North Africa Research Group Publications

• A synthesis of current understanding of the structural evolution of North Africa

THE AIM OF this introduction is to highlight the key tectonic events which have had significance in terms of the petroleum geology of the North African region at a basinal scale. We attempt briefly to summarise the geodynamic evolution of the ancient North African palaeocontinent, and to review the major orogenic events which deformed it during its migration from high southern latitudes in the Early Palaeozoic to its present-day position. These include the major Hercynian and Alpine orogenies and the Mesozoic extensional phase, as well as a series of “minor” though still significant tectonic events which reactivated north, NE, NW and ENE-striking structures inherited from the Pan-African Orogeny (Figs. 1, 2 and 3).

North Africa comprises over 20 Palaeozoic basins many of which are world-class petroleum provinces (Fig. 1). The petroleum geology of North Africa has been controlled to a large degree by the structural evolution of these basins. Large-scale plate tectonic controls provided the main driving force for regional subsidence and inversion, and consequently for basin formation and evolution, sediment supply and distribution, and trap formation and style. The tectonic evolution of these sedimentary basins has influenced reservoir distribution and quality, the timing and state of source rock maturity, oil migration and preservation, and the distribution and types of traps which are present. A knowledge of the structural development of the region is fundamental to a better understanding of the relative timing of hydrocarbon generation and trap formation. More details on the structural history and petroleum systems of North Africa can be found in recent publications by Boote et al. (1998), Guiraud (1998), and MacGregor and Moody (1998).