Traps of the Ghaba and Fahud Salt Basin Provinces are mainly structural in origin and were formed by one or more mechanisms during periodic halokinesis of the thick Cambrian Ara Salt and from consequent folding and faulting from basin loading, rifting, or other major tectonic events. This interplay of tectonics and salt movement was progressive, constantly modifying basin architecture, controlling sedimentation, and more crucially, modifying trap geometries (Brannan and Flanagan, 1998), particularly in the Late Cretaceous and Late Tertiary in areas where the Oman Mountains and associated foreland-basin system developed. Most of the future new-field discoveries will be focused on low-relief structures, as many of the large structures have been drilled. In contrast, although the crests of domes and anticlines above salt diapirs have been major exploration targets, salt-diapir flank traps, known to be significant exploration targets elsewhere in the world, have gone essentially untested (Faulkner, 1998).

     Few pure stratigraphic traps have been identified in the fields of the Ghaba and Fahud Salt Basins. Recently, however, Richard and others (1998a, b) suggest that exploring for stratigraphic traps along the extensive `Q'-oil migration fairway (fig. 6) has the greatest potential for new Haushi reservoirs in North Oman. Although most fields in the Ghaba and Fahud Salt Basins are of structural origin, stratigraphic trapping elements are commonly involved in the formation of the accumulation. For example, accumulations in a large Cretaceous rudistid complex with a strong structural overprint in Shu'aiba reservoirs at Al Huwaisah field, Fahud Salt Basin, play a key role in productivity (Vahrenkamp and Grotsh, 1995). Moreover, opportunity for identifying pure- or combination-stratigraphic traps is particularly increased as improved technology and subsurface imaging provide new, higher resolution data. 

     Oil production grew from 300,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in 1967 through a plateau of about 500,000 bbl/d in the seventies and early eighties. During early 1998, the average daily production of oil in Oman was maximized to about 900,000 bbl/d (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 1998; Petroleum Economist, 1998; Knott, 1998); about 95 percent, or about 850,000 bbl/d, is produced by the PDO consortium. Average oil production rate per well is about 400 bb/d, atypical in comparison to that of about 6,000 bbl/d for other major Middle East countries. Moreover, associated produced waters are high, averaging about 2 million bbl/d in 1997, and disposal of the water presents further complications and consideration. Total exports are about 470,000 bbl/d with an average API density of 38-39°, which is lighter than the common `Oman Blend' of about 34° API gravity (Petroleum Economist, 1998). 

     Oman's interest in the exploration for gas has been a relatively recent development with potential recoverable reserves predicted in 1997 of about 30 trillion cubic feet (tcf) in central Oman with over 10 tcf located in deep geologic structures beneath active oil fields (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 1998). Pipelines from Yibal to Muscat to Sohar carry the current gas