Paper Number: 1318
Regional interpretation of seismic horizons along the east coast of South Africa
Davids, S1., Buthulezi, T.M., Fielies, A. and Salomo, J.
1Petroleum Agency SA, 7 Mispel Road, Bellville, 7535, davidss@petroleumagencysa.com
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The Petroleum Agency SA Resource
Management Division is conducting regional studies within the east coast
of South Africa. The East Coast Basin Analysis (ECBA) project includes
the Zululand basin, the Durban basin, the deepwater Natal valley and to
a lesser extent the Transkei swell. This is a large geographical area
which covers more than 195 000km2 and with water depths
reaching more than 6000m (Fig1).
Figure 1: The ECBA project area offshore South Africa
The interest in the east coast of Africa is spearheaded by the activities within Mozambique, Tanzania & Kenya. Numerous hydrocarbon discoveries have been made and this in turn will forever change the economic outlook of these countries. South Africa has seen a similar increase in interest along the east coast. Majors ExxonMobil, Eni, Sasol and others have licences within the region and are actively working the area.
New proprietary offshore seismic data has provided some interesting ideas of sediment source and basin architecture. New depth surfaces maps of selected seismic unconformities and isopach units display packages within potential hydrocarbon areas.