The document discusses how new exploration plays in oil and gas can emerge from previously established ideas, emphasizing the importance of understanding regional basins comprehensively. Examples from the High Atlas of Morocco and the Southern Atlas of Tunisia illustrate how past work can inform current exploration efforts. The author warns against the dangers of oversimplified exploration strategies and advocates for the use of visual representations, or 'play type cartoons', to communicate complex ideas effectively.

1. How new plays can come
from old ideas in exploration
and production?
Gabor Tari
OMV, Vienna, Austria
Oil & Gas Thought Leader webinar
Tuesday, April 12, 2017
10:00 AM New York
4:00 PM Amsterdam

2. Outline
 Motto
 An example from the High Atlas of Morocco
 An example from the southern Atlas in Central Tunisia
 Conclusions
 For further reading

3. Motto
If the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand
words” is correct, then a play type cartoon
for an explorer is worth millions of words.
…or literally, a million dollars sometimes!

4. Central High Atlas, Morocco: regional transects
next slide
Frizon de Lamotte et al. (2008)

5. Central High Atlas, Morocco (northern flank)
Beauchamp (2005)

6. Central High Atlas, Morocco (northern flank)
Tari et al. (in press)

7. Central Tunisia, southern Atlas system
Hlaiem (1999)

8. Central Tunisia, southern Atlas system
Saïd et al. (2011)

9. Central Tunisia, conceptual presalt play types
Tari et al. (in press)

10. Conclusions: New Plays from Old Ideas
 There is a clear need to get to know a basin on a regional scale, not
only on a block-scale. The reluctance by any explorer to go
through a thorough public data mining is dangerous… as the
„cookie-cutter exploration“ approach many times fails.
 Only the full understanding of what has been done in a basin to
date (both by academia and by industry) will allow a back-to-
fundamentals cross-disciplinary approach to successful
exploration efforts. The elements of a new play are typically already
there, i.e. in the previous work done by others.
 Unfortunately, with more and more data available, some explorers
cannot see the forest for the trees. Whereas „oil is found in
someone‘s mind first“, in order to communicate your ideas to your
peers/bosses/JV partners, a play type cartoon is a must.

11. For further reading
https://www.elsevier.com/books/permo-triassic-salt-provinces-of-europe-north-africa-and-the-atlantic-
margins/soto/978-0-12-809417-4
Description
Permo-Triassic Salt Provinces of Europe, North Africa
and the Atlantic Margins: Tectonics and Hydrocarbon
Potential deals with the evolution and tectonic
significance of the Triassic evaporite rocks in the Alpine
orogenic system and the Neogene basins in the Iberian
Peninsula, North Africa, and the western Mediterranean.
As the nature of the Triassic evaporite sequences, the
varied diapiric structures they feed, and the occurrence
of hydrocarbons suggest that the Triassic evaporites
represent an efficient system to trap hydrocarbons, this
book explores the topic with a wide swath, also devoting
content to a relatively unexplored topic, the mobilization
and deformation of the Triassic salt in the western and
northern Tethys (from Iberia and North Africa, Pyrenees
and Alps, Adriatic and Ionian) during the subsequent
Alpine orogenic processes.
The book includes chapters updating varied topics, like
the Permian and Triassic chronostratigraphic scales,
palaeogeographic reconstructions of the western Tethys
since the Late Permian, the petroleum systems
associated with Permo-Triassic salt, allochthonous salt
tectonics, and a latest revision of salt tectonic processes
in the Permian Zechstein Basin, the Atlantic Margins
(from Barents Sea, Scotia, Portugal, Morocco, and
Mauritania), the Alpine folded belts in Europe, and the
various Triassic salt provinces in North Africa.
The book is the go-to guide for salt tectonic researchers
and those working in the hydrocarbon exploration
industry.