Abstract

The three major oilfields currently operated on behalf of Amoco and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation by the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO) in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt, are Morgan, Ramadan and July Fields. All three fields are structural traps and each of the structures is related to anomalies mappable at both the top and base of the Miocene age evaporite sequence which overlies the productive formations. Collectively the fields produce from the Miocene Belayim, Kareem and Rudeis Formations and from sands of the pre-Miocene Cretaceous and Carboniferous. A significant fact of Gulf of Suez geology is the shift of structural crests of the producing formations from structures mappable in the Miocene. The extent of the shift of the highest structural position at each level is variable. Because of this variation, drilling the crest of the anomaly at the deepest mappable seismic horizon is the best way to explore for hydrocarbons in both the Miocene and pre-Miocene in this part of the Gulf, where reliable pre-Miocene data can rarely be obtained.