Prospectivity of the Equatorial Conjugate Margins of Africa and South America

The rifted passive margins of the Atlantic have been established as a world class petroleum province. There is considerable potential for undiscovered resources on the Equatorial Transform Margin, encompassing the offshore basins of Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone on the African side and Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Northern Brazil on the American side. The Jubilee discovery offshore Ghana, made by Tullow in 2007, opened up several underexplored basins on the transform margin, and indicated the potential for further significant discoveries. In 2011, Tullow made the similar Zaedyus discovery offshore French Guiana, proving up the potential of the conjugate South American margin. Regional structural and stratigraphic analysis of West Africa, alongside studies of the trends and characteristics of successful producing fields from Sierra Leone to Nigeria, is used to define probable play types on the underexplored South American Equatorial conjugate margin. Cretaceous deep marine turbidites represent a key reservoir target, and key risks include source rock migration and reservoir distribution. Use of regional high quality seismic datasets for paleogeographic reconstructions such as these is necessary in order to better constrain the petroleum systems on both the African and South American Equatorial Margins.