Geodynamics and Petroleum Systems Modeling of the Salt Province and Outer Atlantic Margin Offshore Essaouira (Morocco)

The Atlantic margin offshore Morocco can be characterized as a frontier area in which hydrocarbon exploration is very immature. While the onshore Essaouira Basin hosts some small oil and gas fields, offshore exploration has so far resulted in sub-commercial discoveries only. Recent deepwater wells failed to find viable reservoirs, however, numerous hydrocarbon shows have been encountered, a variety of different potential traps are related to salt tectonics, and the offshore domain recently gained the interest of international oil companies once again. In addition, the relative success of the conjugate Atlantic margin of Nova Scotia is encouraging. However, even though the Triassic to Jurassic rifting to break-up history is similar, the Moroccan margin has experienced a significantly different geodynamic post-rift evolution. This includes Late Cretaceous uplift, the Cenozoic Atlas orogeny, and the Canary Island hotspot. This study investigates the geodynamic evolution of the Atlantic margin offshore Essaouira (Morocco) and its implication on hydrocarbon exploration. The methods applied are structural interpretation and analysis of recently acquired 2D seismic reflection data of the 2011 MIRROR experiment, crustal-scale gravity modeling integrated in basin modeling, structural restoration, petroleum systems modeling, and probabilistic analysis.