Abstract: Exploration Frontiers in the Eastern and Southern Gulf of Mexico

Joel S. Watkins, Richard T. Buffler

At least six offshore regions of the eastern and southern Gulf of Mexico have exploration potential. From northeast to southwest, these are the DeSoto Canyon Salt basin, the West Florida shelf, the North Cuba arch, the continental rise and abyssal plain at the foot of the northern Campeche escarpment, the Gulf of Campeche and the Mexican Ridge province. With the exception of the West Florida shelf, all are in water deeper than 200 m. The subsalt section in the DeSoto Canyon Salt basin remains untested in spite of the fact that subsalt sediments produce offshore Brazil, off west Africa and elsewhere. Target depths are as shallow at 15,000 ft. The West Florida platform has production potential in the Brown dolomite and possibly other reservoirs. Production potential may ext nd to the Florida Keys where a 1958 well located offstructure produced 15 BOPD. The North Cuba arch is a peripheral bulge north of the Cuba trench. Offscaped and accreted sediments from this section produce along the northern coast of Cuba. Structurally similar rocks produce in the South China Sea north of the Palawan-Borneo trench. Off the northern part of the Campeche escarpment, onlapping sediments ranging in age from Jurassic to Recent may have created stratigraphic traps while salt diapirism and faulting further offshore may have created structural traps. Some subsalt synrift sediments may be within the gas window. Structure and stratigraphy of the Gulf of Campeche appear to closely resemble those of the Texas-Louisiana shelf and slope. Prolific production characterizes these sedime ts onshore south of the Gulf; their deep-water potential would appear to be equally great. The north-trending Mexican Ridge province is 500 km long and 200 km wide. It consists of a large number of subparallel low-amplitude folds up to 10 km wide and 200 km long. Structurally, these folds resemble a foreland fold belt. Bright spots are evident in anticlines. The production potential could be immense.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90950©1996 AAPG GCAGS 46th Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas