Orange Basin Petroleum System Model

Scope
The Orange Basin offshore western South Africa represents an ideal region for investigating the controls on the location, initiation, and evolution of natural hydrocarbon seepage and their potential significance for hydrocarbon exploration. A petroleum system model will be used to reconstruct the thermal and burial history of the Orange Basin and to simulate hydrocarbon generation, migration, sequestration, and leakage. An additional aim is to constrain thermogenic methane contributions to the hydro- and atmosphere as a function of geologic time.

The interpretation of 2D seismic surveys of the Orange Basin is used to construct a 3D geomodel for petroleum system modeling. Detailed 3D seismic interpretation and attribute analysis led to the discovery of an early Eocene aged paleo pockmark field. One theory relates their formation to a wide spread fluid flow event.
A suite of immature Cretaceous aged source rock samples from DSDP sites along the southwest African margin were analyzed for their bulk-source rock parameters, petroleum type, generation potential, and organo-facies variability. Using the phase kinetics approach, compositional kinetic models were derived which will be used to study hydrocarbon generation and migration dynamics in the Orange Basin
The integration of these data sets will lead a calibrated 3D petroleum system model of the Orange Basin.
 

The 3D geomodel derived from 2D seismic interpretation is combined with the source rock description from organic-geochemical analysis to construct a 3D basin model of the Orange Basin, South Africa.

Participants
Alexander Hartwig
Zahie Anka
Rolando di Primio

Partners
Forest Oil Corporation
PASA, Petroleum Agency South Africa
Petro SA

Sponsor
Forest Exploration International (South Africa) (PTY) Ltd.