Basin to Basin:

Plate Tectonics in Exploration

Ian Bryant
Nora Herbst
Houston, Texas, USA
Paul Dailly
Kosmos Energy
Dallas, Texas
John R. Dribus
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

The principles of plate tectonics help explorers understand and evaluate hydrocarbon
plays. Since the start of the 21st century, these ideas have been successfully applied
to presalt basins and turbidite fans along the coasts of South America and western
Africa. Guided by global plate tectonics, exploration companies are applying winning
play strategies from one coast of the South Atlantic to discover and prove similar
plays on the opposite coast.

Roberto Fainstein
Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia
Nick Harvey
Neftex
Abingdon, England
Angus McCoss
Tullow Oil plc
London, England
Bernard Montaron
Beijing, Peoples Republic of China
David Quirk
Maersk Oil
Copenhagen, Denmark
Paul Tapponnier
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore
Oileld Review Autumn 2012: 24, no. 3.
Copyright 2012 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Steve
Brown, Copenhagen, Denmark; George Cazenove and
Jonathan Leather, Tullow Oil plc, London; James W.
Farnsworth, Cobalt International Energy, Inc., Houston;
Winston Hey, Houston; Susan Lundgren, Gatwick, England;
and Richard Martin and Mike Simmons, Neftex, Abingdon,
England.
Petrel is a mark of Schlumberger.

38

New discoveries often emerge from previous successes. Once a play concept has proved commercially viable, oil companies are able to apply
characteristics from their play to a regional or
global framework in search of other accumulations. Through integration of exploration information, drilling data and geologic models from a
successful play and through application of plate
tectonic models, geoscientists are nding analog
plays across ocean basins.
From the North Sea to the Gulf of Mexico and
from offshore South America to offshore Africa,
explorationists have discovered major oil and gas
elds in continental margin systems. The Santos,
Campos and Espirito Santo basins off the coast of
Brazil contain prolic oil discoveries, and the
application of plate tectonic concepts has enabled
explorers to extend that play across the Atlantic
to offshore western Africa. Within the last few
years, exploration companies have applied principles of plate tectonics to extend and relate
upper Cretaceous turbidite fan plays westward
from West Africa across the Equatorial Atlantic to
French Guiana and Brazil. This article describes
some of the fundamental concepts that todays
geoscientists use to extrapolate plays across
ocean basins. Case studies demonstrate how
explorers have used plate tectonics and regional
geology to expand exploration efforts in both
directions across the Atlantic Ocean.

Basic Concepts
Basins, petroleum systems and hydrocarbon plays
are vital concepts in petroleum exploration. Basins
collect the sediments that become the building
blocks for petroleum systems. A petroleum system
comprises an active source rock and the oil and
gas derived from it that migrate to a reservoir and
become conned there by a trap and seal.1 A play
is a model used to explore for hydrocarbon deposits having similar characteristics. Petroleum systems may contain one or more plays, depending on
the reservoir and style of trapping mechanism.2
Exploration experts systematically apply these
concepts to locate prospects for drilling. Software
platforms for databases, data integration and
modeling are helping experts optimize their exploration workows.
A basin is a depression in the Earths surface
that accumulates sediments. Basins form when
the Earths lithosphere is stretched, fractured,
loaded down or compressed in response to
global tectonic processes. These processes also
govern the size and depththe accommodation
spaceof a basin, while climatic conditions
determine water and sediment input for the
basin ll material.

Oileld Review

Basins may be deformed by tectonic motion:

extension, compression, strike-slip motion or
any combination thereof. Extension may cause
normal faulting and may be accompanied by
stretching, thinning and sagging of the crust.
Compression results in thrust faulting, folding,
shortening and thickening. Strike-slip motion
gives rise to translation and lateral faulting.
A combination of these phenomena produces

Autumn 2012

1. Al-Hajeri MM, Al Saeed M, Derks J, Fuch T, Hantschel T,

Kauerauf A, Neumaier M, Schenk O, Swientek O,
Tessen N, Welte D, Wygrala B, Kornpihl D and
Peters K: Basin and Petroleum System Modeling,
Oileld Review 21, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 1429.
Stewart L: The Search for Oil and Gas, Oileld Review 23,
no. 2 (Summer 2011): 5960.

2. Doust H: Placing Petroleum Systems and Plays in

Their Basin History Context: A Means to Assist in the
Identication [of] New Opportunities, First Break 21,
no. 9 (September 2003): 7383.
Doust H: The Exploration Play: What Do We Mean By
It?, AAPG Bulletin 94, no. 11 (November 2010): 16571672.

39

O Overburden
C Caprock
R Reservoirs
Source rocks

Tertiary

O
C
R

Clayey-sandy
sediments

Marls

Oceanic
crust

Continental crust

Cretaceous

C
R
Limestone
C
C
Lithosphere

Salt
Synrift
lacustrine
sediments

> Petroleum systems. Explorationists dene the petroleum system as the geologic elements and processes that are
essential for the existence of a petroleum accumulation. This cross section summarizes petroleum systems along a South
Atlantic continental margin. The geologic elements must be present in the following order: The source rock contains
organic matter, reservoir rock receives the hydrocarbons and has sufcient porosity and permeability for storage and
recovery of hydrocarbons, sealing caprock is impermeable to keep the uids in the reservoir and overburden rock buries
the source rock to depths having the optimal temperature and pressure for source rock maturation and hydrocarbon
generation. Rifting of the South Atlantic Ocean started with extension and faulting (black solid going to dashed lines) of
continental crust (brown). The continental crust thinned and eventually split apart. As the two parts of the continental crust
separated (only the right side is shown here), oceanic crust (gray) formed at a midocean ridge (not shown) during seaoor
spreading. The continental margin is located where the thinned continental crust meets oceanic crust. Synrift lacustrine
basins were preserved and lled with source (blue) and reservoir (white) rock that were eventually trapped and sealed
underneath salt (purple). Hydrocarbons from synrift source rock migrated to limestone reservoirs (green bricks) that were
buried and trapped beneath postsalt marls (green). The marls also provided source rock (dark green). During the Tertiary,
clayey-sandy sediments (yellow and tan) buried the margin, providing source rock, reservoirs, caprock and overburden.
[Illustration adapted from Huc AY: Petroleum in the South Altantic, Oil & Gas Science and TechnologyRevue de lInstitut
Franais du Ptrole 59, no. 3 (MayJune 2004): 243253.]

pull-apart basins, push-up blocks and transtension or transpression oblique slip. Thus, local
or large-scale movements provide the impetus
for creation of stratigraphic or structural
traps. Stratigraphic traps result from facies
changes or juxtaposition of impermeable and
permeable strata. Structural traps form as a
result of strata deformation. The tectonic and
stratigraphic history of a basin gives it a global
and regional setting for its formation, filling
and deformation.3

40

Exploration teams composed of geologists, geochemists, paleontologists, geophysicists and petrophysicists unravel the history of a basin and
sequence of tectonic events and cycles of sedimentation lling a basin. They identify source rocks
within the basin and correlate them with known
trapped hydrocarbons.The teams examine the geologic elements and processes that created known
source rocks and traps to develop leads to other
similarly generated accumulations (above). After
further investigation, if the lead still appears to

have potential to trap hydrocarbons, it becomes

a prospect.4
Once identied, the prospects are ranked
according to uncertainty, risk, potential reward
and market value of hydrocarbons.
Integrated software systems that incorporate
mapping and petroleum systems and play analysis tools, such as the Petrel E&P platform, help
geoscientists evaluate basins (next page).5
Geoscientists use them to construct and share
geologic models in 3D and provide an environment for storing data and models.

Oileld Review

Project and portfolio economics

Model-based interpretation from basin to prospect

Play and prospect evaluation

Geomechanics and seal analysis

Trap

Reservoir

Charge and timing petroleum system modeling

Structural restoration

> Exploration software platform. Exploration experts combine seismic information, well logs, geochemical and heat ow data and other geologic data to
work from basin to prospect scale (clockwise top center to middle right). Regional to prospect scale models of traps (top right) and reservoirs (middle right)
built in the Petrel platform benet from integration with structural restoration tools (bottom right) and petroleum system modeling (bottom center). Both
petroleum system modeling and structural restoration tools may be used to gain an understanding of the geomechanics of the basin to guide evaluation of
seals (bottom left) and plan exploration wells. Risk assessment tools allow exploration teams to assign uncertainty and risk to acreage and drillable
prospects (middle left). Petroleum economic evaluation enables planning exploration portfolios (top left).

By creating models at various scales, geoscientists are able to develop geocellular models from global to regional and local scales.
This integration allows geoscientists to determine, for example, whether a particular local
channel-levee interpretation is consistent with
the regional interpretation or whether a widespread organic-rich facies mapped at the tectonic plate scale corresponds to source rock
facies in the prospect model of the targeted
petroleum system.

Autumn 2012

3. A facies is a rock unit dened by characteristics that

distinguish it from neighboring units.
For more on stratigraphic and structural traps:
Caldwell J, Chowdhury A, van Bemmel P, Engelmark F,
Sonneland L and Neidell NS: Exploring for Stratigraphic
Traps, Oileld Review 9, no. 4 (Winter 1997): 4861.
For sequence stratigraphy: Neal J, Risch D and Vail P:
Sequence StratigraphyA Global Theory for Local
Success, Oileld Review 5, no. 1 (January 1993): 5162.

4. This chain of events from hydrocarbon source to its

resting place in a distant reservoir applies to
conventional petroleum systems. For unconventional
systems, the source rock may also be the reservoir rock.
Such unconventional systems include oil and gas from
shale or coalbed methane.
McCarthy K, Rojas K, Niemann M, Palmowski D, Peters K
and Stankiewicz A: Basic Petroleum Geochemistry for
Source Rock Evaluation, Oileld Review 23, no. 2
(Summer 2011): 3243.
5. Al-Hajeri et al, reference 1.

41

Present day
Jubilee discovery,
Tano basin

Cretaceous

Zaedyus discovery,
Guyana-Suriname basin
Precambrian

Play projection
Present day

Cretaceous

Precambrian

Tupi discovery,
Santos-Campos basin

Extrusive volcanics
Nondeposition
Organic-rich clastics
Lacustrine facies
Deep marine sand-dominated clastics
Paralic facies
Deep marine carbonates
Shallow marine carbonates
Deep marine clastics
Shallow marine clastics
Terrestrial sediments

Azul and Cameia discoveries,

Kwanza basin

> South Atlantic conjugate margins through geologic time. Two regional geologic models, built on opposing coasts of the South Atlantic, are constrained by
a global sequence stratigraphic model. By assimilating interpretations into a 3D environment using the Petrel platform, geoscientists have derived a
workow to populate a tectonic platescale geocellular model for the sedimentary evolution of the margins through geologic time as illustrated in the
exploded view of the South Atlantic continental margins from Precambrian time at the deepest surface to the present at the upper surface. Data assembled
in this way on a common software platform allow explorationists to project petroleum system facies to a data-poor region by using sequence stratigraphy
and elements of petroleum system modeling from a data-rich region to correlate and extrapolate associated facies. A recent example of this approach may
be found along the transform margin where successful exploration concepts developed in Turonian-age lowstand turbidite fans offshore Ghana have been
applied offshore French Guiana, leading to the recent Zaedyus discovery within similar deposits. Visualized in geologic time, these lowstand systems may
be explored with their associated petroleum elements. Compelling evidence from wireline log responses, hinterland cooling events and biostratigraphically
constrained unconformities were integrated; the results suggest that Campanian-age lowstand deposits may also provide attractive reservoir targets in the
Guyana-Suriname basin offshore northern South America. The Campanian stratigraphic interval, while not as well tested as the Turonian interval, has also
been attracting interest on the African margin offshore Ghana, Liberia and Cte dIvoire. (Illustration used with permission from Neftex.)

Because these various input data are constrained by a stratigraphic model, the geocellular
models are displayed not only in true vertical
depth (TVD) or two-way traveltime, but also in
geologic time (above). In addition, geologists are
able to project characteristics of a given strati-

42

graphic interval to analogous strata in conjugate

basins or in frontier areas. Geologists are also
able to use qualities from a data-rich region to
develop a sequence stratigraphic context for predicting facies in data-poor regions.

Plate Boundaries and Rifted and

Transform Margins
Plate tectonic science has established that the
Earths outermost layer, the lithosphere, comprises a number of major and many minor plates
that move relative to one another (next page).6

Oileld Review

This motion is driven by the convection and ow

of hot ductile material in the mantle underlying
the lithosphere. The lithosphere consists of two
layers: the crust and the lithospheric mantle.7
The crust is further divided into two categories.
Continental crust is mostly of granitic composition; its density averages about 2.7 g/cm3, and its
thickness is about 35 km [22 mi] in most places
but ranges from 20 to 70 km [12 to 43 mi].
Oceanic crust has a basaltic composition and is

denser and thinner than continental crust. Its

density averages about 2.9 g/cm3, and its thickness ranges from 5 to 10 km [3 to 6 mi]. The
higher density of the oceanic crust causes it to
rest lower in the mantle than continental crust.
Over geologic time, tectonic plate motions
have amalgamated small continents to form supercontinents and separated them again into a collection of smaller continents distributed across the
planet. The most recent giant supercontinent,

Pangea, formed during the Paleozoic era, then was

rifted apart beginning about 225 to 200 million
years ago [Ma]. The breakup started with Pangea
separating into the Laurasia and Gondwana supercontinents in the north and south, respectively.
The subsequent breakup of Laurasia and
Gondwana resulted in the opening of the Atlantic
and Indian oceans and evolved to the present day
conguration of continents and oceans.

Eurasia plate

Eurasia plate

Juan de Fuca
plate

North America plate

Anatolia plate

Pacific plate
Caribbean plate

Philippine
plate

Africa plate
Cocos
plate
South America plate

Arabia
plate

India
plate

Australia
plate

Nazca plate
Australia plate

Pacific plate
Scotia plate
Antarctica plate
Antarctica plate
Antarctica plate
Convergent boundary barbs point
to direction of convergence

Possible boundary

Major transform boundary

Divergent boundary

Plate movement

> Plates. The Earths lithosphere is divided into numerous plates. Relative motion of the plates (arrows) determines whether the plate boundaries are
convergent, transform or divergent. [Map adapted from Interpretative Map of Plate Tectonics, an inset to Simkin T, Tilling RI, Vogt PR, Kirby SH,
Kimberly P and Stewart DB: This Dynamic PlanetWorld Map of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Impact Craters, and Plate Tectonics, US Geological Survey,
Geologic Investigations Series Map I2800 (2006).]

6. The lithosphere is the 50 to 200 km [30 to 120 mi] thick,

rigid outer layer of Earth; its thickness is determined by
the depth of the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature,
which is roughly 1,000C [1,800F]. The upper part of the
lithosphere is the crust and the lower part is the
lithospheric mantle.

Autumn 2012

For more on plate boundaries: Bird P: An Updated

Digital Model of Plate Boundaries, Geochemistry
Geophysics Geosystems 4, no. 3 (March 2003),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2001GC000252 (accessed
August 21, 2012).

7. Earths mantle is the 2,900 km [1,800 mi] thick layer that

lies between Earths crust and outer core. The mantle is
divided into the upper mantle, transition zone and lower
mantle. The upper mantle is about 370 km [230 mi] thick
and divided into the lithospheric mantle and the
asthenosphere.

43

Convergent
plate boundary

Transform
plate boundary

Shield
volcano

Island arc Trench

stratovolcano
tle

pe

Up

n
ma

Divergent
plate boundary

Convergent
plate boundary

Oceanic spreading
ridge

Continental rift zone

(young plate boundary)

Trench
Continental crust
Uppe
r ma
ntle

Lithosphere
Oceanic crust

Asthenosphere

Subducting
plate

Hot spot
Lower mantle

Plate
Asthenosphere
Convergent boundary

Divergent boundary

Transform boundary

> Plate boundaries. Earths lithospheric plates move relative to one another. This movement is
accommodated along plate boundaries. Convergent boundaries occur where plates move toward one
another. One plate may subductdiveunder another; trenches mark the line of the bending,
subducting plate. Chains of island arc stratovolcanoes may form along subduction zones above the
downgoing plate. Transform boundaries occur where plates slide past one another; oceanic transform
fault zones transfer seaoor spreading from one midocean ridge segment to another. Divergent plate
boundaries occur where plates split apart at seaoor spreading ridges and continental rift zones. Hot
spots occur where plumes of hot mantle material impinge on lithospheric plates; they may induce
shield volcanoes and cause ood basalts to pour out over plates (not shown). [Image adapted from
Schematic Cross Section of Plate Tectonics, an inset to Simkin T, Tilling RI, Vogt PR, Kirby SH,
Kimberly P and Stewart DB: This Dynamic PlanetWorld Map of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Impact
Craters, and Plate Tectonics, US Geological Survey, Geologic Investigations Series Map I2800 (2006).]

Midocean
ridge

Plate boundary

Ocean crust

Fracture
zone
(inactive)

Transform fault
(active part of
fracture zone)

Fracture
zone
(inactive)

Oceanic crust
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
Plate boundary

> Midocean ridge and transform fault plate boundary. Midocean spreading (white and red arrows)
rarely occurs along a single clean rift zone. Here, the divergent plate boundary (dashed yellow line)
consists of two segments of a midocean ridge connected by a transform fault. In the transform fault,
or the active part of the fracture zone between the ridge segments, the plates slide past each other
in opposite directions (black opposing arrows). In the inactive part of the fracture zone, outside of the
ridge segments, the plate sections are locked together and move in the same direction (black parallel
arrows). (Adapted from Garrison TS: Oceanography: An Invitation to Marine Science, 4th ed. Pacic
Grove, California, USA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 2002.)

44

The plates move relative to one another and

interact with each other at their boundaries
(left). The three types of plate boundaries are the
following: convergent, or compressional; transform, or strike slip; and divergent, or extensional.
At convergent plate boundaries, plates move
toward one another. Plates respond in a number
of ways when they collide, depending on whether
the convergence is continent to continent, ocean
to ocean or ocean to continent. Continent-tocontinent convergencecollisionresults in
shortening and thickening of the crust. The collision between the Indian and Asian continents is
one example. This convergence created the
Himalaya Mountains and Tibetan Plateau and
resulted in the southeastward lateral escape of
Sundaland and southeast China in the direction
away from the collision between India and Asia.8
Ocean-to-ocean or ocean-to-continent convergence results in subduction: one oceanic plate
dives under the other plate. An example of oceanto-ocean convergence occurs at the Marianas
Trench, where the Pacic plate plunges westward under the small Philippine plate in the
western Pacic Ocean. Ocean-to-continent convergence occurs along the western Andes
Mountains, where the Pacic plate dives eastward under the South America plate.
At transform boundaries, plates slide past
each other, which occurs along the San Andreas
Fault in California, USA. This fault accommodates movement of the Pacic plate northward
past the North America plate. The North and
East Anatolian faults in Turkey are also transform boundaries. These faults accommodate the
westward movement of the Anatolia plate
toward the Mediterranean Sea as it escapes the
compression between the converging Eurasia
and Arabia plates.
At divergent plate boundaries, a plate splits,
forming two smaller plates that move apart from
each other. Divergent plate boundaries may start
out as continental rift systems; in millions of
years, these land-based rifts become oceanic rifts.
Examples of modern-day continental rifts are the
East African rift; the Lake Baikal rift, Russia; and
the Basin and Range Province, western USA.
In continental rifts, the crust undergoes
extension, faulting and thinning until it splits. At
the split, a volcanic ridge forms as hot mantle
material wells up to ll the void left by the separating plates. The mantle material of basaltic
composition accretes to the plate edges, cools
and forms new oceanic crust. As the plates move
apart, the oceanic crust grows, building an ocean
that widens between the slowly separating plates.
The process is called seaoor spreading. The Red

Oileld Review

Sea and Gulf of Aden rift that separates the

Africa and Arabia plates is a young divergent
plate boundary. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which
encompasses the midocean rift and ridge that
separates the Americas from Europe and Africa,
is a mature divergent plate boundary.
As continents move apart, they rarely do so
along a single separation zone or rift. Rather,
the rift is a series of segments offset by transform faults and fracture zones. Transform faults
are strike-slip faults that connect rift segments.
They transfer the spreading motion or accommodate spreading rate differences between rift
segments; they are active only between rift segments.9 Transform faults leave scars on the
ocean oor called fracture zones. Transform
faults and fracture zones are oriented perpendicular to the midocean ridge and parallel to
the spreading direction; they mark the path of
plate movement as the rifted continental margins move farther apart.
The ages and thermal histories of oceanic
rocks differ on opposite sides of transform faults.
Along the fault, younger, hotter and lower density
rocks are juxtaposed against older, colder and
higher density rocks. Because they are hotter, the
younger rocks are thermally uplifted to a higher
elevation than their older, cooler and denser
cross-fault neighbors, causing a difference in
ocean oor elevation on either side of the fault.
These elevation differences may remain as the
rocks cool, leaving scarsfracture zones.
Because the fracture zones are nearly parallel to
the midocean ridge spreading directionthe
direction of relative plate motionthey leave
tracks of the opening of the ocean (previous
page, bottom).
As seaoor spreading continues, previously
connected continental margins move farther
apart. A continental margin, where continental
crust meets or transitions to oceanic crust, is a
relic of faulting during continental breakup.
Thus, continental margins that face a midocean
rift commonly have overlaps and may also have
transform and rifted margin segments. Transform
margins occur where continents break up and
separate by shear movement along transform
strike-slip faults. Rifted margins form where continents break up and separate by extensional
movement perpendicular to coastlines and along
dip-slip faults.
Gondwana Breakup
The relative movement of adjacent tectonic
plates throughout geologic time has been quantied by remote-sensing technologies. For continents, scientists determine plate movement by

Autumn 2012

tting apparent polar wander curves.10 For

oceans, scientists determine plate movement
from magnetic anomaly patterns caused by
north-to-south polarity reversals of Earths mag-

netic eld and from fracture zones on the ocean

oor (below).11 However, there are no useful magnetic anomalies to constrain the Gondwana
breakup history during the Cretaceous period

Magnetic chrons
MC1

MC1
MC3 MC2
MC6 MC5 MC4

Is

MC2 MC3
MC4 MC5 MC6

Is

oc

oc

id

hr

on

hr

oc

ea

on

rid

ge

Normal polarity
Reverse polarity

Oceanic
crust

Seafloor spreading
Cold
and old

Lithosphere
Hot and
young

Plate temperature and age

> Magnetic anomalies and seaoor spreading. Scientists obtained evidence

of seaoor spreading by determining the polarity of magnetic anomalies on
both sides of midocean ridges. Earths magnetic eld changes its polarity
from time to time. The ocean oor is youngest and hottest at the oceanic
ridge spreading center and becomes progressively older and cooler toward
the continent-ocean boundary. As the ocean oor rocks and their
ferromagnetic minerals cool below the Curie temperature, the ferromagnetic
minerals become magnetized in the direction consistent with the existing
polarity of Earths magnetic eld. Rocks displaying dominantly normal
polarity, equivalent to present-day magnetism, are shown by black stripes on
the plate cross section. Rocks with dominantly reverse polarity magnetism
are shown as white stripes. The symmetry of the magnetic anomaly striping
on either side of the ridge demonstrates the movement of the seaoor
away from the spreading center. Dating each polarity shiftnormal to
reverse and reverse to normalturns the magnetic anomaly map into an
magnetochronology map for seaoor spreading; the age of each reversal is
an isochron (white lines)a contour of timeand the time interval between
magnetic reversals is a magnetic chron (MC), during which Earths magnetic
eld is dominantly, or constantly, one polarity.

8. Sundaland refers to the Sunda shelf region of Southeast

Asia, which includes Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and
Borneo. For more about the lateral escape of Southeast
Asia and Sundaland: Tapponnier P, Lacassin R, Leloup
PH, Schrer U, Zhong D, Wu H, Liu X, Ji S, Zhang L and
Zhong J: The Ailao Shan/Red River Metamorphic Belt:
Tertiary Left-Lateral Shear Between Indochina and South
China, Nature 343, no. 6257 (February 1, 1990): 431437.
9. Strike-slip displacement or motion refers to the horizontal
movement of the other side of the fault relative to the
reference sidethe side on which one is standing,
facing the fault. The motion is right lateral when the
other side of the fault moves to the right and left lateral
when the other side moves to the left.
10. For more on plate motions and polar wander: Besse J
and Courtillot V: Apparent and True Polar Wander and
the Geometry of Geomagnetic Field Over the Last 200
Myr, Journal of Geophysical Research 107, no. B11
(November 2002): EMP 6-1 to 6-31.

Besse J and Courtillot V: Correction to Apparent and

True Polar Wander and the Geometry of Geomagnetic
Field Over the Last 200 Myr, Journal of Geophysical
Research 108, no. B10 (October 2003): EMP 3-1 to 3-2.
11. For more on plate motions, magnetic anomalies and
seaoor spreading: Hellinger SJ: The Uncertainties of
Finite Rotations in Plate Tectonics, Journal of
Geophysical Research 86, no. B10 (October 1981):
93129318.
Karner GD and Gamba LAP: Timing and Origin of the
South Atlantic Pre-Salt Sag Basins and Their Capping
Evaporates, in Schreiber BC, Lugli S and Babel M (eds):
Evaporites Through Space and Time. London:
The Geological Society, Special Publication 285
(January 2007): 1535.

45

Cratons
Marathon FZ

Demerara
Plateau

Cretaceous
volcanism

AFRICA

Midocean
ridge

Guinean
Plateau

Aptian salt

Equatorial Segment

Romanche FZ
Chain FZ
Potiguar basin

Gulf of
Guinea

Ascension FZ
SergipeAlagoas
basin
Esprito
Santo
basin

SOUTH
AMERICA

Paran
Province

Pelotas
basin

Congo
basin
Kwanza
basin

Central Segment
Namibe
basin

Campos
basin
Rio Grande FZ

Santos
basin

Gabon
basin

Walvis
Ridge

Rio Grande
Rise

Namibia
basin

Tristan da Cunha
hot spot
Southern Segment

Rawson
basin
Agulhas-Falkland FZ

Falkland Segment

> Tectonic map of the South Atlantic Ocean at the end of magnetic polarity chron 34 (MC34, 84 Ma). The red line
represents the midocean ridge at the end of MC34. From north to south, the South Atlantic Ocean is divided into the
Equatorial, Central, Southern and Falkland segments, bounded by the Marathon, Ascension, Rio Grande and
Agulhas-Falkland fracture zones (FZs). The black dots show the approximate locations of the discoveries of Tupi
offshore Brazil, Azul and Cameia offshore Angola, Jubilee offshore Ghana and Zaedyus offshore French Guiana.
(Adapted from Moulin et al, reference 12.)

from roughly 120 to 84 Ma because Earths magnetic eld was stable and did not experience
magnetic polarity reversals during that interval.12
Nonetheless, through dating of the ood basalts
that poured over the Gondwana continent, geoscientists generally agree that the breakup of the
Gondwana supercontinent, which resulted in the
opening of the South Atlantic Ocean and the
separation of the South America and Africa
plates, started about 130 Ma during the Early
Cretaceous epoch. The breakup started in the
south, moved progressively north and was completed about 20 to 30 million years later during
the Aptian to Albian geologic ages.13 The central

46

segment opened later because the continental

plate was hotter and softer there. Consequently,
it stretched further and reached a higher elevation because of thermal uplift before breakup.
The South Atlantic Ocean extends from the
Marathon Fracture Zone (FZ) in the north to the
Antarctic Plate in the south and may be divided
into four segments separated by major FZs that
cross the Atlantic Ocean (above).
Adjacent to the Rio Grande FZ, the Rio
Grande Rise and the Walvis Ridge originated from
the Tristan da Cunha hot spot that is responsible
for the Paran and Etendeka ood basalts in
Brazil and Namibia, respectively.14 When the
ocean opened, the Rio Grande Rise and Walvis

Ridge formed as the South America plate drifted

to the NW and the African plate drifted NE relative to the Tristan da Cunha hot spot. The resulting ridges formed a broad volcanic high that
isolated the central segment of the South Atlantic
Ocean from encroachment by marine water from
the southern segment.
The basin lling histories of the central and
southern segments of the South Atlantic differ
from one another.15 In particular, the central segment is dominated by thick salt basins that formed
during the Aptian age (125 to 112 Ma), whereas
the continental margins of the southern segment
subsided at the margins of an open ocean.

Oileld Review

The equatorial South Atlantic segment began

to open later in the Early Cretaceous epoch
around 112 Ma.16 In its northern latitudes, this
segment encompasses the Demerara plateau of
Suriname and French Guiana and the Guinea plateau in West Africa. In its southern latitudes, it
includes coasts of northern Brazil, Cte dIvoire
and Ghana.17 The opening of the equatorial segment, unlike the other segments, was not perpendicular to the continental margins because some
of the plate motion was taken up by oblique
movement or sideways tearing along faults.18
Geologists understanding of the geologic
events that controlled geography, climate and
basin history are based on the principles of plate
tectonics. These principles form the foundation
for developing exploration plays. Discoveries in
the presalt and transform margin basins along
the South American and western African coasts
since 2006 illustrate these points.
Matching Salt Basins: From Brazil to Angola
The Lula oil eldrenamed from Tupi in 2010 to
honor former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silvawas discovered in 2006 within
12. Torsvik TH, Rousse S, Labails C and Smethurst MA:
A New Scheme for the Opening of the South Atlantic
Ocean and the Dissection of an Aptian Salt Basin,
Geophysical Journal International 177, no. 3 (June 2009):
13151333.
Moulin M, Aslanian D and Unternehr P: A New Starting
Point for the South and Equatorial Atlantic Ocean,
Earth-Science Reviews 98, no. 12 (January 2010): 137.
Blaich OA, Faleide JI and Tsikalas F: Crustal Breakup
and Continent Ocean Transition at South Atlantic
Conjugate Margins, Journal of Geophysical
Research 116, B01402 (January 2011): 138.
Cartwright J, Swart R and Corner B: Conjugate Margins
of the South Atlantic: NamibiaPelotas, in Roberts DG
and Bally AW (eds): Regional Geology and Tectonics:
Phanerozoic Passive Margins, Cratonic Basins and
Global Tectonic Maps, Vol. 1c. Amsterdam, The
Netherlands: Elsevier BV (2012): 202221.
Mohriak WU and Fainstein R: Phanerozoic Regional
Geology of the Eastern Brazilian Margin, in Roberts DG
and Bally AW (eds): Regional Geology and Tectonics:
Phanerozoic Passive Margins, Cratonic Basins and
Global Tectonic Maps, Vol. 1c. Amsterdam, The
Netherlands: Elsevier BV (2012): 222283.
13. Szatmari P: Habitat of Petroleum Along the South
Atlantic Margins, in Mello MR and Katz BJ (eds):
Petroleum Systems of South Atlantic Margins. Tulsa:
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists,
AAPG Memoir 73 (2000): 6975.
14. Hot spots are surface manifestations of mantle plumes,
which are stationary thermal anomalies that produce
thin upwelling conduits of magma within the mantle. Hot
spot volcanism yields ood basalts and long linear
chains of volcanoes within tectonic plate interiors; along
each chain, the volcanoes become progressively older
in the direction of plate movement.
Wilson M: Magmatism and Continental Rifting
During the Opening of the South Atlantic Ocean:
A Consequence of Lower Cretaceous Super-Plume
Activity?, in Storey BC, Alabaster T and Pankhurst RJ
(eds): Magmatism and the Causes of Continental
Break-Up. London: The Geological Society, Special
Publication 68 (1992): 241255.

Autumn 2012

the Santos basin by Petrleo Brasileiro SA, or

Petrobras.19 The discovery was made beneath
Aptian salt on the Brazilian rifted margin of the
central South Atlantic and established the presalt play.20
The presalt elds offshore Brazil are charged
with hydrocarbons migrating from organic-rich
source rocks deposited within anoxic lakes that
developed around the time the South Atlantic was
forming. At the start of the Aptian age, continental
rifting ended and seaoor spreading began; however, lake, rather than marine, conditions prevailed as the region was uplifted above the mantle
plume of the Tristan da Cunha hot spot. In these
lakes above the rifted continental margins,
unusual carbonates were deposited during the
Early Aptian (123 to 117 Ma). Similar to the process in present-day Lake Tanganyika in East
Africa, shallow lacustrine carbonates were deposited during slow deepening of the lakes. Within the
Early Aptian carbonates, the fossil record shows
coquina strata overlain by microbialite strata as
conditions changed from fresh to hypersaline
water when the climate became more arid.21 These

carbonates form the reservoirs of Brazils Santos

and Campos presalt basins.
With increased aridity during the Late Aptian
(117 to 113 Ma), the basins became conducive to
deposition of thick, 800- to 2,500-m [2,600- to
8,200-ft] layered evaporite sequences. Evaporites
in the Santos basin show a history of rapid precipitation of mostly halite from marine waters,
followed by slow precipitation of complex salts.
These later salts precipitated from highly concentrated brines augmented by hydrothermal
processes involving a uid-rock chemical
exchange with basaltic rock. The rst 600 m
[2,000 ft] of these evaporites are formed by two
massive halite layers separated by a thin anhydrite layer. The top of the evaporite sequence
shows a number of deposition cycles with potassium- and magnesium-rich layered evaporites.22
This entire evaporite sequence precipitated in a
deep rift lake behind the barrier created by the
Walvis Ridge and Rio Grande Rise. This barrier
was penetrated by deep ssures along which
marine waters traveled, interacting chemically
with the basaltic wall rock and leaking into the
evaporating lake.

Quirk DG, Hertle M, Jeppesen JW, Raven M, Mohriak W,

Kann DJ, Nrgaard M, Mendes MP, Hsu D, Howe MJ
and Coffey B: Rifting, Subsidence and Continental
Break-Up Above a Mantle Plume in the Central South
Atlantic, in Mohriak WU, Danforth A, Post PJ,
Brown DE, Tari GC, Nemcok M and Sinha ST (eds):
Conjugate Divergent Margins. London: The Geological
Society, Special Publication 369 (in press).
15. Sranne M and Anka Z: South Atlantic Continental
Margins of Africa: A Comparison of the Tectonic vs.
Climate Interplay on the Evolution of Equatorial West
Africa and SW Africa Margins, Journal of African Earth
Sciences 43, no. 13 (October 2005): 283300.
16. Moulin et al, reference 12.
17. The Guyanas, or Guianas, is the region of northern South
America that includes the nations of Suriname, Guyana
and French Guiana. West Africa, or western Africa, is
the westernmost region of the African continent and its
southern edge extends along the northern coastline of
the Gulf of Guinea and includes, from east to west,
Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Cte dIvoire, Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Guinea.
18. Darros de Matos RM: Tectonic Evolution of the
Equatorial South Atlantic, in Mohriak W and Talwani M
(eds): Atlantic Rifts and Continental Margins.
Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union,
Geophysical Monograph 115 (2000): 331354.
Mascle J, Lohman P, Clift P and ODP 159 Scientic Party:
Development of a Passive Transform Margin: Cte
dIvoireGhana Transform MarginODP Leg 159
Preliminary Results, Geo-Marine Letters 17, no. 1
(February 1997): 411.
Darros de Matos RM: Petroleum Systems Related to
the Equatorial Transform Margin: Brazilian and West
African Conjugate Basins, in Post P, Rosen N, Olson D,
Palmes SL, Lyons KT and Newton GB (eds): Petroleum
Systems of Divergent Continental Margin Basins. Tulsa:
Gulf Coast Section, Society for Sedimentary Geology
(2005): 807831.
19. Beasley CJ, Fiduk JC, Bize E, Boyd A, Frydman M,
Zerilli A, Dribus JR, Moreira JLP and Pinto ACC:
Brazils Presalt Play, Oileld Review 22, no. 3
(Autumn 2010): 2837.

20. Presalt refers to before the formation or deposition of

salt deposits. Presalt reservoirs are beneath salt
deposits that have not owed away from their place of
depositionbeneath the autochthonous, or in place,
salt. This denition differentiates presalt strata from
subsalt or postsalt strata. For more: Beasley et al,
reference 19.
21. Coquina is a limestone formed principally from shell
fragments and indicates a nearshore environment with
vigorous wave action. Microbialites, which are
carbonate structures thought to be formed by microbes,
have a range of shapes and sizes. They form in
environments that are not conducive to the growth
of corals.
22. Hardie LA: On the Signicance of Evaporites, Annual
Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 19 (May 1991):
131168.
Jackson MPA, Cramez C and Fonck J-M: Role of
Subaerial Volcanic Rocks and Mantle Plumes in
Creation of South Atlantic Margins: Implications for Salt
Tectonics and Source Rocks, Marine and Petroleum
Geology 17, no. 4 (April 2000): 477498.
Nunn JA and Harris NB: Subsurface Seepage of
Seawater Across a Barrier: A Source of Water and
Salt to Peripheral Salt Basins, Geological Society of
America Bulletin 119, no. 910 (SeptemberOctober 2007):
12011217.
Nunn JA and Harris NB: Erratum for Subsurface
Seepage of Seawater Across a Barrier: A Source of
Water and Salt to Peripheral Salt Basins, Geological
Society of America Bulletin 120, no. 12 (January
February 2008): 256.

47

W
Postsalt sediments

Salt

Presalt

2 km

Basement

20 km

>Seismic lines across conjugate presalt rifted margins. These paired seismic lines are dip lines from the Santos basin
offshore Brazil (above) and the Kwanza basin offshore Angola (next page, top). The Santos basin seismic section is from a
generic 2D seismic line crossing close to the Lula eld, a presalt discovery. The seismic section shows a nearly 2-km [1.2-mi]
thickness of presalt sediments underneath the salt. The Kwanza basin section, offshore Angola, is from a 3D seismic survey
and shows a well-developed presalt section separated from postsalt sediments by complex salt geometries. (The Santos
basin section is used with permission from WesternGeco and TGS. The Kwanza basin section is used with permission from
WesternGeco and Sonangol.)

The necessary factors promoting such thick

salt accumulations were a rapidly sinking margin
with balance-lled basins or lakes behind an
elevated outer volcanic high. This volcanic high
was a leaky barrier that restricted inow of seawater in an environment characterized by a
warm, arid, desert climate (next page, bottom).23
Conditions were somewhat similar to present-day
conditions in the Dead Sea basin and in the
Danakil Depression on the Afar Peninsula, northeast Africa.24 These layered salts form the seal for
the presalt reservoirs (See Salt Deposition in
Actively Spreading Basins, page 50).

The end of the Aptian age saw the nal

breaching of the Walvis RidgeRio Grande Rise
barrier accompanied by ooding of marine
waters from the southern segment of the South
Atlantic Ocean. These open marine conditions
allowed ocean waters to ll the basins of the central segment, halting any further evaporite deposition. Marine sediments formed on top of the
salt, starting with marine carbonates in the
Albian age (113 to 110 Ma). The postsalt sedimentation was controlled by continual opening
and deepening of the South Atlantic by global
changes of sea level. As the ocean opened, the

rifted margins tilted seaward, causing halokinesis, in which the salt ows and deforms, giving
rise to the salt structures that affected postsalt
sediments where large volumes of oil were found
in the Campos basin (above).25
The Tupi discovery in 2006 opened up a new
petroleum play in the central South Atlantic, the
presalt play. Lula eld lies in 2,126 m [6,975 ft] of
water in the Santos basin Block BM-S-11 about
250 km [155 mi] southeast of Rio de Janeiro. The
1-RJS-628A discovery well was drilled to 4,895 m
[16,060 ft] TVD subsea.26 The well owed 780 m3/d
[4,900 bbl/d] of oil and 187,000 m3/d [6.6 MMcf/d]
(continued on page 52)

23. Davison I: Geology and Tectonics of the South Atlantic

Brazilian Salt Basins, in Ries AC, Butler RWH and
Graham RH (eds): Deformation of the Continental Crust:
The Legacy of Mike Coward. London: The Geological
Society, Special Publication 272 (January 2007): 345359.
Lakes or basins are balance lled when the rate of
water and sediment input is similar to the rate that the
accommodation spacearea and depthforms. For
more: Carroll AR and Bohacs KM: Stratigraphic
Classication of Ancient Lakes: Balancing Tectonic and
Climatic Controls, Geology 27, no. 2 (February 1999):
99102.
24. Montaron B and Tapponnier P: A Quantitative Model for
Salt Deposition in Actively Spreading Basins, Search
and Discovery Article 30117, adapted from an oral
presentation at the AAPG International Conference and

48

Exhibition, Rio de Janeiro, November 1518, 2009.

Bosworth W, Huchon P and McClay K: The Red Sea
and Gulf of Aden Basins, Journal of African Earth
Sciences 43, no. 13 (October 2005): 334378.
Mohriak WU and Leroy S: Architecture of Rifted
Continental Margins and Break-Up Evolution: Insights
from the South Atlantic, North Atlantic and Red Sea
Gulf of Aden Conjugate Margins, in Mohriak WU,
Danforth A, Post PJ, Brown DE, Tari GC, Nemcok M and
Sinha ST (eds): Conjugate Divergent Margins. London:
The Geological Society, Special Publication 369, http://
dx.doi.org/10.1144/SP369.17 (accessed September 17,
2012).
25. Halokinesis is the deformation of salt. Halokinetic
processes include downslope movement under gravity
ow, expulsion and diapirism caused by overburden
loading and faulting resulting from tectonic stretching or

shortening. Salt deformation may cause deformation in

the strata deposited above it.
Hudec MR and Jackson MPA: Terra Inrma:
Understanding Salt Tectonics, Earth-Science
Reviews 82, no. 12 (May 2007): 128.
Quirk DG, Schdt N, Lassen B, Ings SJ, Hsu D, Hirsch KK
and Von Nicolai C: Salt Tectonics on Passive Margins:
Examples from Santos, Campos and Kwanza Basins,
in Alsop GI, Archer SG, Hartley AJ, Grant NT and
Hodgkinson R (eds): Salt Tectonics, Sediments and
Prospectivity. London: The Geological Society, Special
Publication 363 (January 2012): 207244.
Beasley et al, reference 19.
26. Parshall J: Presalt Propels Brazil into Oils Front
Ranks, Journal of Petroleum Technology 62, no. 4
(April 2010): 4044.

Oileld Review

Postsalt sediments

Salt

Presalt

2 km

Basement

20 km

450 km

Arid belt

Present-day Atacama Desert

Salt basins

Tropic of
Capric
orn
Walvis
Ridge

Present-day Kalahari Desert

> Conditions conducive for thick salt accumulations. By the Aptian, about 120 Ma, the South Atlantic Ocean (map, center) had scissored open from the
south. The central segment of the South Atlantic was isolated from the open marine conditions of the southern segment by the Walvis Ridge (purple).
The region was in an arid belt (between dashed white lines) where climate conditions were similar to those in the present-day Atacama desert, northern
Chile (bottom left ), and Kalahari desert, southern Africa (bottom right ). The central segment contained balance-lled basins and lakes. Under these climatic
and isolated basin conditions, the basins and lakes became centers for precipitation of thick, layered salt sequences from basinal and hydrothermal brines,
which were fed by marine water owing through fractures in the leaky basaltic dam formed by the Walvis Ridge. (Map courtesy of CR Scotese, used
with permission.)

Autumn 2012

49

Salt Deposition in Actively Spreading Basins

Rifting, Spreading and Tectonics

The salt basins that face one another between
the Rio Grande Rise and the Gulf of Guinea
are among the largest found along
Phanerozoic passive ocean margins (below).
They formed during the Aptian (125 to
110 Ma), during the opening stages of the central South Atlantic. The geometric, kinematic
and temporal environment of this lower
Cretaceous salt deposition appears strikingly
similar to that of the Mid-Late Miocene Red
Sea (15 to 5 Ma).1
After the Tristan da Cunha hot spot induced
giant volcanic eruptions that covered huge
areas of the AfricanSouth American lithosphere with thick ood basalts about 143 Ma,
the plates started to separate slowly at several
millimeters per year. Narrow rifts, 50 to 80 km
[31 to 50 mi] wide, which overlapped, formed

Tra
n

sfo

rm

along the newborn plate boundary. Basaltic volcanism and anoxic deepwater lakessome
deeper than 1,000 m [3,300 ft], similar to Lake
Tanganyika todaypunctuated the geology of
such rifts in the Late Hauterivian to Early
Barremian (133 to 128 Ma).2
Continental separation was completed
128 to 125 Ma. As full seaoor spreading
began, the rate of plate separation increased
to a few centimeters per year. The marine
basin, now 1,700 km [1,060 mi] long, 300 to
500 km [190 to 310 mi] wide and 2 km
[1.2 mi] deep, remained isolated between two
large dams formed by the nascent equatorial
Atlantic transform margin to the north and
the Walvis Ridge and Rio Grande Rise to the
south. These dams restricted seawater ow
into the basinow that took place mostly
along tectonic ssures through the southern

ma

rgin
AFRICA

SOUTH AMERICA
Aptian salt basin

Hot spot

> South Atlantic restoration. The Aptian, about 120 Ma, salt basin (purple) was 1,700 km [1,060 mi]
long and restricted from open ocean conditions by the Tristan da Cunha hot spot (red circle) to its
south and the embryonic equatorial Atlantic transform margin (opposing red arrows) to its north.
The black arrows indicate the direction of plate movement. (Map courtesy of CR Scotese, used
with permission.)

50

Walvis Ridge. Rapid evaporation of seawater

created thick, layered evaporite deposits.
Continuous open marine conditions were reestablished in the Early Albian (112 to 110 Ma).

Evaporites in the Santos Basin

Three conditions are required to create a
thick, layered salt deposit: a basin about
1,500 m [4,900 ft] deep, a continuous supply of
mineral-laden seawater and a warm and arid
climate. As evaporation takes place, the basin
water level drops quickly and stabilizes to a
critical level: The evaporation rate equals the
water intake rate. The water salinity increases
gradually until the saturation concentration is
reached for the least soluble salt mineral contained in the water.
Layers of calcite, dolomite and gypsum precipitatein that orderfollowed by halite
(rock salt). Halite precipitates in quantities
just sufcient to maintain the water salinity at
the halite saturation level; this process can last
several thousand years to accumulate hundreds
of meters of halite. If the climate becomes wetter, increased freshwater intake from rivers and
rain may reduce the salinity enough to stop
halite precipitation. For example, salinity may
drop back to the gypsum precipitation point
and eventually increase back to the halite precipitation point. This is the layered sequence
observed in the bottom 600 m [2,000 ft] of
Santos basin evaporites.
Water salinity levels may increase further,
until they reach the saturation point at which
complex salts begin to precipitate. These salts
are potassium-, calcium- and magnesium-rich
evaporites such as sylvite, carnallite and
tachyhydrite. Precipitation of complex salts
requires an extremely arid climate and precipitation may take a long time because these
highly saline brines evaporate very slowly.
During this process, the lake surface level
will not change despite salt accumulating
on the lake bottom. The nal result is a salt
at (next page).

Oileld Review

Freshwater lakes form.

Freshwater lakes deepen.

Ocean level falls.

Ocean level rises, spills over barrier

and floods into freshwater lakes.

Basin level drops

as water evaporates.

6
Salt deposition starts.

Salt deposition ending.

Terminal brine marks final salt deposition.

Ocean level falls.

Fractured ridge allows hydraulic
communication between ocean and lake.

Basin returns to
full marine conditions.

> Salt deposition sequence. During early rifting (1), freshwater lakes form on the stretching
continental margin. (The developing ocean is on the left side of each panel.) The ocean level
drops and the lakes deepen (2) as the stretching continental margins thin and subside. The barrier
that separates the ocean from the lakes increases in relief with respect to the lake bottom. Sea
level rises (3), and seawater spills over the barrier and mixes with the lake water. About 123 Ma in
the Early Aptian (4), sea level falls by 50 m [80 ft] and isolates the basins from open ocean waters.
The evaporation rate from the basins (5) is greater than the rate of water inux from rivers and
rainfall and from seawater springs emanating from the leaky barrier; such leaks are the result of
fractures and ssures. The basin water level drops and water salinity gradually increases until
the brine salinity level reaches the saturation concentration of the least soluble chemical
component in the brine, which begins to deposit as a salt mineral (white, 6). During salt
deposition, salt layers (not shown) form as the brine chemistry changes. Salinity and salt
saturation concentrations depend on the climatic water balance within the basins and the
seawater input to them through the leaky barrier. Salt mineral precipitation begins with the least
soluble chemical component in the brine. This component precipitates until it depletes. More
soluble components precipitate later. In this way, salt layers gradually build up and ll the basins
to form thick layered salt sequences. The nal episode of salt deposition is marked by a terminal
brine (purple, 7) of high salinity, supersaturated with the least soluble component at the time.
Finally, sea level rises sufciently to inundate the continental margins (8); open marine conditions
are reestablished above the salt basins and such marine conditions shut down salt deposition.

1. Mohriak WU and Leroy S: Architecture of Rifted

Continental Margins and Break-Up Evolution: Insights
from the South Atlantic, North Atlantic and Red Sea
Gulf of Aden Conjugate Margins, in Mohriak WU,
Danforth A, Post PJ, Brown DE, Tari GC, Nemcok M
and Sinha ST (eds): Conjugate Divergent Margins.
London: The Geological Society, Special Publication
369, http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/SP369.17 (accessed
September 17, 2012).
Bosworth W, Huchon P and McClay K: The Red Sea
and Gulf of Aden Basins, Journal of African Earth
Sciences 43, no. 13 (October 2005): 334378.
2. Karner GD and Gamba LAP: Timing and Origin of the
South Atlantic Pre-Salt Sag Basins and Their Capping
Evaporates, in Schreiber BC, Lugli S and Babel M
(eds): Evaporites Through Space and Time. London:
The Geological Society, Special Publication 285
(January 2007): 1535.

Autumn 2012

3.
4.

5.
6.

Montaron B and Tapponnier P: A Quantitative Model

for Salt Deposition in Actively Spreading Basins,
Search and Discovery Article 30117, adapted from an
oral presentation at the AAPG International
Conference and Exhibition, Rio de Janeiro,
November 1518, 2009.
Montaron and Tapponnier, reference 2.
Hardie LA: The Roles of Rifting and Hydrothermal
CaCl2 Brines in the Origin of Potash Evaporites: An
Hypothesis, American Journal of Science 290, no. 1
(January 1990): 43106.
Hardie LA: On the Signicance of Evaporites,
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 19
(May 1991): 131168.
Warren JK: Evaporites: Sediments, Resources and
Hydrocarbons. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2006.
Montaron and Tapponnier, reference 2.
Montaron and Tapponnier, reference 2.

During the Aptian, South Atlantic salt

basins were located at latitudes corresponding to the arid belt that contains most of the
southern hemispheres modern deserts. The
initial evaporation rate was probably 2 m
[7 ft] per year greater than the rainfall input,
a rate currently observed in the Red Sea.4 At
an average halite deposition rate of 2 to 3 cm
[0.8 to 1.2 in.] per year, it may have taken
20,000 to 30,000 years to deposit the lowermost 600 m of Santos basin evaporites.5 Above
that level, there are at least nine cycles containing complex salts, and these could have
taken 10 times longer to precipitate.
Replacing water by salt doubles the weight
applied to the basin oor and accelerates subsidence. Approximately 30% of accommodation space is gained in about 50,000 years by
adding 500 m [1,600 ft] to the initial 1,500-m
[4,900-ft] basin depth.
Observations from modern analogs such as
Lake Assal in the Afar region, Ethiopia, suggest seawater entered the salt basin through
ssures across the basaltic Walvis Ridge. This
ssural process is also based on other
considerations:
The volumetric ow rate through cracks
must be small, as required by the salt precipitation model.
Because ssures in basalts can be up to a
hundred meters deep, seawater owing
through ssures is less sensitive to variations in ocean water level compared to that
required by ow over a dam.
When the evaporation rate increases and
the basin level drops below the ocean level,
the hydraulic-head difference will tend to
promote ow through the ssures to maintain the basins water level.
The fractures provide a large contact surface between seawater and basalts, which
favors the rock-to-uid chemical exchange
required for a chemical composition that is
compatible with complex salt deposition.6
Field observations and model results demonstrate that the deposition of thick, layered
evaporitic sequences requires a deep basin in
a hot and arid climate with a continuous supply of mineral-laden saltwater. These conditions must remain stable long enough for
thick deposits to accumulate.

51

of gas on a 5/8-in. choke, producing light oil with a

density of about 880 kg/m3 [30 API gravity] and
a low sulfur content of about 0.5%.27 Development
drilling in the eld conrmed the operators estimates of up to 1,000 million m3 [6.5 billion bbl] of
recoverable oil, thus drawing worldwide attention to Brazils presalt play.28 Many subsequent
presalt discoveries have been made in the Santos
and Campos basins of Brazil.

In 2012, the Azul-1 well by Maersk Oil and

then the Cameia-1 well by Cobalt International
Energy, Inc., extended the proven presalt play
across the South Atlantic to the Kwanza basin,
offshore Angola.29 The Azul-1 well was in 953 m
[3,130 ft] of water in Kwanza basin Block 23; the
well was drilled to 5,334 m [17,500 ft] and demonstrated potential ow capacity of greater than
3,000 bbl/d [480 m3/d] of oil. The Cameia-1 well

A FR ICA
Angola
20
21
Lontra

Idared

Mavinga

Cameia-1 Cameia-2

Postsalt

Bicuar

Postsalt
Salt

Salt
Postrift

Postrift
Synrift

Block 20

Synrift

Basement

Synrift

Block 21

North

South
Oil confirmed by production

Cameia-1

Cameia-2

Oil confirmed by log or oil sample

Untested possible oil zone
Seal

Postsalt

Salt

Superpay reservoir
Salt
Middle reservoir

Postrift

Postrift
Lower reservoir

Postrift

Postrift
Basement

Synrift

Synrift

> Kwanza basin presalt prospects and discoveries. The Cobalt Cameia-1 and Cameia-2 wells
discovered and appraised, respectively, oil reservoirs in the synrift (light brown) and postrift (yellow)
sedimentary basins under the autochthonous salt (purple)the presalt sedimentsin Block 21
(center right ), Kwanza basin offshore Angola. Cobalt plans to drill the Lontra, Idared, Mavinga and
Bicuar wells (dashed lines) to test other prospects in Blocks 20 and 21. The Cameia-1 well discovered
a superpay reservoir (bright green) atop a basement high (bottom). Cobalt drilled the Cameia-2 well,
a step-out well, to conrm the size of the discovery and to explore prospective reservoir zones below
the superpay reservoir. The appraisal well conrmed the discovery and underlying reservoir intervals
(light green), which are separated by sealing intervals (red). (Illustrations used with permission from
Cobalt International Energy, Inc., reference 32.)

52

was in 1,682 m [5,518 ft] of water in Kwanza

basin Block 21; the well was drilled to 4,886 m
[16,030 ft] and owed 5,010 bbl/d [800 m3/d] of
oil and 14.3 MMcf/d [405,000 m3/d] of gas.
In the process leading up to the Cameia-1
discovery, exploration experts at Cobalt
International Energy recognized that during the
Aptian age, the present-day Kwanza and Campos
presalt basins were in the same depositional
basin, separated by only 80 to 160 km [50 to
100 mi]; explorationists concluded the basins
must have shared the same presalt history and
have similar characteristics.30 The presalt play
that led to the Tupi discovery in the Brazilian
Santos basin was extended north along the
Brazilian coastline to the Campos basin. Cobalt
drilled the Cameia-1 well to hunt for a Campos
basin presalt play analog across the Atlantic
Ocean in the Kwanza basin offshore Angola. The
Cameia-1 oil discovery well drilled into a reservoir that contained high-quality, highly permeable and fractured carbonates in postrift and
presalt strata atop a basement high and was
sealed by salt. The well encountered an oil column that was about 370 m [1,200 ft] thick and
contained more than 270 m [900 ft] of net pay.31
To appraise the discovery, Cobalt drilled the
Cameia-2 well and conrmed the vertical and lateral extent, geometry and quality of the reservoir
(left). The appraisal well validated the Cobalt
model of additional reservoirs within the postrift
and synrift strata beneath the original discovery
and indicated the reservoirs were separated by
seals. Cobalt is conducting ongoing testing to
determine reservoir potentialthe number of
reservoirs and seals, how the uids vary between
the reservoirs, the reservoir properties and the
depths to the oil/water contacts.32
Matching Turbidite Sequences:
From Ghana to French Guiana
The West Cape Three Points partnership discovered the Jubilee oil eld offshore Ghana in June
2007. The partnership comprises Kosmos Energy
Ltd., Tullow Oil plc, Anadarko Petroleum
Corporation, Sabre Oil & Gas, Inc., Ghana
National Petroleum Company and EO Group Ltd.
The Mahogany-1 discovery well encountered 90 m
[300 ft] of high-quality pay in an upper Cretaceous
turbidite reservoir conned by a combination
structural-stratigraphic trap.33 In August 2007, the
Hyedua-1 well, located 5.3 km [3.3 mi] southwest
of the Mahogany-1 discovery, encountered 41 m
[130 ft] of high-quality reservoir in equivalent turbidite sandstones. These wells opened up a deep-

Oileld Review

15W

10W

5W

Senegal basin
Ocean

AFRICA

Bov basin

10N

Volta
basin

15W

5E

Benue
trough

Benin and
Keta basins

10W

Ocean

~
Para-Maranhao
basin

500 km

15W

SOUT H AM E RICA
10W

5W

Ocean

Bov basin

Early Cretaceous, 125 Ma

0

Senegal basin
10N

Benue
trough

Benin and
Keta basins

5N

~
Para-Maranhao
basin
300 mi

5E

A FR IC A

Ivory Coast
basin

5N

Volta
basin

Bov basin

10N

Ivory Coast
basin

5W

Senegal basin

5E

AFRICA
Volta
basin

Ivory Coast
basin

Benin and
Keta basins

500 km

S O U TH A M ER IC A

300 mi

15W

10W

5W

Late Albian, 100 Ma

0

5E

Senegal basin
Benue
trough

10N

A FR IC A
Volta
Benin and
basin
Keta basins
Ivory Coast
basin

Ocean

Bov basin

Benue
trough

5N

5N

~
Para-Maranhao
basin
0
0

500 km
300 mi

~
Para-Maranhao
basin

SOUTH AMERICA
0

Late Aptian to Early Albian, 110 Ma

West African shield

Brazilian shield
Onshore Mesozoic to Cenozoic
coastal basins

Ocean
SOUTH AMERICA

500 km

Late Santonian to Early Campanian, 85 Ma

300 mi

Thick continental crust

and extension

Transform fault zones

Divergent basins, thinned

continental crust and thick clastics

Direction of crustal extension

Present-day 2,000-m [6,560-ft] isobath

Zaedyus discovery,
Guyane Maritime, French Guiana
Jubilee discovery,
Tano basin, Ghana

> Opening of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Rifting between northern South America and southern West Africa started during the Early Cretaceous about
125 Ma (top left). Small basins opened when continental crust stretched, thinned and faulted. These basins lled with sediment from the eroding continental
uplands and were deformed along the transform fault zones. During the Late Aptian to Early Albian, about 110 Ma (bottom left), oceanic spreading and
accretion began. Ocean oors grew as the plates were separating during the Late Albian, about 100 Ma (top right). By Late Santonian to Early Campanian,
about 85 Ma (bottom right), the continental separation was complete. The seaoor spreading and passive margin phase began and the steep transform
margins subsided thermally and were cut, loaded and blanketed by river and delta sediments from the continents while South America and Africa continued
to separate. (Adapted from Browneld ME and Charpentier RR: Geology and Total Petroleum Systems of the Gulf of Guinea Province of West Africa,
Reston, Virginia, USA: US Geological Survey Bulletin 2207-C, 2006.)

water play targeting reservoirs in Late Cretaceous

turbidites along the equatorial African transform
margin, which stretches from northern Sierra
Leone east to southern Gabon in the equatorial
segment of the South Atlantic Ocean.
Deepwater turbidite elds discovered offshore Ghana are charged with hydrocarbons
sourced from organic-rich sediments that rapidly lled deep, active pull-apart basins during
the Early Cretaceous epoch (above). These
basins formed on rifted continental crust
between transform faults. During the Albian age,
the continents split and seaoor spreading
began. Oblique motion between the two margins
is recorded by transform faults and fracture

Autumn 2012

27. BG, Petrobras Announce Discovery of Oil Field in

Santos Basin Offshore Brazil, Drilling Contractor 62,
no. 6 (NovemberDecember 2006): 8.
28. Country Analysis Briefs: Brazil, US Energy Information
Administration (February 28, 2012), http://www.eia.gov/
countries/cab.cfm?ps=BR (accessed August 29, 2012).
29. Maersk Oil Strikes Oil with Its First Pre-Salt Well in
Angola, Maersk Oil (January 4, 2012), http://www.
maerskoil.com/Media/NewsAndPress
Releases/Pages/MaerskOilstrikesoilwithitsrst
pre-saltwellinAngola.aspx (accessed March 29, 2012).
Cobalt International Energy, Inc. Announces Successful
Pre-Salt Flow Test Offshore Angola, Cobalt
International Energy, Inc. (February 9, 2012),
http://ir.cobaltintl.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=231838&p=
irol-newsArticle&ID=1659328&highlight (accessed April
4, 2012).
30. Cobalt International Energy, Inc.: Update on West Africa
and Gulf of Mexico Drilling Programs, (February 8,
2012), http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=
UGFyZW50SUQ9MTI1NzQyfENoaWxkSUQ9LTF8VHlwZT0
z&t=1 (accessed August 2, 2012).
Dribus JR: Integrating New Seismic Technology and
Regional Basin Geology Now a Must, Journal of
Petroleum Technology 64, no. 10 (October 2012): 8487.

31. Cobalt International Energy, Inc.: Investor

PresentationMarch 2012, (March 13, 2012),
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=231838&p=
irol-presentations (accessed June 8, 2012).
32. Multiple Catalysts To Grow Shareholder Value, Cobalt
International Energy, Inc. (September 19, 2012), http://
phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9
NDgwMTA3fENoaWxkSUQ9NTEzNzk4fFR5cGU9MQ==
&t=1 (accessed September 20, 2012).
33. A turbidite is a rock deposited from a turbidity ow,
which is an underwater current of sediment-laden water
that moves rapidly down a slope. The gravity, or density,
current moves downslope because its density is higher
than that of the surrounding water.
Dailly P, Henderson T, Hudgens E, Kanschat K and
Lowry P: Exploration for Cretaceous Stratigraphic Traps
in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa and the Discovery of
the Jubilee Field: A Play Opening Discovery in the Tano
Basin, Offshore Ghana, in Mohriak WU, Danforth A,
Post PJ, Brown DE, Tari GC, Nemcok M and Sinha ST
(eds): Conjugate Divergent Margins. London: The
Geological Society, Special Publication 369, http://dx.doi.
org/10.1144/SP369.12 (accessed August 7, 2012).

53

Offset, km

SW

330

340

350

360

NE

370

380

390

400

Demerara Plateau

Marginal
ridge
Continental
slope

SurinameFrench Guiana
abyssal plain

> Conjugate transform margins. These seismic lines cross the SurinameFrench Guiana (above) and Cte dIvoireGhana (next
page, top) transform margins; the red dots on the globes are the locations of these seismic sections. The red lines mark the
approximate position of the Demerara Fracture Zone (FZ) and the Romanche FZ, on the left and right, respectively. Transform
margins are characterized by shallow dipping, often narrow, continental margins, bordered by marginal ridges that backstop
steep continental slopes across abrupt continent-ocean boundaries leading to oceanic abyssal plains. Explorers are targeting
reservoirs located in abyssal plain sediments in upper Cretaceous turbidites that lie on top of lower Cretaceous organic-rich
source rocks. The green dots mark the approximate stratigraphic position of these upper Cretaceous reservoirs. These
Cretaceous source and reservoir rocks are sealed and buried under marine shales. On the Cte dIvoireGhana seismic line,
the labels A through F represent stratigraphic units identied from seismic data. [Adapted from Greenroyd CJ, Peirce C, Rodger M,
Watts AB and Hobbs RW: Demerara PlateauThe Structure and Evolution of a Transform Passive Margin, Geophysical Journal
International 172, no. 2 (February 2008): 549564.]

zones, and subsidence and sediment deposition

occurred during rifting and subsequent sag of
the margins (above).
The opening and deepening of the equatorial
South Atlantic and the global rise and fall of sea
level controlled sedimentation after continental
breakup. Erosion of the continent led to deposition of sediments in deltas on the continental
margins. When sea level fella lowstandthe
rivers cut through their deltas and carried sediments, often in sediment avalanches known as
turbidity currents, onto the steep continental
slopes and toward the deep abyssal plain. Sands
that were deposited as these turbidity currents
slowed may have formed reservoirs for deepwater
oil elds such as those of the upper Cretaceous
series in the Jubilee eld. Subsequent deposition
of muds sealed these reservoirs as they were

54

buried beneath thousands of meters of younger

sediment. During the Late Cretaceous epoch, the
movement of the tectonic plates changed direction, causing deformation of the rifted margin
and the formation of structures that helped form
traps, and oil started migrating updip toward the
coast (next page, bottom right).34
The partnership drilled the Mahogany-1 well
to reservoir rock in a Turonian-stage stack of lowstand turbidite sands on the SW ank of the
South Tano ridge.35 The reservoir was
3,530 to 3,760 m [11,600 to 12,300 ft] below the
seaoor. A drillstem test demonstrated that the
well was capable of owing oil at 20,000 bbl/d
[3,200 m3/d]. The oil was sourced from Early
Cretaceous rift-related organic-rich shales. The
Jubilee well proved the Late Cretaceous turbi-

dite play concept and subsequent drilling

revealed that Jubilee is part of a collection of
elds offshore Ghana that includes Tweneboa,
Enyenra and Ntomme.
Similar Late Cretaceous turbidite reservoirs
occur along the entire equatorial African coast,
which have led to additional oil discoveries such
as the Akasa and Teak elds offshore Ghana, the
Paon eld offshore Cte dIvoire and the Venus,
Mercury and Jupiter elds offshore Sierra Leone.
Tullow Oil sought to project the Jubilee play
to the transform margin of South America and
duplicate the companys deepwater success.36
Exploration experts at Tullow Oil used the principles of plate tectonics, followed the major fracture zones across the equatorial Atlantic and
identied basins offshore South America that
displayed similar elements of the Jubilee play.

Oileld Review

Offset, km

90

80

70

60

50

40

Marginal
ridge

30

20

Deep Ivorian basin

F
E
D

Continental
slope

C
A

Gulf of Guinea
abyssal plain

Shelf and
delta

Barrier bar
Longshore
drift

Sandy coastal
plain

They found evidence for an upper Cretaceous

series of lowstand turbidite channels and fans
deposited during seaoor spreading and buried
under a thick sequence of marine shales. They
inferred the presence of Cretaceous source rocks
and stratigraphic traps, buried and sealed by the
marine shales. This led the exploration teams to
focus on the continental slope off the Guyana
34. Antobreh AA, Faleide JI, Tsikalas F and Planke S:
RiftShear Architecture and Tectonic Development of
the Ghana Margin Deduced from Multichannel Seismic
Reection and Potential Field Data, Marine and
Petroleum Geology 26, no. 3 (March 2009): 345368.
35. Dailly et al, reference 33.
36. Patel T: Did the Continental Drift Create an Oil
Bonanza?: Tullow Oil Bets Huge Fields Are Mirrored
Across the Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek
(February 24, 2011), http://www.businessweek.com/
magazine/content/11_10/b4218020773519.htm
(accessed August 20, 2012).

Autumn 2012

Midfan
channelized
lobes

Inner fan
channels

Canyon fed by active

nearshore littoral drift
or relict shelf sands

Slump
scar
Inner fan
Midfan channelized and
unchannelized sands

Coastal
plain

Slump
scar

500 to 2,000 m
[1,640 to 6,562 ft]

Outer fan

Continental
shelf
Slump

Slope
apron

Basin plain
Slumps

10 to 50 km
5.4 to 27 mi
Basin plain

> Reservoirs in Late Cretaceous turbidites. Explorationists looked for canyons feeding reservoir rocks in
channel-levee and turbidite fan deposits on the basin oor that originated from the Guyana Continental
Shelf and slope. These reservoir rocks are sourced and charged by Early Cretaceous organic-rich
shales that were deposited during continental rifting. Since their deposition, these reservoir rocks have
been buried and sealed by marine shales (not shown). Expected well log responses are plotted for the
ve types of deposits (boxed red areas between black curves); the left curve is spontaneous potential
or gamma ray, and the right curve is resistivity. (Illustration used with permission from Tullow Oil plc.)

55

Shelf and east of the Demerara Plateau offshore

French Guiana (below).37
Tullow Oil and partners acquired 2,500 km2
[970 mi2] of high-quality 3D marine seismic
data over the steep continental slope offshore
French Guiana.38 Explorers at Tullow Oil used
these data to look for submarine canyons and
turbidite deposits on the basin oor that originated from the Guyana Continental Shelf and
slope. These seismic data showed features similar to those observed in 3D seismic data over the
Jubilee eld offshore Ghana. The exploration
team identied and mapped a number of prospects (next page). After follow-up regional
investigations, the Tullow Oil team decided to
test the play by drilling a well at the GM-ES-1
location within the Zaedyus prospect, in the
Guyane Maritime license, which is about 150 km
[93 mi] offshore.39

Tullow Oil started operations in March 2011,

drilling near the toe of the continental slope in
2,048 m [6,719 ft] of water. By September 2011,
the company announced the discovery of 72 m
[240 ft] of net oil pay within two turbidite fans.40
Wireline logs and samples of reservoir uids
showed good quality reservoir sands at a reservoir depth of 5,711 m [18,740 ft]. The Zaedyus
exploration well proved that the Jubilee play
developed for the transform margin offshore
Ghana and applied successfully elsewhere along
the equatorial African marginwas also applicable to the transform margin offshore French
Guiana and probably elsewhere along the transform margin of northern South America.

Learning from Success

The recent history of oil discovery along the
South Atlantic margins has been one of learning
from success. Pioneering explorationists studied
the large discoveries of the Lula reservoir in the
Santos basin, offshore Brazil, and the Jubilee
reservoir, offshore Ghana, and stepped along the
same margin to look across the ocean where conjugate margins hosted similar large discoveries.
Explorationists used the principles of plate
tectonics to leverage their accomplishments.
When a continent splits and a new spreading
center opens up, plate tectonic concepts provide the basis for hypothesizing which series of
tectonic and stratigraphic events will occur.
Armed with the principles of plate tectonics and
astute observations from exploration plays that
have led to successful discoveries, explorationists have extrapolated plays into new leads,

Oil discovery
Gas condensate and oil discovery
Prospect
Dry hole
Oil shows

Deepwater
Tano block

West Cape
Three Points block

WEST AFRICA

Oceanic transform fract ure zone

Sierra
Leone

Suriname French
Guiana

ia

er

Lib

Guyana

margin
Equato rial Atlantic transform

Cte dIvoire
Ghana

Jubilee discovery

0
0

n
Oceanic transform fracture zo

25 km
15 mi

SOUTH AMERICA

Guyane
Maritime
license

Discovery
Prospect
Lead

0
0

600 km

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

300 mi

Atlantic Ocean
Zaedyus discovery

56

100 km

50 mi

> Extending West African success across to South America. Tullow Oil plc used plate tectonic
concepts to develop an exploration program to extend the Jubilee play (black star) proved along
the West Africa transform margin to the northern South America transform margin. The transform
margins (gray shading) on the west and east sides of the Equatorial Atlantic have similar geology.
Explorationists had recognized Late Cretaceous stratigraphic traps within the Guyana-Suriname basin
that were analogous to those proved by the Jubilee and similar discoveries in West Africa. Tullow
explorationists made the Zaedyus discovery in the Guyane Maritime license, offshore French Guiana
(red star). (Illustration adapted with permission from Tullow Oil plc.)

Oileld Review

Seismic horizon relationship

View angle
Structural high

Turbidite feeder canyon

Late Cretaceous
horizon

Early Cretaceous
horizon

Fan systems
Major turbidite fan

Channel

Channels

Guyane
Maritime
license

Discovery
Prospect
Lead

Atlantic Ocean
Zaedyus discovery

100 km

50 mi

> Jubilee analogs offshore French Guiana. Tullow Oil plc acquired 2,500 km2 [970 mi2] of 3D seismic data in 2009 (red box in map inset). The depth-based
seismic interpretation image (top), viewed from above and the northeast, shows an Early Cretaceous horizon (color-coded in red to blue from shallow to
deep) overlain by a Late Cretaceous horizon (brown to yellow) intersecting at the steep continental slope formed by the transform margin. The data
revealed features similar to those observed in the TanoWest Cape Three Points area, offshore Ghana. These features include a turbidite feeder canyon
and structural high that focus sediments into channels and fan systems that are prospects for reservoirs. The close-up view of the area (bottom) shows
channels and turbidite fans imaged by the 3D seismic data. (Images used with permission from Tullow Oil plc.)

37. Plunkett J: French GuianaA New Oil Province,

presented at the Kayenn Mining Symposium, Cayenne,
French Guiana, December 13, 2011.
38. The partnership was a joint venture between Tullow Oil
plcthe operatorRoyal Dutch Shell, Total and
Northpet, a company owned 50% by Northern Petroleum
plc and 50% by Wessex Exploration plc. Royal Dutch
Shell formally took over as operator of the Guyane
Maritime license on February 1, 2012.
39. Plunkett, reference 37.
40. Zaedyus Exploration Well Makes Oil Discovery
Offshore French Guiana, Tullow Oil plc (September 9,
2011), http://www.tullowoil.com/index.asp?pageid=
137&newsid=710 (accessed August 10, 2012).

Autumn 2012

prospects and drilling targets both regionally

and globally.
Understanding plate tectonics also allows
explorationists to take what they learn from one
play and ask, What if? If hydrocarbons are found
in an immature rift margin setting, could one nd
the same in a mature rift margin or a transform
margin setting? In recent years, exploration companies have answered these questions afrmatively through discovery wells. Recent discoveries
in the Albert rift basin of Uganda, the East Africa

rift basin of Kenya, the Levant basin offshore

Israel and Cyprus and the Mozambique basin offshore Tanzania have been similarly impressive.
Plate tectonic concepts and models, and their
ability to engender reasoned hypotheses for new
plays, are powerful exploration tools for hitherto
undeveloped basins. They are also cause for
reexamining basins that have been explored
but deemed either hydrocarbon poor or too risky
to develop.
RCNH

57