How new plays can come

from old ideas in exploration

and production?

Gabor Tari OMV, Vienna, Austria

Oil & Gas Thought Leader webinar Tuesday, April 12, 2017

10:00 AM New York

4:00 PM Amsterdam

Outline

Motto

An example from the High Atlas of Morocco

An example from the southern Atlas in Central Tunisia

Conclusions

For further reading

Motto

If the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand

words” is correct, then a play type cartoon

for an explorer is worth millions of words.

…or literally, a million dollars sometimes!

Central High Atlas, Morocco: regional transects

next slide

Frizon de Lamotte et al. (2008)

Central High Atlas, Morocco (northern flank)

Beauchamp (2005)

Central High Atlas, Morocco (northern flank)

Tari et al. (in press)

Central Tunisia, southern Atlas system

Hlaiem (1999)

Central Tunisia, southern Atlas system

Saïd et al. (2011)

Central Tunisia, conceptual presalt play types

Tari et al. (in press)

Conclusions: New Plays from Old Ideas

There is a clear need to get to know a basin on a regional scale, not

only on a block-scale. The reluctance by any explorer to go

through a thorough public data mining is dangerous… as the

„cookie-cutter exploration“ approach many times fails.

Only the full understanding of what has been done in a basin to

date (both by academia and by industry) will allow a back-to-

fundamentals cross-disciplinary approach to successful

exploration efforts. The elements of a new play are typically already

there, i.e. in the previous work done by others.

Unfortunately, with more and more data available, some explorers

cannot see the forest for the trees. Whereas „oil is found in

someone‘s mind first“, in order to communicate your ideas to your

peers/bosses/JV partners, a play type cartoon is a must.

For further reading

https://www.elsevier.com/books/permo-triassic-salt-provinces-of-europe-north-africa-and-the-atlantic-

margins/soto/978-0-12-809417-4

Description

Permo-Triassic Salt Provinces of Europe, North Africa

and the Atlantic Margins: Tectonics and Hydrocarbon

Potential deals with the evolution and tectonic

significance of the Triassic evaporite rocks in the Alpine

orogenic system and the Neogene basins in the Iberian

Peninsula, North Africa, and the western Mediterranean.

As the nature of the Triassic evaporite sequences, the

varied diapiric structures they feed, and the occurrence

of hydrocarbons suggest that the Triassic evaporites

represent an efficient system to trap hydrocarbons, this

book explores the topic with a wide swath, also devoting

content to a relatively unexplored topic, the mobilization

and deformation of the Triassic salt in the western and

northern Tethys (from Iberia and North Africa, Pyrenees

and Alps, Adriatic and Ionian) during the subsequent

Alpine orogenic processes.

The book includes chapters updating varied topics, like

the Permian and Triassic chronostratigraphic scales,

palaeogeographic reconstructions of the western Tethys

since the Late Permian, the petroleum systems

associated with Permo-Triassic salt, allochthonous salt

tectonics, and a latest revision of salt tectonic processes

in the Permian Zechstein Basin, the Atlantic Margins

(from Barents Sea, Scotia, Portugal, Morocco, and

Mauritania), the Alpine folded belts in Europe, and the

various Triassic salt provinces in North Africa.

The book is the go-to guide for salt tectonic researchers

and those working in the hydrocarbon exploration

industry.