ABSTRACT: The Petroleum Province of Coastal Mississippi

WARNER, A. JOHN, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Office of Geology, Jackson, MS

The Wiggins arch, a remnant structure associated with Late Triassic-Jurassic basement tectonics, separates the prolific Mesozoic-Cenozoic petroleum-bearing sediments of the Mississippi Interior Salt basin from contemporaneous sediments south of the Wiggins arch in the Mississippi Gulf Coast shelf. The coastal region of Mississippi has been an anomaly in an otherwise prolific oil and gas habitat of the Northern Gulf Coast margin. Only sporadic and sparse exploration has taken place in the region, with limited success.

Drilling in the Mississippi Sound and adjacent federal waters and more in-depth studies will be needed to determine the western limits of these prolific Norphlet dune fields. The discoveries of Jurassic Norphlet and Tertiary Miocene fields in southwest Alabama have generated numerous studies, some of which peripherally included the equivalent rocks in the Mississippi coastal area. Increased subsurface well data and advanced seismic and gravity data have provided new information, and the recent discoveries in southwest Alabama warrant a reexamination of the region. The large areal extent of the coastal region of Mississippi and the relatively sparse drilling of the area create a considerable opportunity for oil and gas exploration.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91014©1992 AAPG GCAGS and GC-SEPM Meeting, Jackson, Mississippi, October 21-23, 1992 (2009)