Depositional Systems in the Chicontepec Basin, Central-Eastern Gulf Coast, Mexico

J. Javier Hernández-Mendoza, Abelardo Escamilla-Hernández, Ma. Lidia De la Huerta-Cobos, and Domingo Saavedra-Torres
Pemex PEP

The Chicontpec Basin, also known as Chicontpec Paleocanyon, is located in eastcentral Mexico as part of the Tampico-Misantla Basin. Its dimensions are 123 km long by 25 km wide, covering around 3,800 km². This area contains the largest 3P reserves in Mexico, from which less than 1% has been produced. The Chicontepec Paleocanyon developed almost synchronically with the uplift of the Sierra Madre Oriental fold-thrust belt. The foreland basin fill consists of upper Paleocene to middle Eocene siliciclastic turbidite sediments with high content of carbonate rock fragments derived mainly from Cretaceous and Jurassic limestones. After an intense 3D seismic acquisition campaign, and new well data, it has been possible to refine and interpret three principle third order sequences of regional scale. Some sandstone packages are truncated by semi-regional unconformities creating stratigraphic traps. The outcrop analysis, log motifs, core interpretation, and high-resolution paleontology, as well as sand distribution have confirmed the turbiditic depositional systems associated to narrow channel complexes, elongated lobes, shaly interlobular and basin facies. These facies are present either in isolated or amalgamated patterns. Main reservoirs are present in fan lobe facies, which have higher storage capacity and permeability. Variations in the reservoir potential of Chicontepec sandstones are controlled, in part, by depositional environments, diagenesis, and carbonate content.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90158©2012 GCAGS and GC-SEPM 6nd Annual Convention, Austin, Texas, 21-24 October 2012