--> ABSTRACT: The Tertiary Piedmont Basin in NW Italy: Implications for Hydrocarbon Exploration and Development in Deep-Water and Tectonically Active Settings

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The Tertiary Piedmont Basin in NW Italy: Implications for Hydrocarbon Exploration and Development in Deep-Water and Tectonically Active Settings

Chiambretti, Igor 1; Ghibaudo, Guido 2; Massari, Francesco 3; Moscariello, Andrea 4
(1) Consulting Geologist, Torino, Italy. (2) Scienze della Terra, Universita' di Torino, Torino, Italy. (3) Geoscienze, Universita' di Padova, Padova, Italy. (4) Geology and Paleontology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

The Tertiary Piedmont Basin (TPB, Langhe region, northwestern Italy) contains complex clastic sedimentary successions, which were deposited in an active transtensional and transpressional tectonic setting. The basin developed between the orogenic wedges of the Alps and Apennines during times of active structural evolution. The result was a complex physiography organized in sub-basins which, through time, hosted several mixed depositional systems characterized by different size, geometry, internal architectural styles and sedimentary facies associations.

In the early phase of the TPB evolution, mostly small and short-lived, mixed depositional systems developed consisting of coarse-grained and extremely poorly organized deposits (fan deltas). These derived from small catchments and sediment failures, and were trapped in adjacent small, fault-bounded depressions. At a later stage, sediment flows became more continuous and sustained feeding larger depositional systems accumulated. Mature sediment flows, characterized by channel and lobe elements thus developed in a more basinal turbidite setting. In the later stages of its evolution the TPB became a poorly confined basinal turbidite systems where associated hemipelagic deposits accumulated.

Laterally extensive and correlatable outcrops, some at seismic-scale, allow the integration of high-resolution stratigraphic logs in to a 3D architectural model of an area covering ca 2000 Kmq. With the help of biostratigraphic zonation, this field-based data set allowed us to reconstruct in detail the deep-water depositional systems and their evolution through time, from basin to reservoir scale, incorporating a wide range of facies, stacking patterns and architectures.

The TPB sedimentary complex presented in this study may have relevant similarities with hydrocarbon productive series found in similar tectonic settings in US (California) and South America (Brazil, Trinidad e Tobago, Colombia). In particular, several aspects of the TPB can be compared with the complex, isolated Neogene basins such as the Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Sand Diego etc. basins in California. In these settings the understanding of complex physiographic and depositional processes associated with heterogeneous sedimentary gravity-flows represents a key challenge to characterize the hydrocarbon plays at exploration scale and select an optimal development strategy.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90135©2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Milan, Italy, 23-26 October 2011.