The Fracture Characteristics and Its Impacts on Hydrocarbon Accumulation in Lower Congo Basin and Congo Fan Basin

Hydrocarbon resources are rich and hydrocarbon accumulation is good in Lower Congo Basin and Congo Fan Basin. Because of the salt movements and the influence of regional tectonic stress field, fault systems are very complex. Fracture characteristics and hydrocarbon accumulation in Lower Congo Basin and Congo Fan Basin was analyzed in this article. The results show that there are 5 fault belts in lateral and 2 fault systems in longitudinal. The formation and evolution can be divided into 3 stages, and the forming mechanism of faults primarily includes salt movement and salt tectonic, gravity gliding mechanism and palaeogeomorphology framework. Expelling hydrocarbon period matches fault movement period and it's propitious to vertical and parallel migration of hydrocarbon, and there are mainly 3 kinds of hydrocarbon accumulation models. The fault seal is very good, and the height of oil source faults controls the height of hydrocarbon migration and the field scale. This study can be used to guide the exploration in this area and other similar areas.