Hydrocarbons in New Guinea, Controlled by Basement Fabric, Mesozoic Extension and Tertiary Convergent Margin Tectonics

Kevin C. Hill, Richard D. Kendrick, and Peter V. Crowhurst

Most models for the tectonic evolution of New Guinea involve Early and Late Miocene arc-continent collisions, creating an orogenic belt. Structural trends and prospectivity are then analysed in terms of belts across the country; the Fold Belt (with the discovered oil and gas fields), the Mobile Belt and the accreted arcs. This model inhibits realistic assessment of prospectivity. It now appears the Mobile Belt formed by Oligocene compression then by Early Miocene extension, related to slab-rollback, that unroofed metamorphic core complexes adjacent to starved half-grabens. The grabens filled in the Middle Miocene and were largely transported intact during the Pliocene arc-collision. Early Miocene reefs and hypothesised starved basin source rocks create a viable play throu hout northern New Guinea as in the Salawati Basin. The Pliocene clastic section is locally prospective due to overthrusting and deep burial. Within the Fold Belt, the site and types of oil and gas fields are largely controlled by the basement architecture. This controlled the transfer zones and depocentres during Mesozoic extension and the location of major basement uplifts during compression. In PNG, the Bosavi lineament separates an oil province from a gas province. In Irian Jaya the transition from a relatively competent sequence to a rifted sequence west of approximately ~139°E may also be a gas-oil province boundary. Understanding, in detail, the compartmentalization of inverted blocks and areas of thin-skinned thrusting, controlled by the basement architecture, will help const ain hydrocarbon prospectivity.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #91019©1996 AAPG Convention and Exhibition 19-22 May 1996, San Diego, California