ABSTRACT
The Red Sea region was covered by marine embayments from time to time in the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Eocene, but the present tectonic pattern began to evolve in the Oligocene and Miocene sediments were deposited, including the highly organic lower Miocene Globigerina group and a thick sequence of middle Miocene salt and anhydrite. In late Pliocene and Pleistocene times there was renewed block faulting accompanied by igneous intrusion. The Red Sea depression is characterized by rectilinear faults bordering blocks which were rising or sinking concurrent with Neogene deposition. Oil seeps are known in widely separated localities in the Red Sea depression. Seeps in the Farasan and Dahlac Islands led to drilling of several wells on these islands. Exploration in recent years led to the discovery of the Barqan gas-condensate field in the northern Red Sea and a well that had a gas blowout off the Eritrean coast. Many of the wells drilled in the Red Sea region have encountered high pressures and high temperatures. The chief source and reservoir rocks will be found in the lower Miocene Globigerina group, with the overlying evaporites sealing the accumulations. The prospects for further discoveries in the Red Sea depression are considered good.
