The Maverick Basin: New technology – New Success
Robert J. Scott
The Exploration Company, San Antonio, TX
The Maverick Basin is a small carbonate basin geographically associated with the much larger Gulf Coast Basin known for its prolific sandstone reservoirs. Oil company managers have often rejected exploration programs for the Maverick Basin in favor of more glamorous objectives in the Gulf Coast Basin. As a result, the Maverick Basin has remained under-explored. In the past 10 years, new technologies like 3 dimensional seismic and directional drilling have led to new plays and significant increases in production in the Maverick Basin. Three dimensional seismic has been absolutely essential. It has defined the structural framework of the Basin, revealed new reef trends and defined unique structural plays. Coherency processing of the 3 dimensional data is proving useful in locating areas of faulting and fracturing that previously have been difficult to find. Directional drilling is now allowing operators to produce oil and gas from low permeability reservoirs that have been troublesome in the past. Current activities place the Maverick Basin at the threshold of prominence for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf Coast area.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90032©2004 GCAGS 54th Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas, October 10-12, 2004