Abstract

Recent two-dimensional and three-dimensional seismic surveys shed new light on the petroleum potential Offshore Cyprus, a large mainly deep-water frontier area. The main tectonostratigraphic events that shaped the area were: 1) the fragmentation of the northern margin of the Pangea with the Tethys Ocean by rifting from the Triassic to the Middle Jurassic, and further extension and spreading during the Upper Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous—it was the time of the separation of the Eratosthenes Continental Block (ECB) from Arabia and formation of the Levant and Herodotus Basins; 2) the formation of the south-vergent fold and thrust belt called the Cyprus Arc, running from Syria to Turkey through Cyprus in the Upper Cretaceous, an active margin still active today; and 3) the progressive separation of Arabia from Africa since the Oligocene, and particularly since the Lower Miocene with the initiation of the Levant Transform Fault and the southwestward expulsion of the Anatolian micro-plate. It was accompanied by a considerable increase in the influx of sediments with, in particular, the development of the Nile Delta and Deep Sea Fan.

The petroleum assessment primarily relies on the recently acquired seismic data, the frequently observed amplitude anomalies, the hydrocarbon discoveries in the vicinity (Egypt, Gaza, Israel) and recently in the SW Offshore Cyprus, and the widespread presence of the Messinian Evaporites seal.

A number of exploration plays are associated with the various tectonostratigraphic domains: 1) in the Levantine Basin, Lower Miocene anticlines folding the whole sedimentary section, and pinch-out of the deep-water sediments on the ECB margin; 2) the carbonates on the ECB; 3) the Western ECB Miocene Sub-basin and High; 4) the Miocene, Intra-Messinian, and Pliocene of the Nile Deep Sea Fan deformed by salt movements, and massive slidings in the Herodotus Basin and pre-Messinian folds and faulted blocks; 5) the deformations at the front of the Cyprus Arc; and 6) the eastern top Cyprus Arc Basin deformed by strike-slip tectonics.