Abstract: Owing to its abundant hydrocarbon resource, deep offshore region will become the important replaced area for future oil & gas reserves increment. Enacting appropriate exploration strategy is vital for the oil companies to decrease exploration investment, avoid drilling risks, and attain oil & gas discoveries ASAP. This paper took the deep offshore exploration region of the Middle Sudanese Red Sea as an example to make a systemic analysis to its geological configuration, petroleum geology conditions and influence factors for exploration activities. The results indicated that there were two sags and one salient in the deep offshore area; basement was pre-Cambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks and main sedimentary strata were clastics, carbonate and evaporates deposited during Miocene-Pliocene Red Sea rifting and drafting period. Two sets of source-reservoir-cap assemblages, i.e. above-salt and sub-salt, were formed in the region and Belayim Formation reservoir in the north sag was the most favorable potential target because of its good hydrocarbon generation & accumulation condition. The identification & reliability of sub-salt drilling prospects and the accurate geological & engineering risks prediction before drilling were key factors for offshore drilling. Improving the seismic imaging quality, re-interpreting and re-evaluating the sub-salt prospect configuration and finalizing the offshore drilling preparation were still the primary jobs for next exploration period.

Key words: Sudan, Red Sea, deep offshore exploration, petroleum geology, exploration strategy