Tunisia's unexplored basins similar to productive regions elsewhere

Journal Article · Mon Dec 06 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Oil and Gas Journal; (United States)

OSTI ID:5539556

Duvernoy, B ^[1]

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1. Petroconsultants SA, Geneva (Switzerland)

Tunisia offers infrastructure, stability, and promising geology yet contains relatively unexplored basins analogous to productive regions elsewhere in the world. An important examples is a foreland basin in the northeastern Maghreb, covering northeastern Algeria, northern Tunisia, and extending on the offshore Pelagian Plateau. It is a basin type that some authorities either overlook with regard to Africa or claim to be missing from the continent. This basin has not been fully and rationally explored. Only a few old wells of moderate depth recognized the Tertiary formations -- in and around the Medjerda Valley in northern Tunisia, for example. This foreland area can be divided into three parts: a northern one, the Tellian-Tunisian Trough, running southwest to northeast along the Atlasic Chain, where a thick series of Mesozoic sediments has been folded by the Atlasic orogency before being overthrust by the post-orogenic Tortonian Numidian sandstones; a central one, which remained under shallow water during almost the entire Mesozoic and where neritic facies rapidly change into open marine or subcontinental deposits with large emersions. A southern one, the Chotts-Gabes Trough, similar to the northern one but not involved in the strong Atlasic tectonics. The paper describes the geology of the Tellian-Tunisian Trough, its productivity, the Chatts-Gabes Trough, and estimates of oil reserves.

• OSTI ID: 5539556
• Journal Information: Oil and Gas Journal; (United States), Journal Name: Oil and Gas Journal; (United States) Vol. 91:49; ISSN OIGJAV; ISSN 0030-1388
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
AFRICA
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPLORATION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGY
MINERAL RESOURCES
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
PRODUCTION
RESERVES
RESOURCE ASSESSMENT
RESOURCES
TUNISIA