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The East Ras Budran Concession is located in the eastern rift shoulder of the Gulf of Suez. Syn- and pre-rift rocks are exposed in the north and east of the concession, and the Markha alluvial plain covers the SW. The Markha plain occupies the hanging wall of a large extensional fault which preserves most of the pre-rift stratigraphic sequence and >3500 m of syn-rift strata. Vertical wells drilled in 1999 indicated the presence of a >200 m oil column in low-porosity naturally fractured limestone beds of the Eocene Darat and Thebes formations. Outcrop, borehole image and core data define NW, WNW, N, NE, and ENE steeply dipping fracture sets. Borehole breakouts and drilling-induced fractures show that the minimum horizontal stress is aligned NNE to NE, so the NW and WNW fractures should be open in the subsurface. Using this structural picture, a near-horizontal well of 300 m length was drilled into the Darat in a NE direction. During testing, the well flowed at a rate of 1900 barrels of oil per day with no water. Future development of the field includes drilling similarly oriented wells with longer horizontal sections.

A B S T R A C TThe stress from the initial coalescence of Pangaea during the mid-Carboniferous (320 Ma) collision of Gondwanaland and Laurussia in the Variscan (Sudetic) magmatic fold belt was transmitted through Pangaea to generate the nappes and thrusts that dismembered the intracratonic Centralian Superbasin during the Alice Springs Orogeny and the megakinks that terminally deformed the Lachlan fold belt along the subducted Andean-type margin of eastern Australia. Definitive collision was followed by a lacuna on the Pangaean platform that reflects uplift. T h e first release of heat at ~3 0 0Ma from the self-induced Pangaean heat anomaly weakened the hypersensitive neocratonic crust of the inactive but still hot European and eastern Australian magmatic fold belts to become stress guides for right-lateral transtension during anticlockwise rotation of Pangaea. Deep transtensional fractures provided a way into and through the neocratonic crust for magma ranging from S-type granite to rhyodacitic ignimbrite to basalt, with alkaline undersaturated rocks in some rifts.Lagging behind the magma, the platform subsided at ~2 9 0 Ma in basins by differential weakening of the crust during the release of Pangaean heat. T h e Gondwana facies accumulated in the Gondwanaland province and the Stephanian-Rotliegend succession in Europe. T h e basins of Europe and eastern Australia continued to grow by transtension followed by mid-Permian (270-265 Ma) thermal sagging and rifting. Their histories then diverged. Europe maintained its post-orogenic course except in the Alpine region, where rifting and sagging continued to accommodate the western Tethys. The eastern fringe of Australia entered a new, Innamincka, orogenic cycle that developed in embryo at 265 Ma to a fully developed magmatic arc and yoked foreland basin at 258 Ma.

We have identified a deeply buried fluid escape pipe province in Cretaceous-late Paleocene sediments of the Great South-Canterbury Basin (NZ). The seismic observations and interpretations point to an unusually vast fossil system of pipes. These features are exceptional in number (>2000 edifices) and appear to have formed from a common root zone. The areal extent of the analysed pipe system (2500 km 2) is among the largest systems of fluid expulsion features ever observed in three-dimensional seismic data. The unclustered distribution of the pipes suggests no specific link to faults or buried sedimentary features and, at their maximum vertical development, the pipes are equally distributed above depocentres or structural highs. The majority of pipes terminate at two discrete levels in the late Paleocene. Based on the geometrical relationship of the pipe edifices to the overburden, and the basinal setting of the hosting units, we interpret these horizons as representing the seabed at the time of pipe formation. This interpretation allows us to date the timing of pipe formation as prominently late Paleocene. We envisage that the pipes originated during discrete episodes of fluid venting in this time interval, disrupting the typical progressive basinal compaction-driven pore fluid expulsion. The pipes are associated with biogenic gas expulsion. We discuss their triggers, mechanical processes, and global significance for understanding fluid flow processes in sedimentary basins.

The fill of trench-slope basins is complex, varying temporally, laterally, and longitudinally. New data from the Neogene stratigraphy of the Akitio Sub-basin, Wairarapa, are presented to investigate such fill variation. The preserved basin fill spans an area 70 km long by 10 km wide, representing deposits from a trench-slope basin. Integration of sedimentological, micropalaeoentological, and geological mapping data charts basin fill evolution. Over 15 km of strata were logged, defining 17 lithofacies associations, which were mapped across the basin; these are interpreted to represent both shallow and deep-water environments. The deep-water strata show a temporal evolution from ponded turbidite deposition, to a period of basin spill via conduits connecting to downstream basins, development of aggradational channel-levees, and finally unconfined submarine fan deposition. Shallow marine deposits mostly developed on the up-dip basin margin occur contemporaneously with basinal masstransport deposits, and in association with the growth of basin bounding structural ridges. Comparison with the evolution of the offshore, actively filling Akitio Trough highlights controls on trench-slope basin fill: a first-order influence of external controls, e.g. tectonism to create the basin; a second-order progression from under-to overfilled; and third-order lateral variation reflecting autogenic process and the effects of local structures on seafloor gradients. These factors combine to vary sedimentation in trench-slope-basins spatially and temporally.