Tectonostratigraphic Evolution of the Sohar Basin, Exploration Concepts and Emerging Plays Offshore the Uae's East Coast

The Sohar Basin, located offshore the East Coast of the Arabian Peninsula, is an area that has seldom been the focus of international oil companies. While all commercial discoveries in the UAE and Oman have been made to the west and south of the Oman Mountains, the Sohar Basin is underexplored and remains attractive to explorationists. This lack of activity is primarily due to the fact that the Thamama reservoir that has yielded huge success to the west of the Oman Mountains is not believed to be of reservoir quality within the Sohar Basin. However potential traps, reservoirs and source rocks are present within the Tertiary. The Sohar Basin was initiated in the late Cretaceous after the obduction of the Semail Ophiolite onto the Arabian Plate. Following a period of tectonic quiescence, which lasted until the Early Eocene, gravitational collapse occurred along the eastern edge of the present day Oman Mountains. Interpretation of both 2D and 3D seismic reveals that the subsurface can be split into three tectonostratigraphic units, pre-, syn-, and post- tectonic packages. North-South trending thrust faults generate distinct mini-basins within the pre- and syn-tectonic sequences. These thrusts are of Oligocene age and are in response to extension along basin-bounding listric faults. The post-tectonic sequence is defined by the development of prograding systems in a passive continental margin that formed in the Lower Miocene and has persisted to the present day. Deep-water depositional systems dominate the undrilled far-east and south of the basin where the presence of submarine canyon systems and associated basin floor fans is supported by 3D seismic data. In more recent times, the basin has been subject to extensional faulting likely driven by the loading of sediment from the prograding sedimentary wedge. The results of this work reveal that multiple untested play types exist within the Sohar Basin which are comprised of both structural and stratigraphic elements. This paper integrates both a structural and sequence stratigraphic interpretation to provide insights into the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Sohar Basin. Consequently, the fundamentals of play fairway mapping have been employed to unlock the hydrocarbon prospectivity offshore the UAE’s East Coast