Fifth EAGE Eastern Mediterranean Workshop

Lebanon’s offshore lies within the northern Levant Basin, a geologically dynamic area adjacent to proven petroleum provinces in Israel and Cyprus. Despite its recognized hydrocarbon potential, exploration in Lebanese waters remains at an early stage, with only two exploration wells drilled to date. Much of the geological understanding relies on seismic interpretation and regional analogues.

A key enabler for future exploration is the extensive multi-client seismic database, which now covers more than 14,300 sq. km with merged 3D volumes providing superb pre-Messinian imaging. These datasets reveal structural traps, stacked reservoir intervals, and evidence of sediment input from multiple directions. Modelling also indicates the potential for mature Oligocene source rocks capable of generating hydrocarbons.

While the two initial wells did not yield discoveries, proximity to successful plays in neighbouring countries, combined with Lebanon’s high-quality seismic coverage, points to significant untapped potential. With further drilling and additional seismic acquisition, offshore Lebanon remains a frontier basin that holds strong chances for future hydrocarbon discoveries.

This study focuses on enhancing porosity prediction in a clastic reservoir of Egypt’s Offshore Nile Delta by integrating well log data and 3D seismic attributes through advanced machine learning techniques. Traditional methods often fail to capture heterogeneity and extend interpretations across larger volumes, but by leveraging data-driven approaches such as Ridge Regression, Random Forest, and XGBoost, a high-resolution 3D porosity cube was generated. The results show strong predictive accuracy, aligning with geological interpretations, facies trends, and stratigraphic architectures, while reducing subsurface uncertainty. This workflow improves reservoir characterization, supports well placement, and aids in early-stage field development planning, highlighting the growing role of artificial intelligence in modern upstream workflows

Recent offshore drilling on the Herodotus Margin has revealed new insights into the Kharita Formation, extending knowledge from Egypt’s Western Desert petroleum province. While onshore data shows sand-rich, fluvial to marginal marine deposits, offshore interpretations are complicated by shelf failure and sparse well data. Seismic surveys in the North Marakia Offshore area indicate a more marine setting with interbedded sand and shale. Recent drilling results demonstrated a mixed clastic-carbonate system with carbonate shoals and tidally influenced sands, indicating a marine transgression. These findings impact the exploration potential of the offshore Herodotus Margin.

Predicting shear (Vs) and compressional (Vp) wave velocities is crucial for seismic interpretation and reservoir characterization. However, Vs logs are frequently missing or unreliable in legacy datasets. While machine learning (ML) offers strong predictive power, it can yield physically implausible results when extrapolating. This study introduces a novel hybrid workflow integrating rock physics with ML to ensure robust, physically consistent Vp and Vs predictions offshore Egypt. A calibrated rock physics model guides feature engineering and generates training data, constraining the ML model to avoid non-physical outputs. The results are incorporated into geostatistical simulation (SGS) to produce high-resolution, probabilistic 3D realizations of elastic properties, honoring well data and quantifying spatial uncertainty. This approach provides reliable synthetic logs for derisking exploration in the Mediterranean.

Understanding diagenetic processes in carbonate reservoirs is crucial for improving hydrocarbon exploration, especially in geologically complex settings like the Gulf of Suez. This study focuses on mapping diagenetic pathways within Miocene carbonates and carbonate in general to better predict reservoir quality and distribution. An integrated methodology combining petrographic, sedimentological, petrophysical, and stratigraphic data was applied to core samples and ditch cuttings. Analytical techniques, including thin-section petrography, SEM, and well-log correlation, were used to identify key diagenetic features such as dolomitization, cementation, dissolution, and fracturing. Results reveal that diagenetic overprints vary spatially and are strongly influenced by depositional facies, structural position, and burial history. High-quality reservoir zones correspond with dolomitized facies, secondary porosity, and structural highs. Conversely, reservoir degradation is linked to compaction, anhydrite cementation, detrital clay influx, and over-dolomitization. The study highlights that integrating diagenetic mapping with structural and stratigraphic frameworks significantly enhances reservoir prediction and reduces exploration risk. This predictive approach is especially valuable in mature basins with complex carbonate systems.

This study explores the untapped gas potential in the Upper Miocene section of the offshore Western Nile Delta in Egypt, using Exploration Block 5 as a case study. An integrated analysis combining geophysical and geological methods was used by the authors. The researchers applied petrophysical analysis and advanced seismic interpretation techniques to explore the area.

They were able to pick out the key structural features, such as faults and folds, and outline possible hydrocarbon prospects. By using seismic data to delineate sand distribution and merge this with the structural framework, the paper was able to describe potential traps, seals, and reservoirs. The paper concludes by forecasting the likely hydrocarbon resources and geological success rate of the region. The findings reveal that the Western Nile Delta holds significant unexploited resources and opens up new avenues for further exploration.

The Herodotus Basin, located offshore northwestern Egypt, is an exploration frontier. A detailed regional seismic interpretation characterises the Mesozoic-Cenozoic stratigraphic sequences and their distribution across the different basin areas. Six stratigraphic sequences are described with their separating unconformities and regional correlations with the neighboring basins. The Mesozoic sequences demonstrate shelf-basinal evolution controlled by the Neo-Tethyan realm, with a sediment source and feeder systems evolved from the North Western Desert domain.

The Matruh-Kanayes canyon is recognised as a major clastic delivery system that controlled the character and distribution of sediments from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous time. In the Matruh-Kanayes Canyon, the localised shale detachment deformations are triggered by both the transform displacements and the tectonic movement reversals from extensional to compressional that occurred in Late Cretaceous (Santonian) time.

The Cenozoic sequences in the Mediterranean realm were mainly sourced from the eastern Nile Delta domain to the deep Herodotus Basin. The Oligocene rivers and canyons, as well as the Miocene-Holocene Nile River phases, represent the Cenozoic clastic delivery systems. These giant feeder systems point to the superior economic potential of the Herodotus Basin, as it embraces Mesozoic and Cenozoic opportunities similar to the successful, prolific basins in the region.

Seismic acquisition using towed streamers, with long offsets up to 10km, has been the most effective technology applied to offshore exploration for hydrocarbons in the East Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, in the last decade, the advancement in ocean-bottom nodal (OBN) acquisition system and seismic imaging technology supported the industry requirements for deeper exploration and in complex geological settings.

Full wave-form inversion workflows developed specifically designed for OBN data collection became a practical and cost-effective solution ( Vigh et al 2020 ) and proved to be superior compared to the streamer data quality as it was easy to extend the offset length to ultra-long offsets exceeding 30–50 km improving bandwidth and depth of penetration for complex geology as in the structural and depositional setting present in the East Med province. Hence, exploration surveys have been designed for a given geology to take advantage of FWI for velocity or Earth parameter development.

This study presents an integrated seismic sequence stratigraphy and biostratigraphic analysis of the Pliocene Kafr El Sheikh (KESH) Formation in the West El Burullus (WEB) concession, offshore Nile Delta. The research focuses on characterizing the depositional architecture of turbidite channel systems and their implications for hydrocarbon exploration. By identifying the major NN13 nannofossil sequence boundary through seismic interpretation and well calibration, the study reconstructs the paleo-topography and depositional environment of the WEB channel system. The methodology combines seismic, stratigraphy, and biostratigraphy with seismic attribute to revealing the complex history of reservoir development and distribution.

The applied workflow demonstrates significant value in reservoir characterization and prospect identification. Key applications include: (1) distinguishing between channel axis and levee facies through seismic attribute analysis (coherence, spectral decomposition), (2) mapping sand distribution patterns via amplitude extraction, and (3) identifying multiple phases of channel activity. The biostratigraphic calibration from WEB NE, WEB NE st, and WEB NW wells confirmed the NN13 age of the main sequence boundary and helped differentiate channel generations. These techniques enabled the identification of undrilled compartments and potential stratigraphic traps along channel margins.

Recent projects have demonstrated that innovative survey design can improve the imaging of the pre-Messinian interval in the Eastern Mediterranean. These include the deployment of multiple source vessels in Extended Long Offset (ELO) or half-Wide-Azimuth (hWAZ) configurations and ocean bottom node surveys (OBN). Use of low frequency sources is another significant development. Here we describe how the newest developments in these trends have the capability to further improve imaging in the pre-Messinian. First, we demonstrate the uplift over narrow-azimuth data that is seen in the latest implementation of an hWAZ configuration deployed offshore Angola. Next we highlight improvements in source side efficiency for sparse OBN surveys and describe how we iterate over survey design practices when working with low frequency sources in exploration settings.