Untested super giant-sized oil prospects are present in the Chindwin Basin, northwest Myanmar. The upper Cretaceous to Pliocene sedimentary section of the Basin exceeds 40,000 feet in thickness in outcrops exposed along the Myittha River.

For 120 miles along the west margin of the Basin, Eocene outcrops containing active oil and gas seeps; hydrocarbon bearing mud volcanoes; and shallow, oil productive, hand dug and chilled wells demonstrate an active petroleum system.

Thirty-five miles east of the outcrops, the giant Indaw anticline, more than 40 miles long has a surface areal closure exceeding 200 square miles. Recognized by 1912, it is in heavily forested terrain 25 miles east of the Chindwin River, where local inhabitants knew of two “gas lakes” (mud volcanoes).

Shallow Miocene sandstones (800 to 1200 feet) at Indaw yielded more than 1.2 million barrels of oil prior to 1942 when the field was destroyed during World War II. It is believed that this 28° to 37° API oil and associated gas migrated upwards along faults from deeper, untested, Eocene source rocks,

The surface structure is asymmetric, having a gentle dipping, 15 mile wide, west flank and a steep east dipping zone and likely surface expression of a thrust fault along its crest. Seismic mapping indicates the structure might have more than 100 square miles of areal closure and more than 2,000 feet of vertical relief on deep, untested, objective Eocene sandstones.

A giant anticline such as Indaw might contain more than a billion barrels of recoverable oil.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90928©1999 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas