Safeen anticline: a complicated structure and its negative impact on oil exploration, Iraqi Kurdistan Region

• Published in: Arabian journal of geosciences 2022, Vol.15 (13), Article 1225
• Main Authors: Sissakian, Varoujan K., Abdullah, Lanja H., Al-Ansari, Nadhir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anticlines; Complex anticline; Deep-seated faults; Domes; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth science; Earth Sciences; Faults; Field investigations; Geoteknik; Hanging syncline; Oil and gas exploration; Oil exploration; Oil wells; Original Paper; Safeen anticline; Satellite imagery; Soil Mechanics; Spaceborne remote sensing; Synclines; Websites
• ISSN: 1866-7511; 1866-7538; 1866-7538
• DOI: 10.1007/s12517-022-10496-6

Safeen anticline is one of the most complicated anticlines in Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), with NW–SE trend. Structurally, the anticline is truncated by different types of faults; some of them are deep-seated faults, which have complicated the subsurface form of the anticline. The anticline includes two domes with two parasitic anticlines and synclines along both limbs. Moreover, two hanging synclines exist northeastwards and one southwestwards. Six possible deep seated transversal faults may occur along the anticline, dissecting the anticline in NE–SW trend and extending northeastwards and southwestwards. Moreover, the deep-seated faults dissect many anticlines on both sides of the Safeen anticline. The deep-seated faults have contributed to the complexity of the anticline, as compared to other anticlines in the Zagros Fold–Thrust Belt, especially inside IKR, and have negative impact to the oil exploration activities in the anticline. Therefore, the drilled Safeen Oil well 01 has missed the target. We have used satellite images from land viewer website + Terraincognita app to study the structural style of the anticline, and to recognize different structural features. Field investigation was carried out to check the interpreted data.