--> Geologic and Volumetric Evaluation of Prospects Offshore Uruguay
[First Hit]

AAPG/SEG International Conference & Exhibition

Datapages, Inc.Print this page

Geologic and Volumetric Evaluation of Prospects Offshore Uruguay

Abstract

Abstract

Exploration activity offshore Uruguay has grown exponentially in recent years with the acquisition of approximately 40,000Km of 2D and 40,000Km2 of 3D Previous HitseismicNext Hit, despite being a frontier area without proven petroleum systems. The Previous HitseismicNext Hit data acquired cover the two main basins recognized offshore Uruguay, Punta del Este Basin to the west and Pelotas Basin to the east, representing an area of approximately 125,000Km2. These basins are still underexplored, with only two exploratory wells drilled in 1976 in shallow waters of Punta del Este Basin. The sedimentary infill includes a prerift Previous HitphaseNext Hit with Paleozoic to Mesozoic units; an Early Cretaceous synrift Previous HitphaseNext Hit and a Cretaceous to Cenozoic postrift Previous HitphaseNext Hit. The Previous HitseismicNext Hit data allowed the identification of numerous stratigraphic and structural leads and prospects that reveal a promising geology which led to the decision of drilling a new well in 2016 in ultradeep waters of the Pelotas Basin. The objective of this study is to present the hydrocarbon potential offshore Uruguay through the volumetric resource estimation of different prospects. A Previous HitseismicNext Hit stratigraphic analysis applied to the 2D and 3D Previous HitseismicNext Hit data available, using the principles of Sequence Stratigraphy, was the methodology utilized for the definition and interpretation of prospects and the speculative petroleum systems associated to them. For the volumetric calculation, after the probabilistic distributions for each input variable was defined, we have performed 10,000 iterations of simulation for each prospect in order to obtain the probabilistic distribution of prospective resources in situ. In this work we present the results of four selected prospects. The criteria used to select these prospects was to show the diversity of plays, the different petroleum systems, the existence of siliciclastic and carbonate reservoirs and the different types of traps present in the basins. The first prospect analyzed is an anticline structure associated with the prerift megasequence, the second prospect is interpreted as a lacustrine fan system associated with the synrift Previous HitphaseNext Hit, the third one is a carbonate construction deposited in a horst structure during the Cretaceous postrift Previous HitphaseNext Hit, and finally the four selected prospect is a Paleocene turbidite deposited in the drift Previous HitphaseTop. The probabilistic aggregation of the prospective resources of these four prospects gives a Mean value result of approximately 14,000MMBbls of oil in situ and 33TCF of gas in situ.