The Dumre Block (Albania): possible ICPs between Apulia and Adriatic platforms?
Updated: Mar 22, 2021
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It’s been recently announced that Eni is re-commencing exploration activities in Albania, following award of the onshore Dumre block
https://www.eni.com/en_IT/media/2019/12/eni-signs-a-production-sharing-contract-for-the-exploration-of-an-onshore-block-in-albania
Strata is continuing to develop it’s CarbGIS database containing public domain data related to carbonate petroleum systems in the Greater Mediterranean area. We thought we’d share the power of this tool with you, by showing how it can be used to quickly put the Dumre block in regional context. The figure below shows key data extracted from the GIS.
As the map shows, the Dumre Block is located on the Vlora-Elbasn lineament and includes the large Dumre salt diapir. The Vlora-Elbasn lineament is interpreted by Roure et al (2004) as a reactivated basement lineament that acts as the northwestern limit of the Triassic salt basin from which the Dumre diapir is sourced. It is also a major transfer zone separating 2 areas with very different structural styles:
- to the SE of the lineament the Ionian basin sequence is deformed into an imbricate fan detached on Triassic evaporites and the outcrop geology consists of breached anticlines of the Ionian Basin sequence;
- to the NW – where the evaporites are absent – the main detachment is located in the Oligocene flysch and the deeply buried carbonate sequences are located in the footwall. In this area, the surface geology consists of Mio-Pliocene flysch deposits.
The Dumre block is located at the point where these 2 structural styles and play systems meet, with the added complication of the diapir structure which is interpreted as an allochthonous salt sheet sourced from one of the thrust sheets in the Ionian Basin sequence. The diapir overlies a deeper thrust-related anticline which also involves the Ionian Basin sequence.
Based on this summary, the block has the potential to contain a range of play types:
- Structural/ stratigraphic traps in the Neogene flysch which are proven at the nearby Kucova and Durres fields.
- Structural traps in the sub-diapir hangingwall anticlines, reservoired in the Upper Cretaceous-Eocene basinal calciturbidites of the Scaglia Formation. The play is also proven, most recently in Petromanas-Shell Shpiragu discovery which is just along strike to the SE.
The 1995 Dumre-7 well appears to have been targeted at this play, with a prospective resource estimate of 150 mmbbls, however the well failed to reach the carbonates and is reported to have been drilled off structure meaning that significant untested potential still exists.
- A speculative play in pre-thrust structures in the deeply buried footwall carbonates to the NW of the Vlora-Elbasn lineament.
Given the lack of well control there is significant uncertainty as to the nature of these carbonates and it is possible that small isolated carbonate platforms, similar to documented examples further south in the Ionian Basin sequence in Albania and Greece, could form attractive targets. The main risk, based on the limited public domain information, is that these structures maybe too deep to be viable targets.
So, award of the Dumre Block is a pretty exciting development. We’ll be watching developments… stay tuned for more information!
For further information, see also Strata’s other posts on the Scaglia play of the Adriatic:
- A general summary of the play and a review of the Katakolon field, offshore Greece: www.stratageoresearch.com/post/katakolon-a-small-but-perfectly-formed-oil-field-in-western-greece
- A summary of the Petromanas-Shell Shpiragu discovery www.stratageoresearch.com/post/shpirag-success-and-why-not-all-fractured-carbonate-reservoirs-are-created-equal
REFERENCES
Roure, F., S. Nazaj, K. Mushka, I. Fili, J.-P. Cadet, and M. Bonneau, 2004. Kinematic evolution and petroleum systems — An appraisal of the Outer Albanides, in K. R. McClay, ed., Thrust tectonics and hydrocarbon systems: AAPG Memoir 82, p. 474–493.
Velaj, T., 2015. The structural style and hydrocarbon exploration of the subthrust in the Berati Anticlinal Belt, Albania. Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology 5, 123–145.
Interesting!