Depositional Systems and Seismic Facies Analysis of Cooper, Llano and Habanero Fields, Garden Banks, Central Gulf of Mexico Slope

KUBIK, PETER K., Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas

Exploration and development wells, for three deepwater central Gulf of Mexico fields (Cooper, Llano, and Habanero), provide time-equivalent stratigraphy from proximal to distal depositional settings. Each field is located in the central Gulf of Mexico salt-minibasins intraslope province. Oil and gas pays for each of the fields are Pliocene and Pleistocene turbidite deposits. Using condensed section micro-faunal assemblages from three wells, six glacio-eustatic cycles have been identified to occur during the Pliocene (Discoaster brouweri through Reticulofenestra pseudoumbilica intervals 3.64 Ma – 1.95 Ma). Interpretation of a high-quality 3D geophysical survey (encompassing 8 lease blocks or 75 square miles) allows a study of ancient turbidite processes and salt diapirism within a salt mini-basin province. Geological subsurface field mapping will show how accommodation and sedimentation was dependent upon salt-sediment interaction through time. Salt diapir evolution will be chronostratigraphically documented by interpreting sequence stratigraphic stacking patterns and the sediment facies depositional architecture. Preliminary geological mapping indicates a vertical sequence stratigraphic succession of turbidite lithofacies from basal sheet sands (ponded assemblage) to overlying channel sands (bypass assemblage).