Facies and Depositional Environments of the Lower Miocene Reservoirs, Zaafarana Oil Field-Northern Gulf of Suez-Egypt, using Borehole Logging and Core Analysis.

Abstract

This study aims to define the facies characteristics and depositional environments of the rocks constituting the Lower Miocene reservoirs in North Zaafarana oil field, northern Gulf of Suez‚ Egypt. The combination of the facies characteristics with well logging and cores descriptions will give a clear picture about the formation evaluation and shed more light on the quality of the studied reservoir.

The study area is located about 90 Km south of Suez City and 5 Km offshore of the western coast of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt. It is bounded by Longitudes 32° 39' 57" & 32° 44' 1.5" and Latitudes 29° 8' 59" & 29° 12' 1".

North Zaafarana field was discovered by British Gas (BG) in 1990 after the drilling and testing of the first discovery well (Hb78-2) and also the second well (Hb77-1), that located about 1 Km away from the first discovery well. Both wells were tested with combined rates of 10,000 BOPD, with oil gravity of 15-25˚ API. The second appraisal well (Hb77-4) was drilled at 1991, to evaluate the reserves on the northwestern portion of the Zaafarana Field. This well was tested 2200 BOPD. In November 1991, BG drilled the last appraisal well Hb77-5 (A-1), which was drilled as a directional well, to test the undrilled portion of the Zaafarana structure to the northeast direction of the field. This well encountered a net pay of ~122 ft measured thickness.

Additional three exploratory wells were drilled (Hb77-2, Hb77-3 and Hb78-3) to test separate structural features in the Zaafarana oil field. These