Hydrocarbon Exploration Plays in the Great Caribbean Region and Neighboring Provinces

Alejandro Escalona¹, Paul Mann², and Lisa Bingham^2
1Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
²Institute for Geophysics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

The Caribbean region is located between two of the largest hydrocarbons provinces in the western hemisphere (the Gulf of Mexico and the northern South American foreland basins), and until now, it has been considered a hydrocarbon poor region. Because of lack of major exploration efforts and modern seismic data, the complex evolution of the Caribbean plate since the Late Cretaceous, and poor understanding on the origin, quality and distribution of source and reservoir rocks, it is not clear how much the hydrocarbon potential of the Caribbean region is, becoming a challenge for explorationists. However, the presence of oil indicator plays, oil and gas seeps, geochemical data, oil fields (Barbados, Cuba, etc.) and giant gas fields (offshore northern South America) around all margins of the Caribbean plate, the increasing need for more reserves and the strategic location to US and European markets, makes the Caribbean region a more attractive target for current and future exploration.

By integrating thousands of km of old and new 2D seismic data, together with existing well and surface data, we present a regional overview of key areas for exploration in the Caribbean region. Key areas include: The Cuban Eocene foreland basin and southern Gulf of Mexico Paleogene wedge, the Nicaraguan Rise region, the offshore Caribbean margin of Colombia, the Grenada and Tobago basins, and the Barbados accretionary prism. On all these regions, a common factor that makes them attractive is their location at the edges of the Caribbean plate along areas of collision with the passive margins of North and South America which contain proven source rocks and large continental paleodrainages for good quality reservoir rocks.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas