Petroleum System Evaluation, Mexican Perdido Fold Belt

Abstract

A regional petroleum system modeling and play analysis evaluation were carried out in the Mexican sector of the Perdido Fold Belt (MPFB), including the Bravo River (Rio Grande) Delta system and the Subsaline Belt or Salina del Bravo area. Seismic-stratigraphy, sedimentologic facies, paleo-bathymetries, structural geometries and geochemical kinetic models were the basis for the basin modeling. Limit conditions to calibrate the thermal model were defined based on well temperature data and heat flux estimations from deep sea drillings. Different migration models were used as part of the evaluation, including flowpath, hybrid and expulsion only.

Regarding the geodynamic model, three main deformation stages were considered, including: middle Jurassic rifting, Oligocene to lower Miocene gravity-driven extension-compression, and a reactivation of this last event from late Miocene up to recent times. Halokinetic activity was considered from Paleocene up to Present time. The extension-compression event generated large structures with a dominant NE-SW orientation. The extensional domain, located to the west, consists of normal faults. The compressive domain, located to the east and including mainly the PFB, consists mainly of concentric folds flanked by reverse faults that detach on the Jurassic autochthonous salt. This deformational episode involved upper Jurassic-Oligocene sequences. These structures formed effective combined stratigraphic/structural traps for hydrocarbon accumulations. Seismic geomorphology and well log data shows that the main reservoir facies in the MPFB are represented by channels, levees and overbank splays that are part of large deep-water submarine fan systems.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90323 ©2018 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 20-23, 2018