Geological structure and oil and gas content of the shelf of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea

The oil and gas potential of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, in which revenues from the sale of gas and oil account for more than 90 % of national income, is studied. An urgent issue is to increase oil and gas reserves, in this regard, the task is to assess the prospects for discovering new oil fields based on the analysis of geological information. The oil and gas basin of the Gulf of Guinea stretches as a narrow coastal strip along the western coast of equatorial Africa and is represented by thick sedimentary strata. The most significant basin of the Rio Muni contains a thick promising stratum of Senonian deposits overlain by Tertiary sediments, the thickness of which increases from south to north. Intervals of reservoir rocks with good porosity properties are known in both Tertiary and Cretaceous sediments, but industrial productivity has so far been established only in the Cretaceous sediment complex. Within the basin there are promising oil and gas bearing areas with anticlinal zones of oil and gas accumulation, which are associated with screening of tectonic, stratigraphic and lithological types. In the southern parts of the basin, saline deposits are not deep and are of interest for the exploration of oil deposits. The results of the study showed that in the Rio Muni Basin, the territory of Block K in the southernmost part of Equatorial Guinea is a promising region with proven hydrocarbon reserves. The Paleocene and Turonian reservoirs consist of undeformed slope submarine fans similar to the Deepwater Campos Basin in Brazil.