Of all the fields, Jubilee field is the only currently producing field with the other fields current under development phases. It is also estimated that Tano basin holds about 5 billion barrels of oil with the jubilee field current producing 105,000bbl/day. 2.0. Basin Tectonics The Tano basin is located in the West African Transform margins. Tano basin is a cretaceous wrench modified pull-apart basin which resides in between the Romanche and St Paul transform faults. The West African Transform Margin was formed from the Atlantic rift system which started in late Jurassic era. It was created due to paleo-continent separation of South American and African. There was a further propagation of the rifting African continent eastward direction away from the south of the Atlantic. This formed a continuous anoxic environment in the West African Transform Margin between the late Albian to Turonian times. This anoxic condition, which is good for preservation of source rock, together with the active rifting resulted in deposition and preservation of organic matter which formed the source rock. The tectonic activities which led to the formation of the wrench type pull apart basin of Tano all begun early Aptian time. At this time, the north and south Atlantic had just started opening. Lakes were an important environment for deposition of organic matter during this time period and together with enough burial, generated hydrocarbons. By early Albian time period, both South America and Africa had fully detached with the last point of contact being around western Cote d’Ivoire. During this time, Tano basin became a depositional focus which resulted in the basin experiencing lots of deposition from fluvial and lacustrine environments with thick clastic sequence from African continent. This provided adequate thickness which is required for the maturity of the cretaceous source rocks mainly in the central and western parts of the basin. There was a significant uplift and erosion which occurred during middle Albian times which influenced the topography of the Tano basin and was very instrumental in the creation of the very productive Jubilee field. Sandstones which were stratigraphically trapped during the Albian and Cenomanian times formed the main reservoir rock for most of the fields discovered with marine shale forming the seal. The trapping mechanism is both structural and stratigraphic. It is also predicted that the source rock was in close proximity to the reservoir rock and indicating minimal hydrocarbon migration with the basin. 3.0. Stratigraphy Deposition of rocks in the Tano basin begun during Aptian ages of the early cretaceous era. This corresponds to the period of continental rifting between the South American plate and the African plate which result in the creation of Tano basin within the Atlantic Ocean. This made the Tano Basin an area of focus for the deposition of clastic sediment from the African continent. There are three main play system within the Tano basin. These include the Albian play, the Cenomanian Play and the Turonian play. The Turonian play has proven to be the most productive of the field with huge discoveries such as the Jubilee field and the TEN field. The Cenomanian play also do have some substantial discoveries which include the Sankofo field. A palynostratigraphical study was carried out by Atta-Peters, 2013 and Amoo Michael, 2014 to determine the stratigraphy of the Tano basin using data from a well north onshore of the Tano basin. In their work, the stratigraphy of the Tano basin starts with the deposition of Sandstone during early Aptian age with a mix of shale. this formed the basement rock for the basin at around depth of about 7000 to 9000ft. This was also followed by the deposition of another shale called the B-shale series during the early Albian age. The B-shale is considered as the most important system in the Tano basin since it was also found in most of the wells drilled across the Tano basin. It is also believed that it served as the main source rock in the basin. Sandstone was deposited after the Shale-B which serves a reservoir rock. Due to the showing of oil in this sandstone rock, it is assumed that there was a very short migration period for the generated oil from the source rock into the reservoir rock. The deposition of the sandstone was followed by breakup in sedimentation. There was an uplift and erosion event during the upper Albian age which signified a major unconformity in the basin. The Cenomanian shale was deposited and this was followed by sandstone mixed with some huge deposits of limestone all happening within the Cenomanian age. The Turonian to Upper Santonian section is composed of medium brownish-grey shales and claystone, often non-fossiliferous, with occasional dolomite or limestone. It is generally thick, about 920 feet (280 meters). Most of the plays offshore Tano which have commercial accumulations of hydrocarbons have been discovered to lie in this time zone.
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Most of the seals are in close proximity to the reservoir rock and hence a very short migration of the crude oil is expected. The proof quality seals can be experience in the wells showing fairly high pressures. Unconformity surfaces and local fault patterns also contribute to seal integrity. Down-to-the basin faults can act as barrier to hydrocarbon leakage where a reservoir is juxtaposed against relatively non-permeable rocks. The Albian play have mainly structural traps with Dome, Fault block, and Anticline forming the traps. The Cenomanian play has both structural and stratigraphic traps formed with Draping structure, Clastic depos lens, pinch out, faults and anticline being some of the trap types. The Turonian play also has both structural and stratigraphic traps as the trapping mechanism. Some of types of traps in this play include Clastic depos lens, pinch out, normal faults and anticline. 5.0. Summary The evolution of the Tano basin mainly occurred in the cretaceous era. It all start during the late Jurassic era but sedimentation and formation of the basin was in the cretaceous era. The basin is one of the most productive alone the West African Transform Margin and has been producing since December 2010. The basin type is that of a wrench pull a part basin with faults, anticlines and pinch out as the main type of traps. The shale type is mainly of marine shale with the predominant reservoir type being sandstone reservoir. Porosity is medium to high in the field with permeability been very high across the basin. The field is currently producing 105Mbbl/day and is expected to increase to about 250MBbl/day after all fields have been brought on stream.
References
D. Atta-Peters, P. Garrey. 2014, Source Rock Evaluation and Hydrocarbon Potential in the Tano Basin, South Western Ghana, West Africa: International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Engineering. Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 66-77. doi: 10.11648/j.ogce.20140205.11. Information Handling Services (IHS) Report, Mar. 2011, Basin Monitor: Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Republic of Liberia, and Republic of Ghana, Annex 14 Robin Sutherland, 2008, presentation on Exploration history and regional geology, Capital Markets Day.www.investis.com/tlw/siteware/history.pdf. D. Atta-Peters, C. I. Agama1, D. K. Asiedu, E. Apesegah, 2013, Palynology, palynofacies and palaeo environments of sedimentary organic matter from Bonyere – 1 Well, Tano basin, western Ghana: International Letters of Natural Sciences, Vol. 5 (2013) pp 27-45. D. Atta-Peters, C. A. Achaegakwo, D. Kwayisi, P. Garrey., 2015, Palynofacies and Source Rock Potential of the ST-7H Well, Offshore Tano Basin,Western Region, Ghana. Earth Sciences. Vol. 4, No. 1, 2015, pp. 1-20. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20150401.11 Ian Bryan, Nora Herbst, Paul Dailly, John R. Dribus, Roberto Fainstein, Nick Harvey, Angus McCoss, Bernard Montaron, David Quirk, Paul Tapponnier., 2012, Basin to Basin: Plate Tectonics in Exploration: Schlumberger Oilfield Review Autumn 2012: 24, no. 3. Brownfield, M.E, and Charpentier, R.R., 2006, Geology and Total petroleum systems of the Gulf of Guinea Province of West Africa: U.S Geological Survey Bulletin 2207-C, 32 p. Amoo Michael, 2014, Palynostratigraphical and Paleo environmental Studies of Bonyere-1 Well; Onshore Tano Basin, Western Ghana: A Report Submitted to The Department of Earth Science University of Ghana in Partial Fulfillment for The Award of a Bachelor of Science Degree in Earth Science. Gerald Wemazenu Adda, 2013, The Petroleum Geology and Prospectivity of the Neo-Proterozoic, Paleozoic and Cretaceous Sedimentary Basins in Ghana: AAPG publication #10544 (2013) Lars H. Rüpke, Daniel W. Schmid, Ebbe H. Hartz, and Bjørn Martinsen., 2010, Basin modelling of a transform margin setting: structural, thermal and hydrocarbon evolution of the Tano Basin, Ghana: Geological Society of London, Petroleum Geoscience Vol. 16 2010, pp. 283-298DOI 10.1144/1354-079309-905
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Figures
Figure 1: Showing the location of Tano Basin within the St. Paul and Romanche transform fault zones. (USGG report, 2006 ).
Figure 2: Plate tectonic evolution of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Redrawn from (Mascle et al. 1988 as cited by Lars H. Rüpke et al, 2010.).
