The Miocene hydrocarbon play in Southern （中新世烃在南方）.pdf

first break volume 30, December 2012 special topic Petroleum Geology and basins The Miocene hydrocarbon play in Southern Lebanon Neil Hodgson1 reports on how recent 2D and 3D seismic in the Eastern Mediterranean suggests that assumptions about the geological history and hydrocarbon plays may need some revision. his is a breath-taking era to be an exploration The drilling of the Tamar discovery offshore Israel by geoscientist. High and stable oil prices have let the Noble and partners in 2009 was brave and visionary and, T industry be efficient at exploring the commercially with success in the follow-up wells in Dalit, Leviathan, accessible continental shelf, yet the rapid develop- Aphrodite and Tannin, the major uncertainties appeared ment and transfer of the technology of deep-water drilling to have been addressed. More than 30 tcf of gas appears has outstripped exploration activity. The effect of this is to recoverable from the offshore Israel and Cyprus discover- steadily increase the unexplored and accessible area of the ies, and the Levant Basin was now a major biogenic dry global continental shelf, and to allow us into basins and gas basin. Normally pressured Lower Miocene sandstones water-depths our exploration forebears could only dream of. provenanced from the Arabian Plate to the southeast had That there were indeed dreamers though is clear as recon- been trapped in large Syrian-arc inversion structures, and naissance seismic has been acquired in