The Formation Of Hydrocarbon Deposits In The North African Basins

This book reveals the main trends of the formation of petroleum pools in major parts of North African basins. It deals with the regional geology of this important oil- and gas-producing area. Emphasis is laid on paleoenvironmental and provenance reconstructions, trap formation, diagenesis, compaction-decompaction equilibria in petroleum-bearing reservoirs and related fluid geodynamics and oil and gas generation and entrapment. Organic and mineral interaction is shown to be the main process in enhancing reservoir entrapment and filtration properties. This involves a close association of the source and trap formations in time and space. The computer program for basin modeling simulates the burial and thermal histories and petroleum potential in sedimentary basins. Several new concepts and alternative methods are proposed in petroleum geology.

This book reveals the main trends of the formation of petroleum pools in major parts of North African basins. It deals with the regional geology of this important oil- and gas-producing area. Emphasis is laid on paleoenvironmental and provenance reconstructions, trap formation, diagenesis, compaction-decompaction equilibria in petroleum-bearing reservoirs and related fluid geodynamics and oil and gas generation and entrapment. Organic and mineral interaction is shown to be the main process in enhancing reservoir entrapment and filtration properties. This involves a close association of the source and trap formations in time and space. The computer program for basin modeling simulates the burial and thermal histories and petroleum potential in sedimentary basins. Several new concepts and alternative methods are proposed in petroleum geology.

This book reveals the main trends of the formation of petroleum pools in major parts of North African basins. It deals with the regional geology of this important oil- and gas-producing area. Emphasis is laid on paleoenvironmental and provenance reconstructions, trap formation, diagenesis, compaction-decompaction equilibria in petroleum-bearing reservoirs and related fluid geodynamics and oil and gas generation and entrapment. Organic and mineral interaction is shown to be the main process in enhancing reservoir entrapment and filtration properties. This involves a close association of the source and trap formations in time and space. The computer program for basin modeling simulates the burial and thermal histories and petroleum potential in sedimentary basins. Several new concepts and alternative methods are proposed in petroleum geology.

A reference volume on the geology of North Africa, this volume deals with Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. In great detail the geology, tectonic elements, the geology of the Pan-African Shield, the Phanerozoic geological evolution and most of the lithostratigrahpic units of the five countries are described. Moreover, the petroleum geology and petroleum systems are discussed, as well as the history of geological exploration. With the incentive to provide a reference to the geology of North Africa that can be used both by professionals and students, this review work provides a large amount of data, based on more than 2500 references. Written in a clear, straight-forward and structured style, and with many schematic maps, it allows the reader to easily search a topic and find further information with help of the extensive bibliography. This volume is intended for senior undergraduate and graduate students, professional geologists and geophysicists, who are working in North Africa and the Middle East. It is ideally suited for any professional who is looking for a quick, round-up reference on the geology of North Africa. It is an expanded and revised version of ‘The Geology of Egypt and Libya’ by the same author (Balkema, 2001).

Worldwide, Neoproterozoic successions are major hydrocarbon producers. In North Africa, large basins with significant surface outcrops and thick sedimen-tary fills are widespread. These basins are now emerging as potential sources of hydrocarbons and are attracting interest both from geological researchers and the oil and gas industry. This volume focuses on recent developments in the understanding and correla-tion of North African basin fills and explores novel approaches to prospecting for source and reservoir rocks. The papers cover aspects of petroleum prospectivity and age-equivalent global petroleum systems, Neoproterozoic tectonics and pa-laeogeography, sequence stratigraphy, glacial events and global climatic models, faunal and floral evolution and the deposition of early source rocks. The broader aim is to compare with, and learn from, well-studied Neoproterozoic successions globally, including major environmental change, the emergence of life, the global carbon cycle and implications for hydrocarbon exploration.

Following on from the first 2 books in the series, Sedimentary Basins of the World, which covered Chinese Sedimentary Basins (Volume 1) and South Pacific Sedimentary Basins (Volume 2), comes Volume 3, on African Basins. Africa covers a larger land area than the USA, Europe, India and the ASEAN nations put together. It is rich in natural resources, including oil, gas, coal and nearly every metalliferous mineral. Yet Africa is still one of the least explored continents. This book brings together in one volume, concise reviews of basins previously documented in a vast array of diffuse literature. It also contains some of the first detailed accounts of several basins which have never before been described in such depth. These include the onshore Owambo, Iullemmeden, and Sudanese rift basins, and the offshore basins of southern Africa. The contributions are by authors, and teams of authors, with great knowledge and experience of the basins that they describe. The thirteen chapters are arranged in 3 parts covering North Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa and the book is illustrated by maps, cross-sections, stratigraphic sections and seismic lines. Each chapter includes a comprehensive bibliography and the book concludes with a subject index. For academic geologists researching the geology of Africa, and for industrial geologists seeking natural resources within African sedimentary rocks, this book is an invaluable source of information.