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PROSPECTS FOR PETROLEUM IN LATE PROTEROZOIC/EARLY PALAEOZOIC BASINS OF SOUTHERN‐CENTRAL AFRICA
Author(s) -
Lawrence S. R.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of petroleum geology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1747-5457
pISSN - 0141-6421
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-5457.1989.tb00234.x
Subject(s) - geology , facies , proterozoic , structural basin , paleozoic , source rock , paleontology , maturity (psychological) , metamorphism , geochemistry , tectonics , psychology , developmental psychology
Interest has focused on Late Proterozoic/Early Palaeozoic basins in the light of encouraging indications from the Cuvette Centrale of Zaire and the Etosha Basin of northern Namibia. This paper focuses on the Ncojane‐Nosop (Nama) basin complex, which extends along the southern side of the “Pan‐African” Damara orogenic belt. The basin system is seen as a foredeepforeland development with respect to a Wilson‐cycle ‐ cratonic collision orogenic history. Stratigraphy and facies developments are used to speculate on the occurrence of source and reservoir rocks. Source rocks would appear to be concetrated in the marginal marine‐lagoonal sediments of the Kuibis and Schwartzrand subgoups of the lower Nama. Reservoirs might occur in reefal or shallow‐water limestones the lower Nama, and in upper Nama “red‐beds” of the Fish River subgropu. Subsidence‐uplift models are used to predict burial/maturation for the lower Nama. There is a critical late or post‐Nama metamorphism, which effectively destroys the source rocks in the foredeep and increases the general level of maturity some distance from the orogenic front. The occurrence of prospective source‐rock facies and the maturity histroy are used to extrapolate the prospective part of the basin eastwards into Botswana.