Petroleum System Modeling with a Geographic Information System in the Gulf of Thailand

Gregory S. Slutz, J. Marc Young

Frontier exploration projects often lack the large volumes of data that mature exploration areas have. In offshore Thailand, the hydrologic modeling capabilities of a Geographic Information System (GIS) were used to model the petroleum system based on seismic isochron maps. GIS found and mapped to the spill point all structural closures. The drainage basin boundaries and petroleum migration paths were delineated based on the slope of the isochron surface. A mature source section was used to weight the migration paths to help determine which structures may be prospective. GIS provides a fast way to model a portion of a petroleum system in frontier exploration projects with limited data.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995