Cenozoic Unconformities Control On Source And Reservoir Distribution In The Apulian Carbonates Of The Southern Apennines Thrust Belt

Raffaele Di Cuia, Alberto Riva, Giacomo Gonano, and Raffaele Bitonte

The Apulian sequence in Southern Italy represent a carbonate system that came into existence in the lower Triassic and lasted in some areas until the Lower Pliocene. This sequence represent one of the most important and prolific HC reservoir of onshore continental Europe.

The Apulian Carbonates depositional system varies from a wide shallow water carbonate platform in the Mesozoic to a complex carbonate ramp system in Tertiary with a highly variability in depositional facies. This system was affected by several tectonic events but the formation and evolution of the Southern Apennines Thurst Belt had a strong impact on the present day distribution of rock ages and facies in the subsurface. A series of unconformities of different amplitude can be recognized in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic carbonate sequence and have a strong impact on the lateral variability of facies.

Different original depositional facies have a strong imprint into the reservoir characteristics of this sequence both in terms of petrophysical properties (porosity and permeability) and fracture network and style (mechanical stratigraphy). This study has reviewed all the available subsurface data related of the Southern Apennines (more than 250 wells, seismic, exploration and production data and history) to better understand the impact of the Cenozoic unconformities into the distribution of the best reservoir units and of the main source rocks.

The main outcomes is a series of distribution maps of the carbonate units below the top of Apulian Carbonate sequence. These maps if coupled with structural maps could help to better focus future exploration in the area.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90161©2013 AAPG European Regional Conference, Barcelona, Spain, 8-10 April 2013