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Modeling Petroleum Generation in the Southern Muglad

Rift Basin, Sudan1

Abdalla Y. Mohamed,2Michael J. Pearson,3William A. Ashcroft,4James E. Iliffe,5and


Arthur J. Whiteman4

ABSTRACT of oil expulsion from lower source units between 110 and 95 Ma prior to Upper Cretaceous reservoir Maturity and petroleum generation have been deposition. Oil in Darfur Group reservoirs of the Unity field probably was sourced initially from the modeled in a 120-km-long northeast-southwest cross section of the Southern Muglad basin, Sudan. upper Abu Gabra in the main kitchen area between The section passes close to the Unity and Kaikang 80 and 60 Ma and may have remigrated from deeper reservoirs during Tertiary rifting. Subsequent oil areas, which provide well control on the structure interpreted from gravity and seismic reflection pro- charge probably migrated from the lower Abu Gabra in minor kitchens northeast of the Unityfiles. Modeling of geotherms from corrected bottomhole temperatures indicates present heat flows Heglig ridge, which may have expelled oil until
around 60 mW/m2in the well control areas. Using Miocene uplift. The petroleum system probably is

measured vitrinite data as calibrant, maturity can relatively inactive at present. Volumetric calculations for the Sharaf and Abu Gabra source formabe modeled equally well with a constant paleoheat flow similar to the present day or with a complex
tions suggest that around 1012bbl of oil and 1014 m3

heat flow pattern related to rifting. A geologically of gas have potentially charged reservoirs, although much may have been expelled prior to trap developrealistic complex heat flow model was employed to calculate the timing of generation and expulsion ment. Apparent lack of significant gas accumulations may reflect leakiness of traps during rift-related fault from the Lower Cretaceous lacustrine source rocks of the Abu Gabra and Sharaf formations. Kinetic rejuvenation.
(Easy% Ro) calculation of vitrinite maturity indicates

a projected oil preservation depth limit around 4000 m shallowing to around 3500 m northeast of INTRODUCTION Unity near the basin margin. Modeling of hydrocarbon evolution in the main Maturation of organic matter and its conversion to oil and gas depend on both time and temperahydrocarbon kitchen areas indicates an early phase ture (e.g., Deming and Chapman, 1989). Modeling of maturity, hydrocarbon generation, and timing of migration and entrapment in a sedimentary
Copyright 1999. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All

basin thus requires integration of burial and therrights reserved.

mal histories. Evaluating the burial history is aided


1Manuscript received April 13, 1998; revised manuscript received April 5,

1999; final acceptance May 30, 1999.

by possessing good knowledge of the lithologies


2Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen,

of the sedimentary section, their ages and porosiKings College, Meston Building, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, United Kingdom. Address in Sudan: Oil Exploration and Production Authorit y,

ties, and their periods of erosion (Lerche, 1990).


Ministry of Energy and Mining, Khartoum, Sudan.

Temperature at any point and time in a given basin


3Corresponding author. Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology,

University of Aberdeen, Kings Coll ege, Meston Building, Aberdeen AB24 depends on heat flow and thermal conductivity, 3UE, Scotland, United Kingdom; e-mail: m.j.pearson@abdn.ac.uk

which is a function of lithologies. Present-day heat


4Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University o f Aberdeen,

flow is most important in offshore basins currently


Kings College, Meston Building, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, United Kingdom. near maximum temperature, whereas paleoheat
5PGS Tigress, PSTI Technology, Exploration Drive, Aberdeen AB23 flows are an important consideration in uplifted

8GX, Scotland, United Kingdom. Present address: Integrated Interpretation

onshore basins. The Muglad rift basin of southern


Center, Exploration and Production Technology, Conoco Inc., Houston PR3036, P.O. Box 2197, Houston, Texas 777252-2197.

Sudan (Figures 1, 2) is arguably an uplifted onshore


We are grateful to Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc. and Robertson

basin, having been uplifted most recently in the


Research International for supplying through the Geological Research Authority of Sudan (Ministry of Energy and Mining) essential information that Miocene and receiving only ephemeral sediments enabled this work to be carried out. PGS Tigress is acknowledged for making

at the present day.


available the HEDERAsoftware used in modeling.

1943
AAPG Bulletin, V. 83, No. 12 (December 1999), P. 1943 1964.

1944Petroleum Generation in the Muglad Rift

Figure 1Location of Muglad basin in Sudan showing oil fields,


EGYPT

discoveries (Kaikang), and the location of cross section AA .


Red Sea

AFRICA
Port SUDAN Sudan

Ri ver Ni le

SUDAN

Khartoum

CHAD W Bl ue Ni hi Kosti te Ni le le

Sharaf Abu Gabra

Heglig

A'
Kaikang

Muglad Basin
Unity

ETHIOPIA

C.A.R.

Ba h e r

El g h a z al ZAIRE

200 km
KENYA UGANDA

TownMuglad block boundary (approximate basin boundary) International boundary Oil field

A - A'

Cross Section

The Muglad basin was explored by Chevron and El Toor, El Nar, and Toma South. New discoveries partners in the early 1970s, and the first discovery (1999) at Khairat, Garaad, and Khor Bhow have was in 1979. The sedimentary section is up to 13 km proved the existence of new trends east and west thick in the deep areas (Schull, 1988). More than of Unity-Heglig. As of 1990, Unity was the largest 110 exploratory and development wells have been field with 150 million bbl of recoverable oil and an drilled, with the main early discoveries being the estimated 600 million bbl of oil in place (Giedt, Unity and Heglig fields in the Southern Muglad and 1990). Present in-place oil estimates for the other the Sharaf and Abu Gabra fields in Northwest Southern Muglad fields are probably around 200 Muglad (Figures 1, 2). Significant recent discover- million bbl, giving an in-place total for the Southern ies (1997) in the Southern Muglad on the Unity- Muglad of about 0.8 billion bbl. Many structures are Heglig structural trend have led to fields under as yet untested and a potentially large volume of development by Talisman Energy and partners at hydrocarbons remains to be discovered.

Mohamed et al.1945

Figure 2Generalized structure map and depth to top Abu Gabra

Northwest Muglad
Formation for the Muglad basin after Schull (1988), showing the basin subdivision as used in this paper and the line of cross section AA . Faulting is omitted.

Southern Muglad
N

A'

100 Km A Depth to top Abu Gabra Fm.

-10,000 ft -20,000 ft

Shallow Basement No structural control

A - A'

Basin DivideCross Section

Principal objectives in modeling the basin are to (Sweeney, 1990), which calculates the extent of condetermine the timing of hydrocarbon expulsion version of kerogen to fluid hydrocarbons over geoand to estimate likely undiscovered reserves. To logical time in time interval steps of 1 m.y. this end, we attempt to reconstruct a reasonable burial and thermal history for the study area and to provide a transect across the Muglad rift midway GEOLOGICAL HISTORY along its length (Figures 2, 3). Models consistent with measured vitrinite reflectance are then used The Muglad basin is the largest known rift basin in to predict isomaturity across the basin and to the Sudan interior, trends northwest-southeast, and
covers about 120,000 km2. The basin is around 800 km

model hydrocarbon generation through the cross section (Figure 4). A theoretical hydrocarbon in length and 200 km in width and is subdivided into charge is calculated based on estimates of source northwest and southern sectors as shown in Figure rock richness and volume and is compared to esti- 2. Three rifting episodes occurred during the Early mates of oil in place from known fields. Armstrong Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous, and earlymiddle et al. (1996) used a similar approach, although with Tertiary, respectively (McHargue et al., 1992). These a more extensive database, in modeling the Taran- episodes of rifting resulted in the deposition of a aki basin, New Zealand. sedimentary section of up to 13 km thick in the
Within the HEDERA one -dimensional modeling

deep troughs (Schull, 1988), comprising three software used in this work, maturation was modeled depositional cycles. In general the synrift sediments are
by the Easy% Roroutine (Sweeney and Burnham,

fine grained and the later thermal subsidence (sag) 1990), which is kinetic-based, allows multiple heat- phase sediments are coarser grained. Figure 5 [modified
ing rates, and calculates vitrinite reflectance (% Ro).

from Giedt (1990), Kaska (1989), and Schull (1988)]

illustrates a generalized stratigraphic framework for


Hydrocarbon generation was modeled with BASINMAT

1946Petroleum Generation in the Muglad Rift

Figure 3Study area in 2930' E the Muglad basin showing N oil fields, seismic lines, and the location of cross

Heglig field
section AA .

80-41

A'

80-40 77-60

79-80 78-66

77-51 Unity-1 Jak-1

Talih Field Unity Field 930'N 930'N


78-63

A
Kaikang 2
77-68 Nyang-1

Kaikang 1
Baher Elghazal

Bentiu

77-67

25 km
77-53

2930' E

Oil shows Oil well Dry well Town

A - A'
Cross section
Seismic line

the interior Sudan basins and defines usage of strati- sandstones of the Bentiu Formation. The second graphic terms used in this paper. Unconformities depositional cycle (Late Cretaceous Paleocene) is with slight angular discordance that terminate the the Darfur Group, comprising fluvial and deltaic cycles probably reflect uplift due to fault block rota- claystones at the bottom (Aradeiba Formation)

tion, but the extent of erosion is uncertain and is dis- and thin sandstone beds (Zarga and Ghazal forcussed further in following sections. Positioning of mations), thickening toward the top of the secunconformities within the unfossiliferous sections is tion (Baraka Formation) and overlain by the coarscontentious, and McHargue et al. (1992) considered er Amal Formation. The thin intercalating that both the Bentiu and Amal formations straddle sandstones in the Darfur Group are the main unconformities. reservoirs in the Unity field. The Kordofan Group The first depositional cycle (Early Cretaceous) (Oligocenelate Eocene), which forms the third consists mainly of suboxic organic-rich shales com- depositional cycle, consists of the largely shaly prising the main lacustrine source beds of the Nayil and Tendi formations and culminates in the Sharaf and Abu Gabra formations, which are overcoarse sandstones of the Adok Formation. The lain in the sag phase by medium- to coarse-grained MioceneHolocene Zeraf Formation unconformably

Mohamed et al.1947

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