OUM, S.¹ and D. LOPEZ^2
1Beicip-Franlab, Rueil-Malmaison, France
²PDVSA, Caracas, Venezuela

Abstract: How A Thoroughly Studied Anticline Can Work As A Memory Chip

A very detailed structural analysis has been carried out within the framework of an integrated study for the giant Bachaquero field, Lake Maracaibo Basin, Western Venezuela.

Although separate fault blocks have different production histories as well as present and future developments, the overall understanding of the complex tectono-sedimentary history has recently helped to find a solution to problems such as gas occurrence and production/fluid distribution anomalies. It has also greatly contributed to optimizing the secondary and tertiary recovery scheme and to the discovery of new petroleum reserves.

Thanks to 3D seismic and several hundred wells, the two main structures crossing the area, the Pueblo Viejo and Intercampos faults, are now known to be responsible for a series of secondary and subsidiary events which occur in a very logical way, making the integrated study even more challenging.

A wide range of structural, stratigraphic and sedimentological features related to the changes of the stress direction can be observed.

When put back into the regional geological setting, the new field architecture has proved to reflect every episode of the Mesozoic and Tertiary history of the Lake Maracaibo Basin which is closely related to the Plate Tectonics from Jurassic to Recent.

It is therefore possible to think of the Bachaquero Anticline, as a memory chip, which has recorded every single tectonic phase of the long and tumultuous history of the basin.

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