Repeated folding and its significance in northern Western Desert petroleum province, Egypt

Abstract

The detailed structural synthesis of the subsurface structure in the northern part of the Western Desert of Egypt has become of great interest. In petroleum potential the northern Western Desert of Egypt is the second most promising localities of Egypt after the Gulf of Suez province. A detailed study of the structural modeling of Abu El-Gharadig and El-Razzak oil and gas fields in the northern part of the Western Desert of Egypt has shown that their structures change in shape, size or amplitude and shift their position laterally as a result of repeated folding stages that affected the study area during the Cretaceous age. This study is of great value where folding at the surface or at shallow depth is therefore not always a reliable guide in searching for petroleum pools that are trapped in reservoir rocks at great depths, for it frequently does not parallel the deeper folding.