Differential Salt Diapirism Rise and Its Incidence in Karstic Properties Generation in the Jujo-Tecominoacan Field, Mexico

Villaseñor-Rojas, Pedro Ernesto¹, Clotilde Prieto-Ubaldo¹, Agustin Espino-Moreno¹, Hector A. Carmona-Pozos¹, Hector Hernandez-Garcia¹, Carlos H. Pacheco-Gutierrez¹, Leonel Toledo-Perez¹, Hiram Villalobos-Lopez¹, Carlos Milland-Padron² (1) Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo, Mexico, D.F, Mexico (2) Petroleos Mexicanos, Villahermosa, Mexico

The Jujo-Tecominoacan field is located south of the Gulf of Mexico in the Chiapas-Tabasco Basin. This onshore field was discovered in 1980 and produces hydrocarbon from Kimmerdigian, Tithonian and Lower Cretaceous carbonates reservoirs. This field is the 2nd most important oil producer in southeastern region and the 8th in the country. As many oth­ers fields situated in this sector of the country, the Jujo-Tecominoacan field has been con­sidered as naturally fractured, where production come from a tectonic fracture network par­allel to the faults. However, a detailed analysis of sequence stratigraphy and 3D seismic structural interpretation correlated with production patterns, showed, first, the presence of listric faults that controlled thickness of sequences, and second, several differential vertical movements due to passive salt diapirs via listric faults, through Kimmeridgian and Tithonian time, which onlapping or completely eroded the sequences. FMS, FMI and UBI images logs showed several kaverns, and a karstified paleo-fracture network parallel to the listric faults, that control production rather than tectonic fractures, in several levels of the lithological col­umn. This new karstic model to the field, promotes to test new reservoir intervals in the field, but also to explore new sites immediately adjacent to the structure. Regionally, this new interpretation will have repercussion for other fields. Effectively, in the Chiapas-Tabasco Basin, the Mesozoic tectonic activity of salt domes, which occurred long before the main deformation stage in Miocene times, was either ignored or at least largely underestimated, although it is the main controlling factor for reservoir development.