Genetic Basin Analysis and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Strata of the Libya Region

Our analysis of the Libya region was built on foundation of previous proprietary and published studies and employed recent proprietary research on concepts and tools and newly available data and a new age model that included significant thicknesses of Mesozoic strata offshore. These allowed calibration of the seismic character of source and reservoir facies and their stratal packaging in proven onshore areas, and extrapolation to similar seismic facies & stratal packaging seen in offshore data. We concluded that the Libya region was in a favorable setting for accumulating source, reservoir, and seal-prone strata throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, due to the: 1) common occurrence of shelfal water depths and paleogeographic restriction, 2) low-latitude setting, 3) warm, dry to sub humid paleoclimate, commonly with low seasonality, 4) some coastal upwelling, along with water mass mixing under ITCZ & tropical cyclones, 5) dominantly quartz-sand-prone provenance lithotypes, and 6) late development of shelf-bypass clastic dispersal systems. The incorporation of paleo-environmental reconstructions is a powerful tool in exploration, enabling evaluation of numerous frontier areas in less than 10 weeks of work by using our fundamental understanding of the dynamics of basin formation integrated with the regional paleo-environmental context.