the Abu Madi clastic system overlain progressively by Lower Pliocene shales of the Kafr El Sheik Formation. Renewed Pliocene progradation began about 3.8 MA ago and the current shelf edge marks the maximum seaward extension of all the deltaic systems in the delta.
Prior work and data
Although a great detail of information has been published on Nile Delta fields and specific trends, only a few publications have dealt regionally with the history of the area. The most comprehensive are those of Harms and Wray (1990), Moussa and Matbouly, (1994) and Said (1990b). This paper expands upon the work of these individuals and builds from an extensive well and seismic database (Figure 3). Biostratigraphic data from over 100 wells has been integrated with regional structural and facies maps over 8 horizons varying to 3.8 MA ago to basement. Regional gravity and aeromagnetic data, coupled with well control and regional seismic sections involving an industry consortium (Loutit et al., 2001) provided the basics for the basement mapping discussed earlier.
Reserve and field size distributions published by Dolson et al. (2001) and Dolson et al. (2002) drew upon unpublished resources as well as those presented by El Banbi (2001). The most recent work detailing the complexity of the Pliocene deep water channels is that of Samuel et al. (2003). Modern sea-floor topography on the Nile cone provides an excellent high resolution analog to all subsurface systems. Loncke et al. (2002) provide such a summary of the modern Nile deep water fan system.
Nile Delta structural and stratigraphic setting
The Nile cone is fed by two main branches of the Nile River (Figure 4). The Rosetta branch feeds the western delta and the Damietta branch the eastern and central. To the northeast, the delta is bounded by a growth-fault province created by salt withdrawal where large volumes of Plio-pleistocene reservoirs loaded and mobilized the underlying Messinian evaporites. This province is shown schematically on Figure 5. To the west, the Rosetta fault forms a marked structural boundary. This fault extends southwestward to a transfer system of east-west oriented faults. The resulting transfer low sets up a structural basin that appears to have been in place since Early Cretaceous time. The Rosetta branch of the Nile is but one of many ancient river systems which have entered the Herodotus basin through this transfer segment.
The central delta stratigraphy is dominated by the Abu Madi canyon system. Dolson et al., (2002c) document up to 11 subaerial unconformities recognized from detailed core analysis in Tortonian and Messinian age strata. The Abu Madi canyon is up to 100 km wide and over 500 meters deep. It formed during the Messinian salinity crisis when most of the basin margin was subaerially exposed (Halbouty and El-Baz, 1992).
Commercial gas has been discovered as deep as the Qantara stratigraphic level (Lower Miocene) at Qantara Field (Figure 4). At Tineh field, a non commercial oil discovery was made in Upper Oligocene slope channels. The trap appears to be stratigraphic and highly overpressured. At the Habbar-1ST1 location, a non-commercial gas accumulation in the Oligocene was also made, with shows of condensate and 42 api oil in fluid inclusions. Most of these reservoirs were also highly overpressured.
Serravalian and Tortonian reservoirs produce exclusively in the eastern Nile Delta, but remain largely unexplored in the west. The Akhen, Temsah and Port Fouad fields collectively hold over 5 TCF of gas in deep water channel systems. The bulk of the resources proven to date, however, are from the slope channel fields of the Western Delta in giant structural and combination traps formed where slope channels cross structural culminations. The eastern-most discovery is the 1-2 TCF Gaza Marine field in offshore Palestine (Figure 4) from a Lower Pliocene turbidite fan complex (Maddox, 2000).
Stratigraphic evolution
Eocene to 10.5 MA
Figure 6 A illustrates typical sedimentation patterns in pre-Messinian deltaic successions. Two main deltaic centers are shown, with a fan delta entering the western system at the giant Abu Qir gas field. This area has over 800 meters of coarse-grained and conglomeratic sandstones deposited immediately downdip of coastal fault systems at the Cretaceous ‘hingeline'. The ‘hingeline’ on Figure B represents the maximum seaward progradation of Upper Cretaceous reef and deltaic systems which aggraded vertically along the northern Egyptian coastline. The shelf edge is controlled by underlying fault systems and is very steep.
At the end of the Cretaceous and again near the end of Eocene time, deep subaerial canyons were incised into this shelf edge, providing sediment input fairways for upper Eocene through Oligocene clastics. By lower Miocene time, the drainages were well –developed and established two separate eastern and western courses for the ancestral Nile Delta as shown. Outcrop, seismic and subsurface biostratigraphic evidence for the late Eocene incision events are detailed by Dolson et al. (2002a).
As the Gulf of Suez rift opened, northern Egypt tilted northward and large volumes of clastics began entering the basin. The 36 MA shoreline shifted rapidly northward and across the hingeline forming a lowstand delta shown by the 32 MA shoreline position. Evidence for this delta comes entirely from seismic and inference from subaerial unconformities documented along the Cretaceous and Eocene shelf edges. This maximum basinward translation of reservoir was followed by transgressions of the Qantara event which ultimately set up a major source and seal interval offshore. The Qantara flooding event was eventually overcome as the Lower Miocene ‘Mograh deltas’ prograded northward in a significant forced regression. This latter regression culminated in deposition of Serravalian and Tortonian deltaics (14.8 MA and 10.5 MA respectively).
The eastern deltaic systems consist of finer grained clastics than the fan deltas of the Abu Qir area. Large seismically definable submarine canyons formed around the tip of the 10.5 MA delta. As the Messinian salinity crisis began, these submarine canyons were subaerially exposed and began to eroded headward, eventually capturing the western drainage networks and forming the Abu Madi canyon system. This process of headward erosion and stream capture during relative lowstands is well documented in modern flume studies (Wood et al., 1993).
The Messinian crisis
Figure 7A shows the seismic and well-derived isopachs from the Pliocene Maximum Flooding surface (MFS) to the 8.0 MA unconformity. In general, relatively thin yellow and purple areas represent interfluvial spurs and anticlines which are flanked by deep erosional systems. The Abu Madi system, although reported in the literature as a narrow valley (Dalla et al., 1997; Palmieri et al., 1996) is only one of many lowstand events contained in a much broader canyon complex. Two major fluvial systems developed: 1) Rosetta branch lowstand 2) Abu Madi canyon complex. Short-headed drainages formed along the northern coastline and one feeder system developed downdip of the Sinai massif. A large shale-filled valley network occurs northeast of the Abu Madi valley. It probably represents slope erosion which failed to capture subcropping reservoirs updip.
Northward, the two main systems appear to converge and lowstand fans must exist far offshore. Salt was eventually deposited over the entire area in up to 3 separate cycles. During initial transgressions in early Pliocene, the Rosetta evaporites were deposited, forming an extensive sabkha to the west. Dolson et al. (2002) speculate that their absence in the Abu Madi system is from post-Rosetta incision events which have removed it.
Pliocene flooding
Commencing approximately 5.0 MA, marine transgressions began to overstep the Messinian exposure surfaces. These transgressions continued up the Nile River and far south of Cairo to Aswan (Said, 1990a). Basinward, thick marine shales of the Kafr El Sheikh Formation were deposited. These shales provide topseals to many Messinian accumulations and are overpressured in many parts of the basin. Approximately 3.8 MA another major forced regression occurred. Regional seismic sections show up to 19 individual sequences developed at this time.
Figures 8A and B restore one of these events. Unlike the pre-Messinian deltas, the main artery of the Nile delta forms one continues delta fed by the captured Abu Madi valley network. The delta is asymmetric, with a steep eastern side dominated by very rapid and young Plio-pleistocene sedimentation in the growth fault province. The more gentle westward side has extensive slope channel systems developed. A submarine fan fairway appears to exist to the north.
Seismic expression of slope channels
Comparison of all maps and paleo-shoreline trends shows that the deepwater fairway in the Nile Delta is dominated almost exclusively by stacked slope channel systems. The potential exists to stack pay from the Oligocene through to the Pliocene in some areas, but only the Pliocene levels have received much drilling.
Pliocene targets less than 2000 meters below mudline have readily definable direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs) which have enabled a sustained industry success rate of 90%. The traps are relatively simple combination and structural traps formed where channel systems drape over closures or noses. The giant Simian trap (Samuel et al., 2003) appears to be a stratigraphic trap formed by updip loss of reservoir. Column heights are generally 100-200 meters, but up to 550 meters have been reported at the Sapphire field discovery (Andy Samuel, personal communication).
Failures in Pliocene targets are generally caused by the presence of residual gas. A residual gas flatspot is shown on Figure 9 A, downdip of commercial gas tested by the North Idku 4X well. This residual leg had up to 15% gas saturation ((Dolson et al., 2003).
The stacked channel systems of the Serravalian and Tortonian at Akhen field (courtesy Mark Shann, BP) are clearly shown in Figure 9B. The meander-belt architecture is clear and the full development potential of these systems has still not been realized.
In some of the better seismically imaged areas of the delta, stacked channel facies can be seen at up to 7 seconds two way travel time. Unlike the Pliocene plays, however, DHI detection is difficult or impossible at some depths. The deeper play will carry a higher trap definition risk as a result.
Low resistivity pay and shale baffles
Connectivity of slope channel facies in gas systems remains problematic from a lack of sustained production data. However, RFT and DST data often show connectivity vertically despite the presence of multiple levels of intervening shales. Many of these shales actually consist of thinly bedded turbidite sands on a 1 to 6 cm scale which are gas charged. Most standard induction logs fail to fully image these thin beds. Consequently, these zones often appear either wet or too shaly to produce.
These thin bed facies have been documented by Mohamed et al. (2002) in detail and are generally shown on Figure 10A. Continuous phase gas has been tested in 2 ohm pays in this well and RFT data that all of the gas sands and low resistivity zones in the upper interval of the L1-X well are in hydraulic continuity. Reserve estimates remain somewhat problematic in the thin-bedded facies, which may actually comprise 60% or more of the productive facies in some wells.
Figure 10 B shows capillary sealing capability of both inter-channel and condensed section shales encasing the reservoir units. These shales have high sealing capability and may create barriers and reservoir compartmentalization that may only be resolved when wells are brought to production. RFT data collected at the Temsah field (not shown), suggest most of the reservoirs are in direct communication vertically and laterally with one another and that the inter-channel shales apparently do not form laterally significant barriers.
Perched water (thin water legs trapped internally to continuous phase gas) is ubiquitous at Temsah Field, largely in the basal portions of sandstones and thin-bedded levee facies. In fact, the discovery well drilled in 1980 (Temsah-1) had only one meter of free gas overlying a thick water zone. Subsequent offsets found gas in continuity with the Temsah-1 gas horizon but downdip of the water in the discovery well. The water legs are more overpressured, presumably from buoyancy exerted from above by the entrained gas. These isolate pockets of water may not substantially contribute high water volumes as the gas horizons are drained.
Preliminary production data gathered at Temsah since 2002 suggest the reservoirs are out-performing their pre-production expectations (Mark Shann, personal communication). If so, this is probably due to the un-accounted for presence of low resistivity laminated pay and a general lack of a high degree of compartmentalization even given the complex channel geometries of the reservoir. The impact of the perched water legs is yet to be determined.
Pressure systems
The pressure systems of the Nile Delta were first studied by Nashaat, (1998) and Nashaat et al. (1996). High pressure in the central delta is generally encountered first within the Kafr El Sheik shales. Pressures generally increase dramatically below the Messinian and can reach near fracture gradients in the Qantara shales. Heppard and Albertin (1998) expanded upon Naashat’s analysis with regional seismically derived of maps of overpressure. Figures 11 A and B (Heppard et al., 2000) illustrate the importance of understanding the pressure environment from both an exploration and drilling standpoint.
Pressure seals occur in deep strata where the bounding shales have a higher pore pressure than the encased sandstones. Where this occurs, the phenomenon is known as a ‘pressure regression’. In such settings, large columns can be created by the pressure differential alone. However, if the encased reservoirs have the same or nearly the same overpressure, then primary migration occurs by fracturing of the seals and only short columns can exist. Thick, continuous reservoir fairways have the highest chance of developing pressure regressions, especially if they are connected structurally or stratigraphically to outcrop or normally pressured systems in other strata. Highly lenticular and isolated reservoirs generally carry the full pressure of the encasing seals and become high pressure water bearing zones which can be serious drilling hazards.
The Serravalian ‘NN5’ sandstones at Akhen and Temsah fields have a pore pressure of approximately 12.8 pounds per gallon, but the encasing shales are at 16 pounds per gallon. This results in columns in excess of 500 meters and giant gas accumulations, caused by secondary migration into the reservoirs from the migrating hydrocarbons. This is shown schematically on Figure 11A.
Another example of a regional pressure regression is the giant Abu Madi/Baltim system (Figure 11B). The large sand-rich Abu Madi valley network subcrops Quaternary gravels to the south, providing a pressure release mechanism. They are encased in 14-15 pound per gallon shales but the reservoirs facies are normally pressured.
It is interesting to note that short columns have been seen in the Oligocene channels at Habbar-1ST1 and Tineh Field, both of which were overpressured at approximately the pressure of the surrounding shales. For the Oligocene play to work, pressure regressions like those proven in the Serravalian must be present.
Summary and challenges
Thermogenic gasses have been recorded in a number of Plio-pleistocene discoveries, indicating significant vertical migration of gas from Qantara and older source facies. High quality reservoirs have been encountered as deep as the Oligocene at 4500 meters below mudline (17-21% porosity). A large number of undrilled structural closures occur beneath the Messinian unconformity and many of these will be overlain by stacked channel systems of pre-Messinian reservoirs. The key to exploring and developing these deeper systems will be 1) highly favorable economic terms 2) de-risking reservoir architecture and connectivity through high quality seismic and test data 3) understanding and being able to predict the presence of pressure regressions in the deep targets.
The authors speculate that the Pliocene fields are the analogues for future deep discoveries in older channel belts and submarine fans. About 45 TCF has been discovered in the Nile Delta to date, with over 24 TCF in the last 3 years . Finding the additional 41 TCF to reach the predicted yet-to-find of Dolson et al (2001) of an ultimate accumulation of 85+ TCF may come from the deeper horizons and more successful infill drilling in existing fields.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank BP-Egypt for permission to release this manuscript. A large number of BP staff have contributed significantly to our regional understanding of the Nile Delta and its exploration potential. These include, but are not limited to, Zarif El Sisi, Tarek Ihab, Mohammed Anwar Naim, Sue Fowler, Gary Molinero, Mark Shann, Samir Abdel-moaty, Mohamed Reda, Bill Bryant, Bob Marten, Moataz Nady, Vince Felt, Tom Williams, Moataz Kamel, Hammouda Nada, Sheriff Montasser, Tim Dodd, Javed Ismael and Jim Keggin. We have also enjoyed extraordinary cooperation with our partners and co-horts at IEOC, Shell, Apache Egypt, RWDea and British Gas. Exceptionally helpful discussions have come from Eleanor Rowley, Alfio Malossi, Sergio Laura, Andy Samuel, Andy Sharp and Colin Harwood. We are also indebted to a top-flight database team supervised by Sahar Abdel-Aziz which has allowed a comprehensive look at the basin. Emad Hamid helped build the GIS system which has given us real insight into risks, geological relationships and regional understanding. Last but certainly not least, the senior author thanks his wife Debbie for her patience, understanding and help editing this paper.
Figures.
1. Location of the study area and basement structure setting. The 3D shaded relief map is modified from (Loutit et al., 2001).
2. Seismic and well control used in this study. Blue outlines are large merged 3D seismic surveys.
3. Index map to Nile Delta fields and major fault systems. The Nile Delta is highly asymmetric, with a gentle western flank and steep, growth-fault bounded eastern flank.
4. Nile Delta stratigraphic column. The diagram represents onshore to offshore stratigraphy from the Western Desert to the deep water Nile Delta. Nannofossil assemblages shown are at key flooding surfaces and unconformities.
5. Schematic diagram of Nile Delta stratigraphy and structure. Modified from Dolson et al. (2001) and Dolson et al. (2000). Deep source rocks generate hydrocarbons which have migrated as high as the Pleistocene in some fields. Biogenic gas is also common in the shallower section.
6. Gross depositional environments at 10.5 MA (A) and shelf edges from Cretaceous through Tortonian sequences. These shoreline shifts record 3 major events: 1) late Eocene through late Oligocene shelf progradation 2) a regional transgression (Qantara flooding event) and 3) Lower Miocene through Tortonian forced regressions. The 10.5 MA regression culminated in subaerial erosion of the delta topsets by unconformities in associated with the Messinian salinity crisis.
7. A) Messinian isopachs in meters (8.0 MA to Pliocene Maximum Flooding Surface) and b) gross depositional environments at maximum lowstand, Messinian event. See text for discussion.
8. A) Pliocene 3.8 MA isopachs in meters (3.8 MA surface to Pliocene maximum flooding surface) and B) gross depositional environments at 3.8 MA. Pliocene fields are dominantly slope channel systems (western delta) and deep water growth fault traps (eastern delta).
9. A) Seismic expression of two Pliocene gas fields (Dolson et al., 2002b). B) Stacked channels at the Serravalian and Tortonian level, Temsah and Akhen fields (courtesy Mark Shann, BP-Egypt).
10. A) Examples of low resistivity pay interbedded with conventional pay. See text for discussion and Figure 4 for the location of the wells. B) capillary pressure properties of potential seals in Serravalian strata.
11. A) Schematic diagram of the pore pressures in the Nile Delta from (Heppard and Albertin, 1998). See text for discussion.
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