Geology of the Douala basin, offshore Cameroon, West Africa
- Mobil New Exploration Ventures Co., Dallas, TX (United States)
- Mobil Exploration and Production Services Inc., Dallas, TX (United States)
The Douala basin is predominantly an offshore basin extending from the Cameroon volcanic line in the north to the Corisco arch in the south near the Equatorial Guinea-Gabon border. The basin lies wholly within the territorial borders of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The Douala basin is one of a series of divergent margin basins occurring along the southwest African coastline resulting from the rifting of Africa from South America. Continental rifting in the Doula basin was initiated at least by Aptian-Albian time and possibly as early as Jurassic. The rift stage persisted until Albian time when the onset of drifting occurred. The sedimentary section in the basin has a maximum thickness of 8-10 km, based on exploration drilling and gravity and magnetics modeling. The synrift section consists of Aptian-Albian sands and shales, deposited primarily as submarine fans, fan-deltas, and turbidite deposits. These are overlain by salt, thought to be equivalent to the Ezagna salt of Aptian age in the Gabon basin to the south. The synrift section is separated from the overlying postrift shale sequence of Late Cretaceous and Tertiary age by a major late Albian unconformity. The Douala basin has been explored for hydrocarbons intermittently over the last 25 years. Results show a distinct tendency for gas-proneness. The largest field recorded to date is the Sanaga Sud gas field, discovered in 1979, offshore, near the coastal city of Kribi.
- OSTI ID:
- 7077944
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-910403-; CODEN: AABUD
- Journal Information:
- AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States), Vol. 75:3; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), Dallas, TX (United States), 7-10 Apr 1991; ISSN 0149-1423
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
58 GEOSCIENCES
CAMEROON
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
PETROLEUM GEOLOGY
STRATIGRAPHY
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
OFFSHORE SITES
RIFT ZONES
AFRICA
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
MINERAL RESOURCES
RESOURCES
030200* - Natural Gas- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
580000 - Geosciences