--> Abstract: Sunda Basin, Indonesia - A Petroleum System Model for the East China Sea, by D. Bushnell; #90958 (1995).

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Abstract: Sunda Basin, Indonesia - A Petroleum System Model for the East China Sea

David Bushnell

The geology of the Sunda Basin, west Java Sea, provides a working model of a prolific East Asian lacustrine petroleum system. The basin was initiated as a Paleogene half-graben, part of a province of similar extensional features which extends from Western Indonesia to Northern China and the Sea of Japan. Key components of this petroleum system include:

a. A rich lacustrine source shale totally contained within the half-graben;

b. Two reservoir rocks, one nonmarine and correlative with the lacustrine source and a reefal carbonate sequence related to transgression of the overlying sag sequence;

c. Structural traps at the basin edges and on structural noses extending into the basin;

d. A regional marine shale which caps the entire system and forces lateral basin drainage toward the basin-edge highs; and

e. Burial and maturation of the source after reservoirs, seals, and traps were all in place.

Striking similarities to the Sunda Basin can be seen in undrilled parts of the East China Sea, where the petroleum system model can be used as an exploration guide. Lacustrine facies can be interpreted seismically in similar buried half-grabens, and both nonmarine and marine reservoir rocks appear to be present. A sag-sequence marine shale acts as a lateral migration guide, and structural trapping geometry is evident at the basin edges.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90958©1995 AAPG Pacific Section Meeting, San Francisco, California