Relating petroleum system and play development to basin evolution: West African South Atlantic basins

Abstract

Sedimentary basins can be classified according to their structural genesis and evolutionary history and the latter can be linked to petroleumsystem and playdevelopment. We propose an approach in which we use the established concepts in a new way: breaking basins down into their natural basin cycle division, then defining the characteristics of each basin cycle (including the type of petroleumsystems and plays they may contain) and comparing them with similar basin cycles in other basins, thereby providing a means to learn through a greater population of (perhaps not immediately obvious) analogues. Furthermore, we introduce the use of the trajectory plot as a new tool in such an analysis. This methodology has been applied to the WestAfricanSouthAtlantic marginal basins between Cameroon and Angola, and we demonstrate that the similar tectonostratigraphic evolution of the individual basins along this margin has led to the development of similar types of petroleumsystems and play (level)s. Consequently, we can make analogue comparisons among these basins in order to evaluate and predict the presence of potential, yet undiscovered, hydrocarbon accumulations in less well explored parts of the margin