--> Leveraging Technology to Reveal the Next Giants: Mexico Deepwater Campeche

AAPG/SEG International Conference & Exhibition

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Leveraging Technology to Reveal the Next Giants: Mexico Deepwater Campeche

Abstract

Abstract

Exploratory drilling to date in the deepwater Campeche region has focused primarily on testing either (1) shallow, amplitude supported, Miocene to Pliocene age objectives, or (2) fractured Mesozoic carbonate objectives similar to producing analogs on the shelf. Although there have been several discoveries outboard of salt, experience from the Northern Gulf of Mexico suggests that a significant portion of the ultimate hydrocarbon potential in the deepwater Campeche region may lie in subsalt settings. Many of the play types and structural styles which have been successful in the Northern Gulf of Mexico are also present in Campeche, allowing for effective leveraging of technologies and lessons learned from U.S. waters.

This presentation will focus on the results of an integrated regional prospectivity screening of the deepwater Campeche region based upon analysis of 44,000 km2 of newly acquired broadband wide-azimuth 3D seismic, gravity and magnetic data, and data from available exploration wells. The primary goal of this analysis has been to characterize the spatial variability in key play components such as trap, reservoir, hydrocarbon charge, and seal, in order to highlight areas with the greatest exploration potential. Continuous wide-azimuth data coverage reveals significant variability in structural styles across the region. The styles range from salt canopy systems overlying deeper compressional structures, to large mini-basins with complex compressional structures along flanking diapiric salt bodies, to salt-cored fold belts outboard of the primary allochthonous salt region, to compressional structures developed over detachments rooted in shale. Structural elevation changes of the primary Jurassic source interval have potential implications for localized deviations from regional maturity trends published in previous studies. Further, evaluation of sediment delivery systems reveals changing depositional fairways through time in the Tertiary clastic-dominated section. Accordingly, the important regional variations in reservoir, trap, seal, and product type risks across multiple plays in the Campeche region may be better evaluated.