Clastic Reservoir Position and Composition Prediction — Application to the Western Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

Abstract

Prediction of reservoir composition and location of paleo river outlet contributes to exploration risk reduction. Integrated morpho-tectonic, drainage and denudation analysis of the hinterland has been successfully applied in Petroleum Exploration not only along passive/rift margins but also along transform and active margins. Present day morphology and drainage is hydrologically and geologically analysed and interpreted to improve the understanding of the interplay between tectonics, erosion, sediment transportation and deposition. These processes shaped landscape geology, morphology and drainage, hence Provenance routes.

Recent improvements to the technique of Provenance analysis have been made possible by improved quality and resolution of digital elevation, gravity & magnetic and other satellite imagery. In this contribution we present a case study on changes in Tertiary sand supply to the Veracruz basin in the SW Gulf of Mexico.

The Veracruz and Salina, Macuspana, Tampico-Misantla, and Burgos foreland basins developed in response to the subduction of the Rivera and Cocos Plates under the Central American Plate along the Corrientes Trench. The hinterland of these basins is constituted mainly by the Sierra Madre and Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB). The interaction between subduction and slab edge processes gave way to the development of dynamic topography of the overriding Central America Plate, possibly facilitated by deep seated trans-current fault systems such as Chapala-Tula and Oaxaca fault zones and the development of volcanic complexes of the TMVB. New structures formed while some of the Mesozoic structures were re-activated under a dynamically changing regional stress field. Faulting, extrusions and exhumation of intrusions controlled the development of the Veracruz drainage basin divides thus -area, -morphology, -river network, -bedrock and -outlet location. Temporal and spatial changes in sand supply and composition were the result of these processes and had an impact on clastic reservoir quality in adjacent basins. Notably, basins that formed onshore, partly and periodically trapped sands produced at the expense of offshore basins.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90260 © 2016 AAPG/SEG International Conference & Exhibition, Cancun, Mexico, September 6-9, 2016