Seismic Reconstruction and Petroleum Systems Modeling of the Nova Scotia-Morocco Conjugate Margin

Seismic Reconstruction

The Seismic Reconstruction project is a stand-alone element of the Conjugate Margin Program undertaken by the consulting firm Beicip Franlab. A number of subprojects and data streams are inputs to this project. These include sample collection and geochemistry (APT Canada Ltd.), biostratigraphy (Weston Stratigraphic), data purchase (Geoex and SAER) and data acquisition (ONHYM). Building on the work Beicip-Franlab completed under the 2015 SW Nova Scotia Extension project, Beicip-Franlab completed a structural plate reconstruction focusing upon new data from regional profiles of offshore Morocco and relevant seismic databases from the Nova Scotia passive margin. The work used recent seismic and well data from four transects that cross both margins to complete the reconstruction.

 

Petroleum Systems Modeling

The Morocco Conjugate Seismic Reconstruction project provides new insights regarding source rocks present in Morocco that may affect the petroleum potential of offshore Nova Scotia.  A natural next step of this work is to undertake petroleum systems modeling using these latest results as inputs to the model.  The objective of petroleum systems modeling is to better understand the generation, migration and entrapment of hydrocarbons in the Nova Scotia and Morocco offshores. Using newly interpreted stratigraphic horizons and well data from the Morocco margin, combined with similar data generated in the past on the Nova Scotia margin, this study reassesses the oil potential of source rocks in the Morocco margin and determines if this reassessment impacts our current understanding of source rock and oil generation potential in Nova Scotia. The ultimate objective of this work to quantify the oil and gas volumes that may be present. This information will improve the assessment of potential hydrocarbon plays and enhance prospect delineation and ranking. The project undertakes integrated 2D modeling along four regional transects across the Morocco-Nova Scotia Margins. These lines illustrate the main geological features of the margins so the modeling results can be extended away from the lines along a significant length of the entire margin pair.

Team

Principal Investigator: Beicip-Franlab with technical input and review from ONHYM, APT Canada Ltd., Weston Stratigraphic, Leptis E&P Ltd., Avalon Upstream Consulting, Oasis Geochem LLC, CNSOPB, Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines.

Date
April – December 2019