TGS and the African Petroleum Producers' Association (APPA) have signed a Letter of Intent to harmonize the stratigraphic nomenclature of the sedimentary basins of 13 countries in Africa. The results of the project will provide a standard and consistent framework for future exploration of these basins, contributing to a reduction of the exploration risks and an improvement of productivity.

The project will utilize TGS' core skills in sequence stratigraphy and seismic interpretation to create new stratigraphic columns for each basin and country. The project will extend the interpretation to include gross depositional environment mapping, seismic facies analysis and play fairway analysis over time. The project will incorporate data from over 1,300 wells and 200,000 km of 2D seismic. The results will be primarily delivered using TGS' proprietary Facies Map Browser application which is compatible with equivalent software.

This study will make an important contribution to the knowledge of African sedimentary basins and to the future improvement of petroleum codes of APPA Member Countries. The countries concerned cover a vast zone which extends from the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire to Angola, and represent an area of huge petroleum resource with significant remaining potential. Each of the 13 countries involved is committed to using the new stratigraphic nomenclature in all future exploration work. It is anticipated that the new nomenclature will be complete by end 2018 with the additional studies completed thereafter.

Tags: TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company