Case Study: Council for Geoscience advances Karoo Basin petroleum exploration with Seequent modelling software

Council for Geoscience - Customer Case Study

The Council for Geoscience in South Africa partnered with Seequent to help a doctoral research project tackle a major challenge: building a credible tectonic model of the Karoo Basin, a vast and geologically complex region with uncertain shale gas potential. The team needed to integrate sparse, older gravity and magnetic data with seismic, magnetotelluric, borehole, and structural information to better understand basin formation and resource viability, using Seequent Geosoft software including GM-SYS and Oasis montaj.

Seequent’s tools were used to create 2D gravity and magnetic profiles, test depth estimates, and combine multiple datasets into a developing 3D model of the southwestern Karoo Basin. The work improved interpretation of the basin’s crustal structure, helped constrain the Beattie magnetic anomaly, and identified anomalous crustal or mantle bodies for the 3D model. While the project is still ongoing, Seequent enabled a more realistic geological model and a stronger basis for future petroleum exploration in South Africa.

Council for Geoscience

Stephanie Scheiber-Enslin

Geophysicist