Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2021) 14:412

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-06745-9

ORIGINAL PAPER

Seismic interpretation of the Late Albian-Early Cenomanian Bahariya

reservoirs of Burg El Arab oil field for tectonic evaluation: a case
study from Western Desert, Egypt
Mohamed I. Abdel-Fattah 1 & Tamer E. Attia 2 & Mohamed H. Abd El-Aal 3 & Mahmoud I. Hanafy 2

Received: 3 August 2019 / Accepted: 16 February 2021

# Saudi Society for Geosciences 2021

Abstract
The evolution of different rift basins has been investigated tectonically and stratigraphically for decades using different geological
and geophysical techniques based on data collected from outcrops and subsurface sequences. The tectonic subsurface evaluation
of the so-called Bahariya sequence of Burg El Arab (BEA) oil field (Western Desert, Egypt) was studied using eleven seismic
profiles showing the structural framework of the BEA oil field. The Late Albian-Early Cenomanian Bahariya Formation was
dissected by a series of normal fault system, trending in NW-SE and WNW-ESE directions. This system was created due to the
Cretaceous-Early Tertiary tectonic deformations related to the Tethyan plate tectonics. These tectonics lead to the presence of a
symmetrical anticlinal fold dissected by a set of normal faults that is clearly dipping towards SSE and extending along the
direction of NNW-SSE. The results of the structural seismic interpretation of the BEA oil field indicated that there are two main
tectonic deformations affecting the subsurface rocks of the Mesozoic: the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous rifting and Late
Cretaceous-Early Tertiary shortening deformation. Understanding and interpretation of such structural styles and tectonics are
a key issue in hydrocarbon exploration and development in the study area.

Keywords Seismic interpretation . Tectonics . Burg El Arab oil field . Bahariya Formation . Western Desert

Introduction below known reservoirs, and it is expected that more discov-

The last few years have confirmed that oil and gas in the
Western Desert (Egypt) can be found quickly and efficiently
by integrating all available subsurface geological and geo-
physical data. Recent discoveries have been found in new
structural trends and areas in rift basins that had previously
been ignored (Abdel-Fattah et al. 2015; Alrefaee et al. 2018;
Abdel-Fattah et al. 2020; Fadul et al. 2020). There has been
greater effort to find oil and gas accumulations around and
Responsible Editor: Narasimman Sundararajan
* Mahmoud I. Hanafy
geo.ismail93@gmail.com; mahmoudismail93@sci.psu.edu.eg
1
Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University,
Ismailia, Egypt
2
Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Port Said University, Port
Fuad, Egypt
3
Biology and Geology Department, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams
University, Cairo, Egypt
eries will be made in the Western Desert. The reservoir rocks
of the Western Desert do not outcrop close to areas of produc-
tion. In the south, where equivalent units do appear at the
surface, the rocks are no longer comparable to those encoun-
tered within the reservoirs. Therefore, most of the information
about reservoir rocks in the Western Desert has come from
seismic surveys, well cuttings, cores, well logs and pressure or
production tests. The oil and gas fields in the Western Desert
often have multiple reservoir horizons (Abdel-Fattah 2010;
Abdel-Fattah 2015; Abdelmaksoud et al. 2019), a situation
which can reduce the costs of field development. The myster-
ies of the Western Desert have been unravelled slowly, but the
continuing discovery of oil and gas in this region is ample
reward.
The Upper Cretaceous Bahariya and of Abu Roash forma-
tions share together over 90% of the discovered hydrocarbon
reserves in the Egyptian Western Desert (Richardson et al.
1998). Burg El Arab oil field is located in the Alamein
Basin which is under the hydrocarbon exploration and devel-
opment (Fig. 1). Burg El Arab development lease is located
10km due east from Horus oil field and Alamein-Yidma fields
 412 Page 2 of 11
Fig. 1 Location map of the analysed seismic profiles and wells in Burg El Arab oil field (Western Desert, Egypt)
and north to Ras Qattara block-2. Burg El Arab field is tec-
tonically located at an area between the far end of the unstable
shelf zone and the first beginning of the hinge zone (EGPC
1992), 17km to the south of the Mediterranean Sea coast.
According to Burg El Arab Petroleum Company
(BURAPETCO), Burg El Arab field was discovered on
February 1997 after the completion of Ig 40-1 and Ig 40-2
exploratory wells and commencing production from Abu
Roash “G” Dolomite reservoir on the same date. The
Bahariya Formation sandstone represents the main producer
of hydrocarbon in the majority of Western Desert fields
(Kulke and Zantop 1995; Abdel-Fattah et al. 2018). The
Abu Roash “C”, “E” and “G” sandstone members are consid-
ered good hydrocarbon reservoirs (EGPC 1992). However,
the Abu Roash members “D”, F and G carbonate members
are also hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in other basins in the
Western Desert such as the Abu Gharadig Basin (Kulke and
Zantop 1995).
The depositional characteristics of Western Desert’s reser-
voirs and tectonic styles of the basins are highly variable.
Regarding the tectonic evaluation and the stratigraphic suc-
cession of Burg El Arab oil field, little information about its
situation has been published. So far, Cretaceous-Early
Tertiary tectonic deformation related to the Tethyan plate tec-
tonic is controlling approximately the whole area (Moustafa
2008) and associated with normal faults trending NW-SE and
WNW-ESE directions (Abdel-Fattah et al. 2015). Since the
main hydrocarbon-producing horizon in Burg El Arab oil field
was Abu Roash “G” Dolomite as proposed from production
logs, it is very important to search for additional hydrocarbon
reservoir as a development process to increase the
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412
hydrocarbon reserves and also to attract different drilling com-
panies working and producing hydrocarbon from the Western
Desert. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the struc-
tural situation of Burg El Arab field during the Upper
Cretaceous and to compare with the regional structural frame-
work of Egypt to state the progressive tectonic evaluation of
this area.
Geological setting
The Western Desert of Egypt’s can be divided structurally into
three main provinces which evolved along lines of weakness
in the entire African plate, as a response to lateral movements
between the Africa and Europe plates (EGPC 1992). The
Northern part of the Western Desert is mainly characterized
by relatively mild subsidence located near active subsidence
basins or depocentres (Said 1990). Many of the Western
Desert’s basins are characterized by deformed sequences of
sedimentary rocks which formed as a result of extensive cy-
cles of marine transgression combined at least with three oro-
genic movements (Awad 1984; Said 1990). The earliest of
these movements was the Caledonian orogeny at the middle
Palaeozoic. It was followed up with the second movement of
Hercynian orogeny which took place at the end of Palaeozoic.
The third movement called Alpine orogeny took place at the
Jurassic-Tertiary time. These orogenic periods controlled the
sedimentary basins at the Western Desert and affected their
orientation (EGPC 1992).
The lithostratigraphic column representing the North
Western Desert encompasses different sets of rocks that
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412 Page 3 of 11 412

begins from the Precambrian basement to the recent deposits.

Thickness of the sediments increases gradually to the North
and North East up to an estimated 7620m of sediments (Said
1990; Teama and Nabawy 2016). Figure 2 shows the main
stratigraphic units of the northern Western Desert. Among
these, the Bahariya Formation was first proposed by Stromer
(1914) based on the remains of dinosaurs from the fluvio-
marine sediments of early Cenomanian argillaceous sandstone
and carbonate intercalations.
Source rocks at the Western Desert are typically sequences
of shale accompanied with the transgression of Upper Jurassic
and Upper Cretaceous carbonates (EGPC 1992; Makky et al.
2014). The Mesozoic source rocks include oil and gas-bearing
formations from the Jurassic (Khatatba Fm), Lower
Cretaceous (Alam El Bueib Fm) and the Upper Cretaceous
(Bahariya and Abu Roash formations) (Khaled 1999). Traps
are mainly of the combined stratigraphic-structural trap
(Abdel-Fattah et al. 2017), where most of the structures are
faulted anticlinal features (Abdel-Fattah et al. 2010). In many
cases, unconformities, on-lapping and erosional pinch-outs
are formed due to the rejuvenation of the horst-like structures.
The study area lies at the northern part of Alamein Basin. The
Alamein Basin is located in the southern east of Matruh Basin
and shows the effect of the oriented NE-SW normal faults on the
geometry and architecture of the basin as interpreted by Bakr and
Helmy (1990), El-Shaarawy et al. (1992) and Moustafa et al.
(1998). According to Moustafa (2008), an Early Cretaceous ex-
tensional regime affected this basin leading to the formation of a
set of NE-SW normal faults. The inversion affected the Late
Cretaceous sequence which led to the development of NE-SW-
oriented fold traps forming a variety of hydrocarbon fields like
Alamein, Razzak and Horus fields.
The area of BEA oil field (Alamein Basin) lies between lati-
tudes 30° 48′ 19.541″ and 30° 34′ 11.797″ N and longitudes 28°
59′ 42.987″ and 28° 49′ 9.013″ E, with an area of about 300 km2
(Fig. 1). Stratigraphically, Bahariya reservoirs are mainly
consisted of a sedimentary succession of members, namely, from
oldest to youngest, Lower Bahariya (Late Albian age) and Upper
Bahariya (Early Cenomanian age) (EGPC 1992), and are depos-
ited in a shallow marine shelf environment during the Early
Cenomanian (Moustafa 2008; Abdelmaksoud et al. 2019). The
Bahariya reservoirs are highly heterogeneous. The depositional
environment for the Bahariya Formation has been described in
two fundamentally different ways—continental (braided stream)
and deep-water marine. Some recent work indicated that
Bahariya Formation was developed in an environment of tidal
flat with cross-cutting sand channels (Tanner and Khalifa 2010).
Fig. 2 General lithostratigraphic column of the northern Western Desert
This stratigraphic succession is conformably resting over the (modified after EGPC, 1992; Abdel-Fattah et al. 2015; Abdelmaksoud
Early Albian Kharita Member as the latest stage of the Lower et al. 2019)
Cretaceous which, in turn, is non-conformably overlying the
Alamein Formation of the Late Aptian. The upper contact of
the studied Upper Cretaceous succession conformably underlies estimated from the lithological log for the Bahariya Formation
the Late Cenomanian Abu Roash “G” Dolomite Formation as encountered within the BEA-11 well (Fig. 3).
 412 Page 4 of 11
The lithological log at the drilled BEA-11 well showed that
the Lower Bahariya Member consists mainly of intercalations
of shale, limestone and a thick sand bed at the middle and the
top ending with a thin bed of limestone, while Middle
Bahariya started with the deposition of limestone then inter-
calations of shales with a lesser sandstone than Lower
Bahariya (Fig. 3). Finally, the Upper Bahariya Member
showed limestone at the beginning of the deposition process
followed by intercalations of shales then shaley sands and
sandstones at the end of this depositional cycle (Fig. 3).
Materials and methods
In order to achieve and increase the knowledge about the struc-
ture of the study area, eleven seismic lines and wireline logs
from four wells (Fig. 1) were analysed in details to describe and
define the different structural features affecting Burg El Arab oil
field at the age of Upper Cretaceous. Also, horizons of Upper
Bahariya, Middle Bahariya and Lower Bahariya members have
been picked up over the seismic lines for the process of
Fig. 3 Lithological log representing Bahariya members encountered within BEA-11 well
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412
constructing the two-way time (TWT) structure contour maps.
The process of picking up horizons usually starts with the seis-
mic lines passing through wells having check shot data as the
simplest way to achieve the seismic to well tie through a syn-
thetic seismogram (Bacon et al. 2007; Abdel-Fattah and Tawfik
2015) to establish firstly a relationship between seismic reflec-
tions and stratigraphy. The horizons were picked up manually
to reach the nearest fit of local continuity of the horizons in the
seismic lines and local similarity of character to identify the
event of interest (Dorn et al. 2005).
Correlation of the seismic events and tying their time, clos-
ing their loops, posting time values and fault segments and
finally constructing the fault pattern and contouring the arrival
times are the most essential steps that always followed the pro-
cess of seismic interpretation (Abdel-Fattah et al. 2015; Abdel-
Fattah and Tawfik 2015; Abd El-Aal et al. 2015). For then, fault
heaves are picked up and then posted on their locations on the
seismic shot point base map to create the pattern of faults and
3D structural modelling for the concerned tops. The velocity
model is constructed to convert the maps and 3D structural
model from time domain to depth domain (Abdel-Fattah et al.
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412 Page 5 of 11 412

2018; Fadul et al. 2020). The TWT, depth maps and the
interpreted seismic lines were used to emphasize the regional
tectonics responsible for the tectonic evaluation of the con-
cerned basin during the Late Albian-Early Cenomanian interval
time. Figure 4 shows an example of a 2D seismic line (L114)
before and after the interpretation process.
Results and discussion
Seismic structural analysis
Through structural seismic interpretation for the available da-
ta, the definition and detailed description of these structural
elements will help investigating the structural framework in
the study area. The interpreted 2D seismic In-line (L110) is
passing through the northern part of the study area with a NE-
SW trend as shown in Fig. 1. This line is approximately 25km
long and displays most of the formations appeared during the
well drilling of the study area from Alam El Bueib Formation
of Barremian to the Dabaa Formation of Oligocene. The In-
line (L110) displays a group of parallel normal faults crossing
most of the seismic line and dipping into two different direc-
tions (SW and NE) (Fig. 5). Two major faults appear at the
middle part of the seismic section reflecting the largest dis-
placement of the three Bahariya horizons (F1 and F2) obvi-
ously dipping in NE direction. Most of these normal faults are
dipping towards SW direction with a dipping angle of approx-
imately 70°. The other faults are dipping towards the NE di-
rection with a dipping angle of approximately 60° and

Fig. 4 (a) Uninterpreted seismic

line (L114) (location of the
seismic line in Fig. 1) and (b)
interpreted seismic line (L114)
showing interpretation of
Bahariya members (Upper
Bahariya, Middle Bahariya and
Lower Bahariya), faults and anti-
cline fold through the Burg El
Arab oil field (Western Desert,
Egypt)
 412 Page 6 of 11
showing a trend of WNW-ESE direction (Fig. 5). The NE-SW
extensional regime movements during Early Cretaceous
rifting led to the development of this faulting direction and
relative motion of Africa with respect to Eurasia based on
reconstruction of seafloor spreading data (Guiraud and
Bosworth 1997; Moustafa 2008).
Another unique structure that can be noticed at this seismic
line that is called roll-over anticline which is delineated with
red dotted circle (Fig. 5), as described by Storti and Salvini
(1996) and McClay (2004). This roll-over anticline appears on
the downthrown side of the central normal fault which dips
towards the NE and evolved due to a local movement of com-
pression. This movement created from the displacement of the
hanging wall of the neighbouring normal fault which dips
towards the opposite direction SW. The resulted hanging wall
displacement caused a reducing of the space between the ob-
verse dipping faults, and then a local compression was created
(Fig. 5).
The interpreted seismic In-line (L113) passes clearly
through the area with a NE-SW trend (Fig. 1). It is obvious
that several normal faults were distinguished by interpretation
Fig. 5 (a) Uninterpreted seismic
line (L110) (location of the
seismic line in Fig. 1) and (b)
interpreted seismic line (L110)
showing interpretation of
Bahariya members (Upper
Bahariya, Middle Bahariya and
Lower Bahariya), faults and as-
sociated anticlines (red dotted
circle) through the northern part
of Burg El Arab oil field (Western
Desert, Egypt)
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412
of this 2D section (Fig. 6). These faults affect, in a large scale,
the Upper Cretaceous deposits and define a series of grabens
and horst geometries. A primary graben structure evolved be-
tween two sets of obverse dipping normal faults forms the
conjugate fault system (Nicol et al. 1995). In the central part
of this seismic line with a red dotted circle, a series of normal
faults are dipping towards the SW and NE with an angle of
about 60° that forms the graben structure (Fig. 6), while the
rest of normal faults at the right and left side of this section are
clearly dipping towards NE. Two of these faults have a sub-
ordinate antithetic faults dipping towards SW in the western
part of the graben structure (Fig. 6).
All the faults of both sets have a strike trending towards
NW-SE and WNW-ESE directions (Figs. 5 and 6). The aver-
age dipping angle of these normal faults intersecting the 2D
seismic line is from 65 to 70° with WSW direction as shown at
the left and right side of the seismic line (Fig. 6), while the
middle part of the seismic line is affected by two normal faults
dipping at the opposite direction to ENE with an angle of 65°
and accompanied with two antithetic faults dipping at the
opposite direction. Due to this difference in the dipping
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412
Fig. 6 SW-NE seismic line (L113) showing horsts and graben features
associated with normal faults in extensional stress regime and associated
anticline (red circle) through the middle part of Burg El Arab oil field
direction, a very large horst structure appears at the left to the
centre of this seismic line. It is believed that these grabens and
horst geometries formed in relation with the Late Cretaceous-
Early Tertiary orogenic movement and the uplift movement
that was followed by the formation of the Syrian Arcs Fold
System (Youssef 2003). The seismic line shows a symmetrical
anticlinal fold, dissected by a set of normal faults (Fig. 6), a
steep dipping towards SE and gentle dipping towards NW.
Most folds in the North Western Desert have their origin re-
garding to compressional movements which affected the area
during the Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary tectonic event
(Dolson et al. 1999; Abdel-Fattah et al. 2015). The entire
Bahariya Formation across the southern part of the Western
Desert was affected by the tectonic movements occurred dur-
ing Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) (Meshref 1990; Hussein
and Abd-Allah 2001).
Time and depth structure contour maps
The TWT structure contour maps for the three Late Albian-
Early Cenomanian horizons were constructed to illustrate the
structural framework of the study area. Figure 7 a shows the
TWT structure contour map of Upper Bahariya Member. This
map displays a fault network with a direction of NW-SE and
WNW-ESE in the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian age). The
main structural pattern of this map is a faulted fold that dips to
the north and gives rise to a half graben geometry, illustrated
by a structurally high area seated at the South-West portion of
the study area and dipping gently towards the North-East di-
rection. The area at the South-West has a measured width of
about 10km. This area is intersected by NW-SE and WNW-
ESE normal faults that are striking together towards the same
Page 7 of 11 412
(Western Desert, Egypt) (location of the seismic line in Fig. 1). Horizons
from bottom to top are Lower Bahariya, Middle Bahariya, Upper
Bahariya, Abu Roash/G and Abu Roash/F
direction. This high area mainly has an elongated shape that
extends in a NE-SW direction.
Structurally, the central low area which covers most of the
study area, with an average area of about 250km2, dissected
by a series of normal faults with variation in lengths, striking
in NW-SE and WNW-ESE directions. Also this area gently
dips towards the north east direction until the frontier of the
most structurally low area that is located at the far north east
direction with an area of approximately 50km2. This low area
is intersected by a major curved normal fault that has a strike
of WNW-ESE and two other small parallel normal faults.
The depth structure contour map (Upper Bahariya) was
created using a velocity model (Fig. 7b). This map has the
general structural configuration of TWT structural contour
maps. They display changes in displacements of normal
faults. The major faults (F1 and F2) are characterized by large
displacements among all of the interpreted faults extended at
deeper levels to Middle and Lower Bahariya members.
Schlische (1995) stated that the displacement is commonly
greatest at or near the centre of the fault and decreases to zero
at the fault tips.
Interpretation and tectonic evaluation
Grounded on the results of the data presented in the previously
interpreted seismic lines, TWT, and depth structure contour
maps were used to construct a 3D structural modelling of the
Bahariya Formation in Burg El Arab oil field (Western Desert,
Egypt) (Fig. 8). Wells correlation also shows the two major
normal faults through the central part of the study area (Fig. 9).
All recognized faults in Burg El Arab oil field are normal
faults with dominated NW-SE and WNW-ESE trends in the
Late Albian (Lower Bahariya) and Early Cenomanian
 412 Page 8 of 11
Fig. 7 (a) TWT and (b) depth structure contour map of Upper Bahariya Member
(Middle and Upper Bahariya) members. These general trends
are interpreted regarding to the general tectonic framework of
Egypt, as a consequence of two major tectonic deformations
affecting the Mesozoic rocks.
There are two different rifting stages that took place as
mentioned by Moustafa (2008); the first phase occurred
during the Jurassic, and the other one occurred during the
Early Cretaceous. The rifting movement which occurred
during the Early Cretaceous led to the creation of normal
fault series that mainly oriented WNW-ESE and NW-SE
which can be obviously noticed at the study area and
confirmed through the interpretation of the previous men-
tioned seismic lines (Figs. 5 and 6). These series of nor-
mal faults are responsible for the obvious thickening of
the Cretaceous rocks sequence. This also despites that
Early Cretaceous rifting started mainly during the Early
Cretaceous age, it continued locally till the end of the
Coniacian age.
Moustafa (2008) mentioned that a strong folding episode
happened along the northern provinces of the Western Desert
by the Late Cretaceous-Early Tertiary which indicated that the
crustal shortening developed in the direction of NE-SW cre-
ated plunging anticlinal folds which affected the Jurassic and
Cretaceous rocks in the Northern Western Desert. By far, the
early formed normal faults in the study area that have the
orientation of WNW-ESE and NW-SE developed during a
rifting phase of the cretaceous age did not show any clue of
positive structural inversion regarding the NW shortening and
continued its normal slip during the late age of Late
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412
Cretaceous-Early Tertiary (Moustafa 2008). It was believed
that the continuation of normal slip of these faults basically
related to the fact that they lie parallel to the Late Cretaceous-
Early Tertiary shortening direction and perpendicular to the
lengthening direction. This assumption simply explains the
reason why the existent fault systems show similar trends
through the different ages of the Upper Cretaceous (Abu
Roash and Khoman) formations in the study area. This short-
ening can be obviously noticed at the study area as interpreted
seismic line (Fig. 6). According to Smith (1971) and Abd El-
Aal et al. (2015), the two tectonic deformations that were
mentioned are related to Tethyan plate tectonics due to con-
secutive dextral and sinistral shear events evolved from Late
Jurassic to the Early Tertiary as follows in Fig. 10 where the
interpreted compressional fold trending NE-SW and faults
trending NW-SE resulted due to the right-lateral transverse
motion of Africa relative to Laurasia during the age of Late
Cretaceous.
The Paleotethys destruction, northern and eastern part of the
present-day northeast Africa, was followed by the opening of
the Neotethys or Alpine Tethys (Pigott et al. 2014) as a result of
the opening of the central Atlantic Ocean in the Early Jurassic
time (Fig. 10). As a consequence of opening Alpine Tethys of
the Jurassic initial stage, Africa moved to the east relative to
Laurasia (Smith 1971). This sinistral lateral movement coin-
cides with the Late Cretaceous, resulting in some 2000km of
transverse motion (Meshref 1990). That movement during the
age of Early Cretaceous to Santonian time (142-84 Ma) was
NE-SW, perhaps exerted an extension in this direction on the
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412 Page 9 of 11 412

Fig. 8 3D structural modelling of the Bahariya Formation in Burg El Arab oil field (Western Desert, Egypt)

plate boundary which resulted in the evolve of the WNW-ESE-
and NW-SE-oriented normal faults (Moustafa 2008).
Due to the change in the movement of Africa with respect
to Eurasia since the Santonian time (84-0 Ma) to roughly
northward (Fig. 10) (Smith 1971; Pigott et al. 2014), a dextral
shear movement was created and either relatively accompa-
nied or moderately followed by compressive N-S or NNW-
SSE forces (Meshref 1990). This dextral shear movement re-
sulted in the creation of the anticlinal fold of the study area as
interpreted in the seismic line (Fig. 6).

Fig. 9 Lithostratigraphic correlation chart along the profile (A-A′) showing normal faults through the Bahariya Formation in Burg El Arab oil field
(Western Desert, Egypt)
 412 Page 10 of 11
Fig. 10 The main interpreted structural trends at the level of Bahariya
Formation in relation to the plate tectonic movements (Smith 1971;
Sarhan, 2017; Abdelmaksoud et al. 2019)
Conclusions
Evaluation of tectonics which affected Bahariya reservoirs
within Burg El Arab (BEA) oil field is essential for hy-
drocarbon exploration and development at the Western
Desert of Egypt. Bahariya Formation is subdivided into
three main members and was deposited in a shallow ma-
rine shelf environment during the Late Albian-Early
Cenomanian. The seismic interpretation process revealed
the subsurface structures affecting Bahariya members in
BEA oil field. These members are folded into symmetrical
anticlinal fold plunging towards SE and NW. This fold is
dissected by a series of normal faults. Two main tectonic
deformation movements affected the reservoirs of
Bahariya evidenced from the trend of NE-SW faults relat-
ed to Jurassic-Early Cretaceous and folding associated
with NW-SE normal faults occurred during Late
Cretaceous. Two major faults dissected the study area
passing through the middle part striking NW-SE and dip-
ping NE with angles of about (60–70°). Symmetrical an-
ticlinal fold plunges across the study area and dips gently
to the NW and steeply to SE. The anticlinal fold and its
associated faults are related to the right-lateral shear
movement of Late Cretaceous time. Parallel normal faults
formed in response to the extension movements of the
fold and have different orientations ranging from NW-
SE to WNW-ESE. These complex faults formed horst
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:412
and graben structures, and the overall shape of the area
is a half graben.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to express their gratitude to the
Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Burg El Arab
Petroleum Company (BURAPETCO) for their approval and permission
to use the seismic and wells data for this study. They thank the associate
editor (AE) and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive com-
ments and suggestions which helped them to improve the paper.
Declarations
Conflict of interest We wish to confirm that there are no known con-
flicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no
significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its
outcome.
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