Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.15, No.2, pp. 211-244, 1992

©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press, Ltd.

THE TECTONIC FRAMEWORK AND REGIONAL
HYDROCARBON PROSPECTIVITY OF THE GULF OF ADEN

W. F. Bott*, B. A. Smith*, G. Oakes*, A. H. Sikander**, and A. I. Ibraham***

* British Gas Exploration and Production, Reading, U.K

** Petro-Canada International Assistance Corporation, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; and Project Technical Manager, UNDP/World Bank Red Sea--Gulf of Aden Regional Hydrocarbon Study Project, Cairo, Egypt.

*** Khalda Petroleum Company, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

The Gulf of Aden rifting predates that in the Red Sea. Isolated sub-basins developed during the earliest Oligocene following a major emergent (erosional) period during the latest Eocene. Marine sedimentation began in the middle-to-late Oligocene and progressed upwards from marginal marine to bathyal environments with significant turbidite input (primarily on the Yemen side).