Chapter 8: Insights into the Petroleum Prospectivity of Lebanon

Abstract This chapter presents a comprehensive review of the petroleum prospects of Lebanon through description of the known hydrocarbon shows as well as their host rock formations and structures. Tectonic and depositional evolutions will be discussed and placed in the larger context of the eastern Mediterranean Levant region. A generalized model illustrating the potential petroleum system(s) in Lebanon is presented disclosing data about Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic potential plays. Since no economical petroleum prospects have been exploited to date in Lebanon, the necessary regional correlations and comparisons with adjacent hydrocarbon producing countries had to be undertaken in this contribution. This approach helps in explaining the Lebanese data in a regional framework, filling certain gaps and confirming or negating proposed ideas. Major lithological rock units are described, and their aspects with respect to potential petroleum systems are assessed (source rocks, reservoirs, cap-rocks). The tectono-sedimentary evolution is reviewed together with the major structural configuration (e.g., Syrian Arc deformations and basinal inversions, Levant fracture system). Recent discoveries of natural gas offshore Cyprus and Israel (Aphrodite, Leviathan, Tamar and Dalit wells; more information is available on the website of Noble Energy –www.nobleenergyinc.com) have had an important impact on the assessment of the hydrocarbon prospectivity in the Eastern Mediterranean region and offshore Lebanon (Levant Basin). The presented conceptual petroleum model in this chapter incorporates offshore and onshore, as well as margin potential plays of the Lebanese part of the Levant Basin. Offshore potential plays will be highlighted through the discussion of seismic profiles (after Roberts and Peace, 2007; Per Helge Semb, 2008). Here, the focus will be chiefly dedicated to the Oligo-Miocene rock units underlying the Messinian salts. Insights into the prospectivity of Triassic potential reservoir units in onshore central-northern Lebanon are presented, where the “Qartaba” structure has been investigated.