West African Transform Margin
The West African Transform Margin (WATM), from Sierra Leone to Western Nigeria, is a key hydrocarbon frontier with proven reservoirs and major discoveries like Ghana’s Jubilee Field.
One of the World's Most Promising Energy Regions
The West African Transform Margin (WATM) is quickly becoming one of the world’s most exciting exploration frontiers, offering exceptional opportunities for hydrocarbon discoveries. Stretching from Sierra Leone to Western Nigeria, this margin has delivered significant success, including the world-class Jubilee Field offshore Ghana.
The region’s proven Upper Cretaceous reservoirs and prolific source rocks highlight its potential, particularly within basins like the Tano Basin, which have demonstrated consistent productivity.
Our Extensive Data Library
Our extensive multi-client seismic data supports exploration efforts in this high-potential region. Our advanced datasets provide crucial insights, enabling the identification of prospects across both shelf and deepwater environments.
With recent licensing rounds and increasing industry interest, the WATM offers explorers a unique chance to discover substantial resources. With TGS data solutions, operators can de-risk their exploration strategies and confidently navigate one of the world’s most promising energy hotspots.
Imaging
The WATM presents several seismic imaging challenges associated with its tectonic-sedimentary evolution, including intricate canyon systems, mass-transport-complexes, faults and mud volcanoes. Overburden heterogeneity affects amplitude fidelity and causes uncertainty in characterizing deeper prospective targets. The water depths in the WATM also vary significantly, adding operational and processing challenges to the region. To overcome these, TGS combines modern acquisition technologies with proprietary imaging techniques, including broadband processing, hybrid demultiple workflows, Dynamic Matching FWI (DM FWI) and least-squares migration (LSM) for high-resolution velocity model building, enhanced interpretability and reservoir characterization.
In addition to advanced imaging capabilities, TGS offers an extensive data library across the WATM. In Sierra Leone, there are over 11,000 km² of 3D and 16,000 km of 2D seismic data, complemented by gravity and magnetic surveys. Liberia features 31,350 km² of 3D and 50,487 km of 2D seismic data, enabling detailed analysis across 33 offshore blocks. Offshore Nigeria, there are 36,622 km of 2D and 105,400 km² of 3D seismic data, including advanced reprocessing and a multibeam and seafloor sampling (MB&SS) program identifying 450 hydrcarbon seeps across 80,000 sqkm. In Ghana, approximately 23,600 km² of 3D and 68,000 km of 2D seismic data reveal intricate stratigraphic details and structural traps. These datasets support comprehensive subsurface analyses, new prospect identification, and exploration risk mitigation across the region.surface analyses, identify new prospects, and mitigate exploration risks across the WATM.
Geology
The West African Transform Margin is defined by complex tectono-stratigraphic frameworks that developed during the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous separation of the African and South American plates. This tectonic activity created a series of basins characterized by deepwater settings, syn-rift sediments, and post-rift stratigraphic sequences.
The WATM’s geological diversity, with proven source rocks, well-developed reservoirs and multiple trapping styles, makes it a prime area for continued exploration and significant hydrocarbon potential.
Explore Regions in West African Transform Margin
Sierra Leone
Discoveries along the northern South American coastline have influenced the potential prospective offshore Sierra Leone in recent years. Sierra Leone's more than 400 km of Atlantic coastline can be tectonically reconstructed back to fit with the Guyana Basin.
The exploration success in that region has led to truly world-class oil discoveries (9 Bbbls at the date of writing, but with ever-growing satellite discoveries could be as large as 15 Bbbls), which should be waiting in their eastern twin in Africa.
Liberia
Liberia's Harper Basin has a geological history and petroleum system similar to those in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Guyana, which have seen recent oil discoveries.
Success in exploration along the northern South American coast has highlighted the potential for offshore Liberia whose coastline can be tectonically reconstructed to fit with the Guyana Basin, suggesting similar prospectivity.
Ghana
The Tano Basin of Ghana is located on the West African Transform margin. It currently remains the most prolific petroleum basin in Ghana. Source rocks from the Albian and younger which charge the upper Cretaceous reservoirs, and the presence of regional marine seals and fault and pinch-out plays have thus far proven successful.
The 2007 Jubilee field has been the catalyst for renewed exploration activity, yielding several new discoveries. New high-quality seismic data is key to delineating the remaining traps, particularly the pre-Albian section.
Nigeria
The offshore Nigerian shelf is West Africa's most prolific hydrocarbon province, boasting multiple billion-barrel discoveries and decades of successful production. Nigeria remains a major oil producer in Africa, with approximately 37 billion barrels of oil reserves, ranking among the top ten globally.
The country produces between 1.3 and 1.8 million barrels of crude oil daily and has over 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, with the potential to reach 600 trillion cubic feet.
Togo
- Recently reprocessed 2D seismic 4,946.5 km
- Pre-Stack Time & Depth (PSTM/PSDM) products
- Gravity and magnetic shipborne data
- Oil has been discovered, and source rock material tested in wells on the shelf
Benin
- 6,000 km² multi-client 3D seismic data
- 5,854 km deepwater multi-client 2D reprocessed seismic
- Pre-Stack Time and Depth Migrated products (PSTM/PSDM)
- Gravity and Magnetics data
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