VIRTUAL DATA ROOM
Côte d’Ivoire sedimentary basin is formed by the breakup of the continent and the spreading of South Atlantic Ocean during the Lower Cretaceous. It is part of a typical transform margin developed along the West African coast from Liberia to Ghana, (figure 1).
Figure 1 : Côte d’Ivoire Sedimentary Basin
About 10 Km of sediments were accumulated in the ivorian sedimentary basin with a complex tectonical history which can be divided in three major steps, (figure 2) :
- • Pre-rift (or intracratonic), from the Late Proterozoic to Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous and not reached by drilling ;
- • Syn-rift (associated to syn-transform phase), from Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous to Late Albian; this period is the beginning of the opening of the South Atlantic, which created grabens and highs in which were developed Albian sandstone reservoirs ;
- • Post-rift (associated to post-transform drift), from Late Albian/Cenomanian to Holocene stages, with significant potential on the shelf and in the deep-water regions of the margin, considered favorable for the occurrence of large discoveries. The basin presents interesting sections including the prospective Cretaceous (Albian- Maastrichtian) interval
Figure 2 : Côte d’Ivoire Chronostratigraphic Chart
The Côte d’Ivoire sedimentary basin is bounded to the East and West by major strike slip faults, the Romanche and St Paul’s fracture zones respectively, and it is divided in two (2) parts (figure 3) :
- • Onshore : narrow, in a shape of a crescent. It stretches from Sassandra, in Côte d’Ivoire to Axim, in Ghana.
- • Offshore : very large, constituting the main Ivorian sedimentary basin. It stretches from East to West, from the coast up to about 4,000 meters of water depth. The eastern part, which is the most explored area, is called the “Abidjan Margin” and its western part is known as the “San Pedro Margin”.
