INTRODUCTION

GAMBIA RIVER BASIN

 Gambia is a West African country bounded by the
Atlantic ocean by the west and Senegal by the
north, south and east.

-A river basin is an area of land drained into by a

river and its tributaries.
-Gambia river basin was initially called the
GAMBIE and it originates from the FOUTA
DJALLON mountains in the north of central
guinea.
 The climatic condition of gambia river basin
consists of a long dry season (november –may) and
a short wet season from june to october .

The average annual rainfall ranges from 1700mm

in the southern part of the mountains to 800mm
in the northern part.

Gambia river basin offers interesting potential in

several aspect including hydro power ,irrigation
and fishery.
The location of Banjul the capital of Gambia and its surrounding
Countries.
A pictorial view showing the flow of Gambia basin.
Basin evolution of the
Gambia River
The Gambia Basin is formed at the final point of the
Permian(299 million to 250 million years ago) to
Triassic(250 million to 200 million years ago) rift
system during the breakup of North America, Africa,
and South America(Paleozoic period).
Basin history
pre-rift (Upper Proterozoic to Paleozoic),;
sync-rift (Permian to Triassic);
post-rift (Middle Jurassic to Holocene).
Evidences of the presence of folds and powerful land
movement have been revealed by the study of the
geographical formation.
Tectonic period after the Cambrian led to the
formation of a strip of land violently folded and
slightly metamorphosed from the NNE-SSW
direction.
The following layers are observed when moving along
the Gambia from west to east:
 The Bedrock.
 A synclinorium worm running east.
 An area of peak corresponding to the Bassari hills and
showing metamorphic facets. It is a vault anticline
limited to the West by a large loop.
 A synclinal basin (Yukon basin).
 Another area of metamorphic peaks with folds.
Coastal and marine sediments of the Eocene period are
covered everywhere by sandstone deposits of
continental origin, which form the "Continental
terminal".
The most common faces of the Continental terminal are
white stoneware clay, with large patches of reddish
brown iron oxides.
Eocene layers appear in one place, at the confluence of
the Gambia with the backwater of Bam baya in the
region Badi; the outcrop is located in the bend of a
very pronounced narrow meandering river. At this
point, there is slightly calcareous sandstone, yellow,
very fossiliferous, based on clay laminated greenish-
grey.
Sandstones appears locally, in the bottom edge of the
plateau overlooking the valley of the Gambia after
Simenti or on the sides of some hills. The sandstone
deposits contain levels of kaolin clay white or pink,
more frequent towards the West.
This colorful sandstone grain in variable size
(hétérometrique) crumbles easily. That is why it is
usually covered with sand or clay loam.
The formations of the Continental terminal are all
azoic. They thicken rapidly toward the northwest.
They are often covered with hard iron deposits, pitted
with grains of quartz.
A survey conducted in Tambacounda has crossed the
134m deep mark. It generally gives an age miopliocene
to these detrital deposits.
Tectonic sedimentary layers of the Secondary and
Tertiary period remained static, but it can be assumed
that during the geological periods there occurred a
very slow lifting of the Birrimian base and Paleozoic
formations resulted, coinciding with the subsidence of
the sedimentary basin of Gambia.
EXPLORATION HISTORY
The Exploration History Of The Gambia Basin.
- Gambia has an upstream industry taking place
offshore Banjul. In 1998 west oil held an offshore block
under a technical operation agreement, offshore block A
and onshore block B.
- In October 1999 fusion oil and gas NL signed a
petroleum production license for the deepwater offshore
block of Banjul previously held by west oil. In
December 1999 a 1000 km 2-D seismic survey was shot
over the block. The license was issued for 6 years. The
survey showed that Gambia had real offshore
hydrocarbon potential but the production its
neighbouring
countries were on disrupted vast production.
 Banjul yet again signed a license with Britain's planet oil
over the offshore acreage. The largest prospect, G-8 is
estimated to have oil in place reserves of up to 1.4
billion barrels.
 Still on 1st OCT 2006 the Gambia government issued
two licenses to Buried Hill Energy for the exploration
and production of oil and gas in the off shore areas. The
Alhamdulillah A1 and A4 blocks were evaluated by the
company with a high resolution 3D seismic imaging.
They identified five distinct plates with 26 prospects of
oil production, the result showed more oil potential than
expected. The drilling of the first Gambia wells were set
to start 2009.
 Along the line, African petroleum corporation
announced on the 24th of August 2010 that its subsidy
African petroleum Gambia entered into an agreement
with the Buried Hill Gambia to acquire license for
Alhamdulillah block A1 and A4 licenses covering 2,668
km sq off shore Gambia. The license extended for
another two years until 31st December 2013.
 the location of the offshore Gambia.
TRAPPING SYSTEM
Trapping Systems in the Gambia River Basin
Several primary reservoirs and seals in the Mesozoic-
Cenozoic section of the Gambian river basin are as follows:

-Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous carbonate section sealed by

Cenomanian or other lower Cretaceous shale;

-Upper Cretaceous sandstone units and overlying shale units;

-Lower Tertiary clastics and carbonate-rock units and

overlying and intercalated shale units.
-According to Clifford(1986),the Mauritania offshore has
rocks like the cretaceous deltaic sandstone which have
porosities ranging from 17 to 25 percent. He also talked about
the Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous carbonate rock-platform that
showed good porosities ranging from 10 to 23 percent but
have not yet been fully penetrated by drilling. Also the Upper
Cretaceous sandstone sequences in the eastern part of the
basin become interbedded with shale to the western offshore
part of the basin.
-The Mesozoic-Cenozoic section in the Gambia River Basin
contains diverse oil and gas trapping configurations. These
include salt-related structures, structures related to volcanic
intrusion, sandstone pinchouts along the eastern margin of the
Gambia river Basin and Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous carbonate
bank deposits. Seals consist of Mesozoic and Cenozoic marine
shales and faults.
Sandstone reservoirs associated with sync-rift rocks
might be present and interbedded with the inferred
Permian-Triassic source rocks underlying the Triassic
salt. In the sync-rift section in the Gambia River Basin
,the thick Triassic salt is the major seal.
- Potential sandstone reservoirs are abundant in lower
Paleozoic rocks. The Ordovician sandstones are intensely
fractured and could constitute good secondary reservoirs,
whereas the Devonian fine- to coarse-grained sandstone
beds have porosities ranging from 15 to 20 percent. In the
onshore portion of the Paleozoic basin, regional seismic
data have shown that the Paleozoic section has been
faulted and could form traps in conjunction with the
Paleozoic unconformity.
HYDROCARBON POTENTIALS
It is believed that the Gambia Basin has
good prospects for hydrocarbon (Deep water
PPL Gambia). The area marks the extent of
the CASAMANCE-BISSAU sub basin
which forms part of the Mauritania- Senegal
– Gambia – Guinea Bissau coastal basins.
The most significant hydrocarbon
formation in this area is from ;

1. The MESOZOIC section underlying the

Cape Verde Peninsula onshore, &

2. The CASAMANCE sub – basin offshore

MATURATION HISTORY

The cretaceous source rocks display a highly variable

maturation history.
1. ALBIAN source rocks in the Mauritania sub – basin
started to generate oil in the late Eocene (55 to 38 million
yrs ago)
2. TURONIAN and SENONIAN source rocks began to
generate oil in the Miocene (24 to 5 million years ago)
3. UPPER CRETACEOUS source rocks began to
generate oil in the Miocene (55 to 38 million yrs ago)
4. PALEOCENE source rocks were found to be
immature in the Mauritania offshore.
SENEGAL PROVINCE

Hydrocarbons are gotten from two (2) areas in the

Senegal Province.

1. In the offshore Mauritania and Northernmost Northern

sub – basins

2. In the CASAMANCE sub – basins and Guinea –

Bissau offshore
NORTH OF CAPE VERDE

The amount of generated hydrocarbons increases

seawards due to the combined effect of the thickening
and deepening of the Cenomanian and Palaeocene
source rocks. The quality source rock onshore north of
Cape Verde is not favourable for the generation of oil.

The vicinity of the Cape Verde is related to volcanism

and ranges in depth from 900m (Dakar marine 2) to
1200m (Cape Verde marine 1).
CASAMANCE AND MAURITANIA SUB –
BASINS

The Triassic diapiric salt has brought about the

modification of a maturation gradient because of the
good thermal conductivity of the salt. Within this basis,
at least 2500 tons of hydrocarbon per square km have
been generated mainly from the cenomanian and
Turonian sources .
The Casamance and Mauritania sub – basins are
relatively shallow due to elevated geothermal gradients
related to Salt Diapirism. The depth of the zone ranges
from less than 1000 to more than 3000m depending upon
the local geological and thermal parameters in the basin.
RESERVE ESTIMATES
It was measured that the geothermal gradient in
those wells were nearly 450c/km. In areas where
the average geothermal gradient is about 30 0c/km,
the top of the zone oil generation ranges from
2285 to 2680m. The top of the zone of oil
generation is at 2800m, where Cenomanian
source rocks are immature.
Gas resources may be very significant and
accessible in areas where the zone of oil
generation is relatively shallow.
MIGRATION OF HYDROCARBONS

Migration of hydrocarbons most likely began in

the late Miocene (55 to 38 million yrs ago) and
continues to the Holocene (10000 yrs ago)
Maturity of the source rocks in the basin increases
southward. This may be misleading due to the
lack of data north of Cape Verde.
A zone of salt spreads off the Mauritania coast
more widespread than previously thought and
may have increased maturation of the cretaceous
source rocks.