Northern Orange Basin

The greater Orange Basin is located off the west coast of South Africa and Namibia and forms part of the southwest African coastal basins extending from the Kudu Arch in the north to the Agulhas-Columbine Arch in the south. The South African portion is about 320 000km 2 in areal extent and has two depocentres separated by the Namaqua High, a NW-SE trending marginal ridge.

The model incorporates information from 2D and 3D seismic surveys and selected wells drilled in the Northern Orange Basin. Plays from inboard to outboard areas represent braided channel deposits; channel and slope fans; and deep-water basin floor fans.

Burial and thermal history reconstructions indicate that the eastern depocentre is oil/gas prone whereas the western depocentre is oil prone. Source rock development has proven favourable across the Orange Basin by numerous discoveries with the A-J oil and Ibhubesi gas fields in the inner shelf and the recent Venus and Graff discoveries in the deep-water.