--> Abstract: Myth or Fact? Just What Role did Strike-Slip Play in Controlling Trap Formation and Gas Prospectivity in the UK Southern North Sea?, by John R. Underhill; #90072 (2007)
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Myth or Fact? Just What Role did Strike-Slip Play in Controlling Trap Formation and Gas Prospectivity in the UK Previous HitSouthernNext Hit Previous HitNorthNext Hit Previous HitSeaNext Hit?

John R. Underhill
School of Geosciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

A degree of uncertainty has always surrounded the nature and timing of trap-forming events in the highly prospective Previous HitSouthernNext Hit Previous HitNorthNext Hit Previous HitSeaNext Hit Basin (SNS). The long-held view has been that the Previous HitstructuralNext Hit complexity found at the highly prospective Upper Palaeozoic (Carboniferous and Lower Permian (Rotliegend)) levels primarily resulted Previous HitfromNext Hit strike-slip motion with traps occurring as integral parts of flower structures. Despite the blanket Previous Hit3-DNext Hit Previous HitseismicNext Hit coverage in the SNS, Previous HitstructuralNext Hit interpretation has proved extremely difficult with imaging of structures at reservoir levels suffering as a result of the presence of a highly mobile Upper Permian (Zechstein Group) evaporites leading to separate deformation styles affecting the Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary overburden and the sub-salt levels.
Interpretation of a Previous Hit3-DNext Hit Previous HitseismicNext Hit survey acquired by WesternGeco, strategically located outside the area of Zechstein Group evaporite deposition (i.e. where the deformation between the reservoir levels and overburden is coupled), has provided a unique opportunity to assess, evaluate and demystify outstanding Previous HitstructuralNext Hit questions in the basin. Significantly, it can now be shown that tectonic Previous HitinversionNext Hit played the predominant role in the Previous HitstructuralNext Hit development of the SNS rather than strike-slip deformation. Furthermore, the contractional reactivation can be shown to have begun in the Late Cretaceous and continued in discrete episodes during the Cenozoic rather than occurring in one phase. The new Previous HitdataNext Hit debunk myths surrounding the tectonic evolution of this highly prospective basin and allow a unifying Previous HitstructuralTop model to be produced for the SNS, which not only explains the nature of trap formation and the timing of maturation but also provides insights into its all-important migration history.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90072 © 2007 AAPG and AAPG European Region Conference, Athens, Greece