A Frontier Deep Water Play on the Oceanic Crust of the Moroccan Atlantic Margin?

A string of prominent anticlines is located in deep waters west of Essaouira (Morocco). The underlying basement is assumed to comprise oceanic crust, which raises concerns for source and reservoir rock presence and a sufficiently hot environment for oil generation.

Half-grabens underlying the deep water folds suggest a restricted early marine environment during the Early Jurassic, flooded by transgressive Toarcian marine shales of possible source-rock quality. 2D basin and petroleum systems modeling suggests that oil might have been generated from those potential source rocks (Early Cretaceous), with an initial oil charge of the deep water fold traps which was using focused migration pathways resulting from the reactivation of basement faults (Late Cretaceous to Paleocene). An alternative, and possibly complementary, hydrocarbon charge was modeled to consist of a slow-moving widespread oil and gas migration front, which is related to the transient effect of significant heating during the Canary Island hotspot event.

The Atlantic margin of Morocco is a nonstandard passive margin where specific geological conditions, in particular the presence of a hotspot, are united, possibly allowing for efficient oil (and possible gas) charge within widespread turbidite reservoirs, with traps that are large enough to make exploration on oceanic crust economic.