KRONMAN, GEORGE E., ANTENOR M. ALEMAN, and SANDRA W. RUSHWORTH, Amoco Production Company, Houston, TX

ABSTRACT: Oil Discoveries and Basin Resource Predictions in Latin America: Past, Present, and Future

Over 350 oil discoveries were made in Latin America during the 1980s. About 12% are estimated to contain reserves greater than 100 MMBO. Several of the larger finds (>500 MMBO), such as Cusiana (Colombia), Furrial/Musipan (Venezuela), Cano Limon (Colombia) and Marlim (Brazil) represent an important part of the giant field found worldwide since 1980. Most of the larger discoveries were made by national oil companies in Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil.

Undiscovered oil resources of 40 to 80 BBO are estimated to remain in the highest potential Latin American basins, including those in Mexico, based on historical field size data and current geological knowledge. Over 150 BBO of produced oil and proven reserves has been found in the same group of basins.

The probability of finding large undiscovered oil and gas fields (> 100 MMBOE) in selected established and mature Latin American basins is high. The Campos (Brazil), Llanos (Colombia), Magdalena (Colombia), Maracaibo (Venezuela), Marahon-Oriente-Putumayo (Peru-Ecuador-Colombia), Maturin (Venezuela), Reforma-Campeche (Mexico) and Ucayali (Peru) basins have the best possibility for such accumulations.

Another tier of frontier and emerging basins may also contain significant resources, but limited data makes it difficult to estimate their undiscovered resources. Some of the higher potential basins in this group include the Sierra de Chiapas (Mexico/Guatemalat, Huallaga (Peru), Yucatan (Mexico), Sabinas, and Burgos (Mexico) basins.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90988©1993 AAPG/SVG International Congress and Exhibition, Caracas, Venezuela, March 14-17, 1993.