Abstract: Petroleum Potential of Possible Lower Cretaceous Reef Trend Beneath U.S. Atlantic Continental Slope

Robert E. Mattick, Kenneth C. Bayer, Peter A. Scholle

Analysis of CDP seismic-reflection records coupled with detailed seismic-velocity analysis and a study of sedimentary processes indicate that a Lower Cretaceous shelf-edge carbonate complex may be buried beneath the present U.S. Atlantic Continental Slope. Reef, back-reef, and fore-reef facies associated with this feature could be potential hydrocarbon reservoirs for which possible analogs are the carbonate-reef trends of the El Abra-Tamaulipas Formations (Mexican Golden Lane area) and the Edwards Limestone of Texas. Seals might be provided by relatively impermeable back-reef facies and overlying fine-grained, deeper water sediments.

Additional exploration targets are structural highs over the reef trend and traps associated with faults. Petroleum generated in basin facies of the lower slope and rise could have migrated through the slope facies to the paleoshelf edge.

Although current petroleum prices do not justify exploration in such deep-water areas, these targets may be of interest in the future.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90968©1977 AAPG-SEPM Annual Convention and Exhibition, Washington, DC