A NEW HYDROCARBON PLAY AREA OFFSHORE SOCOTRA-ISLAND, REPUBLIC OF YEMEN

A new plate reconstruction has enabled the Island of Socotra, currentl y located in the Gulf of Aden adjacent to the Somalian coast, to be re stored confidently to its original spatial position adjacent to the so uthern Omani coastline. Regional geological and geophysical evaluation s integrated with this plate reconstruction have confirmed the presenc e of an untested Mesozoic graben, which trends across the Socotra Plat form. Fieldwork carried out in the region now enables a SE extension o f the prolific Lower Cretaceous Qishn ''play'' (delineated in the Masi lah Basin, onshore Yemen) to be postulated offshore into the Gulf of A den. Following the award to British Gas E&P Ltd of a tract of offshore acreage adjacent to the Island of Socotra, exploration studies have c onfirmed the presence of the Qishn ''play'' both on the Island of Soco tra, and offshore in the one available control well. This work has als o identified two additional ''plays'': the Shuaiba-equivalent carbonat es, which are prolific producing reservoirs in Central Oman; and the P ermo-Triassic clastics, which may provide a new reservoir target for t he region. Ongoing multidisciplinary studies, integrating the results of a detailed geophysical interpretation with high-resolution structur al-stratigraphic studies, have confirmed the presence of large structu res within an undrilled Mesozoic rift-basin, which will be tested duri ng 1995.