Petroleum Systems in the North Western Desert of Egypt

The northern part of the Western Desert, bound from the east by the River Nile, occupies a vast area of intracratonic sub-basins covered by the prospective Paleozoic to Tertiary sediments. Structural, stratigraphic and maturation studies indicate that migration studies guided by buoyancy drive, was initiated in the depocenters from potential Devonian and Jurassic source beds during Early Senonian and trapped in pre-Laramide structures. Pods of active sources were defined based on maturity modeling and mapping isopachs and pyrolysis results. Hydrocarbon charges, losses from catchment areas and recovery factors were normalized statistically. The least preservation risk is considered for hydrocarbons migrated from Cretaceous sources after the Alpine tectonics. Accordingly, the WD can be subdivided into five petroleum systems: Safa-Bahariya (!) system, Safa-Alamein (!) system, Safa-Khataba (!) system, Zaitun-Safa (.) system, and Khataba-Kharita (.) system. The five systems are under explored, being estimated to host 48 Boeb Eurr, about 15 times the proven ultimate recoverable reserves in the whole WD.