Deep-Water Depositional Patterns and Sequence Stratigraphic Framework of the Permian Brushy Canyon Formation across the Delaware Basin, West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico, U.S.A.

Baptista, Noelia¹, Michael Gardner² (1) PDVSA, Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela (2) Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO

This study evaluates regional deep-water depositional patterns and the stratigraphic framework derived from outcrop of the Permian, Guadalupian Brushy Canyon Formation in the Delaware Basin of west Texas and New Mexico. Three hundred wells and 1,640 km of 2D seismic were used to extend the high-resolution stratigraphic framework and test pre­dictions derived from outcrop. Although the outcrop represents only 1.2 % of the study area (245 km² out of 20,000 km²), the stratigraphic framework and the associated models pro­vided important information for subsurface interpretation that otherwise would be difficult to conceive. The Adjustment, Initiation Growth and Retreat (AIRG) model, correlation strate­gies, facies and architectural elements analysis in the outcrop provided the basis for this study and were applicable to a regional framework encompassing 20,000 km² area. Integration of different scales and sources of data was an effective approach to interpret the basin fill from low-resolution subsurface data and it allowed to relate oil fields trends to stratigraphy.

The presence of three major Brushy Canyon fan complexes in the northern Delaware Basin (Carlsbad, Hobbs and Huapache) is confirmed through correlation and mapping of subsurface data. This establishes the presence of four major fan complexes: Outcrop, Huapache, Carlsbad and Hobbs. A fifth fan complex, the upper Brushy fan, is recognized in the southeast, with sediment input from the Central Basin Platform.