Regional Mapping across the Entire Gulf of Mexico Basin—New Plays and New Perspectives

Abstract

Integration of regional 2D seismic and legacy seismic data spanning U.S. and Mexican Gulf of Mexico collected during 1970–2010 have been reprocessed, repositioned, depth imaged, and integrated into a regional basinwide industry standard program. These data provide unique coverage of the entire Gulf of Mexico Basin and its margins imaging the deeper Mesozoic strata and underlying basement over across the basin. Stratal horizons mapped from well control in U.S. waters are extended into Mexican waters, providing an internally consistent stratigraphic correlation of multiple reservoir intervals into frontier areas of the basin and allow comprehensive analysis and mapping of several Tertiary and Mesozoic depositional systems. The internal character southward to the Bay of Campeche, and the completion of isopach maps of basin depositional systems through time provide the framework for maturation modelling and prediction of migration fairways across the Gulf of Mexico. At the basement level, these data constrain the position of the continent-ocean transitions in several areas, including the Yucatan rifted margin and the East Mexican transform margin. This interpretation provides the basis for a calibrated set of regional stratigraphic correlations and the framework for integration and analysis of other seismic data from the Gulf of Mexico. A number of lines and maps from the regional analysis are presented to highlight some of the depositional and structure features that are observed from this basinwide perspective.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90219 © 2015 GCAGS, Houston, Texas, September 20-22, 2015