Study of Fractures Network in the Basement of Socotra Island—Yemen by Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

International audienceFractured basement rocks have become an increasingly common target for hydrocarbon production in the Republic of Yemen, where the oil is in production from the deeply buried fractured basement. These basement reservoirs underlie a thick sequence of Mesozoic to Tertiary sediments and in order to study the characteristics of this buried basement, indirect methods must be used. The present work deals with the production of structural maps of basement of Socotra Island, and the extraction of lineaments from remote sensing data (satellite imageries and aerial photographs) as well as the analysis of these extracted lineaments by using GIS. The numerous fractures detected in the basement are characterized by consistent variations in trend, length and density when they affect the different lithological units out cropping in the study areas. The granitic basement is expected to have the best fractured reservoir potential. The dominant fracture trends in the basement of Socotra Island are NW-SE and NE-SW. The presence of this fracture system is thought to be due to major tectonic activity which formed new fractures and also reactivated older fractures