Abstract Recent work by a multi-disciplinary team has led to a significantly better understanding of the prospectivity of the North Red Sea. New regional biostratigraphic and environmental analysis from north to south through the Gulf of Suez and into the Red Sea have placed the Nubian sequences into a regional chronostratigraphic framework. The Nubian Upper Cretaceous pre-rift sandstones are observed in the field on both the Egyptian and Saudi Arabian side of the North Red Sea. This regionally extensive sequence was deposited in a continental to shallow marine setting fringing the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean, which lay further north. Extensive onshore fieldwork and mapping of sediment input points, fault orientations and fault linkages have helped to develop an understanding of the expected controls on syn-rift sandstone and carbonate deposition offshore. Thick halite with interbedded evaporite and clastics in the Late Miocene sequences of the Red Sea pose seismic imaging challenges. Recent reprocessing and newly acquired seismic data have produced a step change improvement in imaging of the prospective pre-rift section. Petroleum systems modelling incorporating new information on rift timing and crustal thinning as well as onshore core analysis for source rock properties and temperature variation through time indicates that oil expulsion occurs in the inboard section of North Red Sea – Block 1. This is supported by hydrocarbon shows in the drilled offshore wells which can be typed to pre-rift source rocks from stable isotope and biomarker data. All the key elements of the Gulf of Suez petroleum system exist in the North Red Sea. An integrated exploration approach has enabled prospective areas in the North Red Sea – Block 1 to be high-graded for drilling in early 2011.

Abstract A study of the southern Kirthar fold belt in Pakistan was undertaken to elucidate the hinterland structure and hydrocarbon prospectivity. Interpretation of structure and stratigraphy is difficult because of suboptimal seismic data, a lack of hinterland well data, and a transition from shelfal to basinal stratigraphy. An interpretation of two cross sections was made using outcrop and seismic data and well data from foreland discoveries. The Institut Français du Pétrole Thrustpack ® software was used to validate the structural model and provide data on the maturity of the source rock. The Kirthar fold belt is dominated by open and symmetrical folds that are driven by inversion of basement-involved Jurassic extensional faults. Thrusts have been interpreted with two detachments, thrusts with a shallow detachment in the Eocene mudstones and thrusts with a deeper detachment in the Lower Cretaceous source rock interval that involve the reservoir during deformation. The major mountain-building episode is interpreted as late Pliocene–Pleistocene, but there is evidence for earlier inversion dating from the late Paleocene associated with the emplacement of the Bela ophiolite and constrained by maturity data obtained from outcrop. Early inversion and uplift impacts the burial curve and, thus, the prospectivity of the area.

Abstract Canadian nickel sulfide ores related to ultrabasic rocks are divided into two categories based on geological environment. The Orogenic category is related to ultrabasic intrusions localized along or adjacent to major faults, whereas the Volcanic category is distributed throughout thick volcanic sequences as interflow sills and dikes. In both the orogenic and volcanic categories, nickel sulfide deposits occur as disseminations within the ultrabasic intrusion, as massive and stringer zones at the ultrabasic contact, and as massive and stringer zones within the adjacent wall rocks. The normal sulfide assemblage in most deposits is relatively simple, and comprises the primary minerals pyrrhotite, pentlandite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and magnetite, usually in that order of abundance. Important exceptions are millerite, pentlandite, pyrite and chalcopyrite at Marbridge No. 2, Quebec and unusually high pyrite contents at Shebandowan, Ontario. Petrographic studies reveal a pattern of progressive recrystallization with serpentinization. Increased serpentine grain size with recrystallization leads to displacement of sulfide minerals and finally complete destruction of primary silicate-sulfide textures. In the Orogenic category, ultrabasic rocks are predominantly peridotite and pyroxenite; disseminated sulfide is the most common mode of occurrence, irregularly distributed throughout the ultrabasic intrusion; contact deposits are encountered less frequently and deposits in the wall rocks are rare. In the Volcanic category, ultrabasic rocks are predominantly peridotite with gabbro; contact deposits are most common; disseminated deposits are less common; and wall rock deposits are rare.

Abstract The Katiniq ultrabasic sill was intruded as a liquid-crystal mixture. Cumulus silicate minerals accumulated at the center of a flow system. More dense cumulus sulfide liquid accumulated near the bottom of the sill and collected in riffle-shaped traps to form ore bodies. The igneous series in the Cape Smith-Wakeham Bay belt of the Ungava peninsula rose through the crust along the boundary between the Churchill and Superior structural provinces of the Canadian shield. The composition of the series is contrasted with other magma series. The ultrabasic rocks in the Bucko and Bowden deposits of the Manitoba (Thompson) nickel belt were intruded as a crystal mush with a much lower liquid content than that of the Katiniq sill. Silicate and sulfide phases show little evidence of gravity settling. Post-ultrabasic granitic intrusions cause extensive metasomatism of major elements but ore elements are not materially affected. The McWatters, Ontario deposit, in a volcanic environment was intruded as a liquid-crystal mush with enough liquid to allow segregation of cumulus olivine toward the center of a dike flow-system, and gravity settling of cumulus sulfide liquid.