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PSGeological Setting and Hydrocarbon Occurrences, Guajira 
Basin
, Offshore Northern Colombia*
By
Victor O. Ramirez-C1
Search and Discovery Article #10116
Posted October 22, 2006
*Adapted from poster presentation at AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, April 9-12, 2006
Click to view posters in PDF format.
1University of Alabama and Ecopetrol, Tuscaloosa, AL ([email protected])
Abstract
The Guajira Basin is located in a tectonic setting
characterized by two right lateral strike faults of regional scale (Oca and
Cuisa faults). The stratigraphic section includes Jurassic and Cretaceous units
having petroleum source and reservoir rock potential. The Tertiary interval,
Eocene to Upper Miocene, accounts for the majority of the stratigraphic section
in the basin, and Oligocene, Lower Miocene, and Upper Miocene rocks are
recognized as the reservoirs for most of the hydrocarbons in the basin.
Hydrocarbon records in wells and gas production from
Chuchupa-Ballena fields, have led, along with the interpretation of geophysical
(mainly seismic), geological and geochemical information, to a good
understanding of the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the basin. Recent efforts of
information integration has allowed for the preliminary definition of petroleum
systems in this basin: Macarao – Siamana P.S. (.) (northeast part of the basin),
Tertiary – Jimol/Uitpa P.S. (.) (producing in the Chuchupa-Ballena fields),
Castilletes-Castilletes P.S. (?) (reservoir potential in deep-water clastic
environments), and Mesozoic-Cretaceous P.S. (?) (reservoirs as fractured
Cretaceous limestones, analogous with Mara-La Paz Venezuelan fields).
Traditionally, the Guajira Basin has been regarded as
a biogenic gas province (more than 6 TCF of dry gas, 97% methane, low maturity
levels). Recent geochemical and geological data support the evidence for several
petroleum systems, involving thermogenic processes relevant to the evolution of
the basin. These systems are an important factor in the appraisal of the gas and
oil prospectivity of the basin and to tie the offshore exploration potential to
the known inland geological features.
