Exploration Potential of Offshore Northern California Basins

Steven B. Bachman, James K. Crouch

A series of exploratory wells was drilled in the northern California offshore basins in the 1960s following leasing of federal tracts off northern California, Oregon, and Washington. The drilling, although encountering numerous oil shows, was considered at the time to indicate low prospectivity in an area that extended as far south as the offshore Santa Maria basin. However, subsequent major discoveries in this decade in the offshore Santa Maria basin, such as the Point Arguello field, indicate that these offshore basins may be highly prospective exploration targets. Many of the key features of Monterey production in central and southern California are also present in the offshore basins of northern California.

A new 5-year leasing plan has scheduled leasing in the northern California OCS starting in early 1989. The first basins on the schedule, the Point Arena and Eel River basins, differ in some respects. The Point Arena basin is more typical of a Monterey basin, with the potential for fractured chert reservoirs and organic-rich sections, deep burial of basinal sections to enhance the generation of higher gravity oils, and complex folding and faulting. The Eel River basin is more clastic-rich in its gas-producing, onshore extension. Key questions in the Eel River basin include whether the offshore, more distal stratigraphy will include Monterey-like biogenic sediments, and whether the basin has oil potential in addition to its proven gas potential. The Outer Santa Cruz basin shares a simil r stratigraphy, structure, and hydrocarbon potential with the Point Arena basin. The Santa Cruz-Bodega basin, also with a similar stratigraphy, may have less exploration potential because erosion has thinned the Monterey section in parts of the basin.

The similarity of many of the northern California basins to prolific producing areas elsewhere in coastal California suggests that there is the potential for substantial reserves in the basins.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91030©1988 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, 20-23 March 1988.