Basement Tectonics Help Locate Pay
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OCTOBER 2015 The “Better Business” Publication Serving the Exploration / Drilling / Production Industry Basement Tectonics Help Locate Pay By Corine Prieto producing and projected sites can be northern Gulf of Mexico over the past identified. two decades. HOUSTON–Establishing basement Today’s cost for acquiring seismic The study confirms that a financial tectonics should be regarded as the first data over an optimum areal extent is $15 risk reduction factor can be applied when step in evaluating an international fron- million. Completion costs for a deep- a correlation between the position of an tier. target drilling operation average $1 million oil and gas prospect and the magnetical- More than two decades of data correlate per 1,000 feet, or generally a minimum ly-based basement structure map is made. the relationship between oil and gas fields of $30 million. New Wilcox and Norphlet Many operators have found the result and discovery wells to regional structural discoveries are at depths near 30,000 has led to better decisions about how basement characteristics in the northern feet. At these prices, cost makes a strong best to use their drilling and development Gulf of Mexico, and demonstrate the ra- case for including all information, in- budgets. tionale for utilizing regional basement cluding the basement structure, in the structure as a tool for evaluating explo- analysis and economic assessment of The Anticline Theory ration prospects. prospective targets. Despite the technological explosion Prospectivity continues to expand in Based on the premise that a financial of recent years, the most cost effective the northern Gulf of Mexico as drilling risk reduction factor can be applied when concept defining the location of oil and technology reaches greater depths. How- a correlation is made between the position gas fields arguably is still the “anticline ever, the costs and risks associated with of an oil and gas prospect and the mag- theory,” i.e., closed structural high at deep- and ultradeepwater exploration and netically-based basement structure map, reservoir level. Such a structural anomaly drilling are increasing, and it has become a research study was conducted to correlate must be located in the pathway of oil and apparent that using regional basement the relationship between oil and gas fields gas, which migrates both laterally and structure as an evaluation tool can help and discovery wells to regional structural vertically, in order to maximize its trapping reduce both cost and risk. The position basement characteristics, as well as to potential. of oil and gas fields can be a vital param- demonstrate the rationale for utilizing re- On the regional scale, a structural high eter in predicting the viability of explo- gional basement structure as an evaluation must be in close proximity to a structural ration sites, when the correlation between tool. The study used data amassed in the low (syncline, depocenter, or sub-basin). From a basinwide perspective, high struc- FIGURE 1 tural anomalies become the focal points Jack & St. Malo Discovery Locations of migrating oil and gas. Depth Range is 35,000 (Red) to 50,000 (Blue) Feet Regional (low) structural anomalies are the depocenters of generating “kitchens.” In most cases, basement anom- alies underlie and cause regional basinwide sedimentary structural anomalies. This is the primary rationale underlying the practical application of basement maps as exploration tools. Less accepted–or merely less known– is that in any producing basin, oil and gas are concentrated in specific areas. In fact, 75 percent or more of the oil and gas in a producing basin is contained in only 25 percent or less of the total basin Reproduced for Integrated Geophysics Corp. with permission from The American Oil & Gas Reporter www.aogr.com Special Report: Gulf of Mexico Activity • 78 discoveries, or 30 percent, are situated in basement lows, such as Zinc, Holstein, Power Play and Tahoe. Out of the 258 northern Gulf of Mexico field discoveries cataloged, the results to date show that approximately 70 percent of the oil and gas reserves are located either on steep/faulted flanks or on top of basement structural highs. This leads to the observation that structural lows contain thicker sediment columns, and therefore thicker sections of potential oil and gas source beds. It is established that oil and gas gen - erated in regional lows migrate updip onto regional highs. Regional structural highs adjacent to a deep basement struc - Northern Gulf of Mexico deepwater discoveries correlated to basement structure are posted on a bathymetry map. tural low become attractive sites for oil accumulation. Structural highs located between two adjacent basement lows area. two decades of diligent analysis of depth offer special attraction for migration path - Further, structural positive (high) anom - estimates derived from various vintages ways from both sides. Regional low areas alies near structural negative (low) anom - of aeromagnetic surveys. This offshore become the sites for increased sediment alies are the preferred targets. Typical basement map has been correlated to deposition with a preferred content of examples are the Jack (Walker Ridge published geology, and has been calibrated oil/gas source beds (depocenters). Block 759) and St. Malo (Walker Ridge to available refraction data, onshore struc - Regional highs become the sites for Block 678) discoveries, which were drilled tural ties, and well control. Published reservoir development, especially on the in ±7,000 feet of water and through salt data identify the location of more than flanks where sand units pinch out against bodies greater than 8,000 feet thick. Sig - 258 Outer Continental Shelf blocks as - existing topographic and structural highs. nificantly, each discovery can be correlated sociated with oil and gas discoveries. Finally, oil and gas that is generated ther - to a basement high block on the depth- The study first plotted the acreage mally in regional structural lows migrates to-basement structure map (Figure 1). blocks carrying the fields reported by the updip to regional structural highs. The basement depth at the Jack well lo - Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, cation is 45,000 feet; the depth at the St. Regulation and Enforcement, as well as Logical Connection Malo structure is 38,000 feet. the reported discoveries. The location For many skeptics, the absence of a and the geological-structural framework logical connection, or rather the lack of Methodology of these productive blocks were correlated data concerning a connection between The study’s research objective was to to a magnetically-based basement struc - basement structure and the required struc - correlate the relationship between oil and tural interpretation and classified into tural situation at the level of deeper Juras - gas fields and discovery wells to regional three primary categories: sic, Cretaceous and Eocene source beds, structural basement characteristics, and • OCS blocks on the top of basement is critical. Such a connection is required to demonstrate the rationale for utilizing structural highs; to assign a higher exploration value to regional basement structure as an evalu - • OCS blocks in steep and faulted the basement structure map. ation tool. flanks of basement structural highs; and Unfortunately, there are no maps gen - Simply stated, the position of known • OCS blocks in basement structural oil and gas fields can be a vital parameter lows. erated with confidence from these deeper in predicting the viability of exploration Furthermore, in terms of productive levels today. Therefore, analyzing prospec - sites when the correlation between pro - acreage blocks analyzed, of the 258 tive acreage blocks must be restricted to ducing and projected sites can be identified. acreage blocks in the Gulf deepwater re - the relationships observed between the In the deepwater regime of the northern gion publicly reported as having discovery magnetically-based basement structure Gulf of Mexico, the availability of a reli - wells or as being part of an oil/gas field location and distribution of productive able regional basement structure map and development operation, the study’s findings acreage blocks, and to discovered oil/gas a documented number of oil and gas dis - determined the following relationships reserves. coveries provides an opportunity to test to basement structure: Basement structures in the northern the strategy. • 116 discoveries, or 45 percent of Gulf are the result of multiple deep- Two types of databases are utilized total samples, are located on steep and seated tensional and shear faulting at the for the statistical analysis correlation: faulted flanks of basement high blocks, basement level. Subsequent basement • A magnetically-based basement such as the Jack, St. Malo and Appomattox motions, as well as the impact of topo - structure (depth and contours) map; and discoveries. graphical differences at the level of sedi - • A tabulation of oil and gas field • 64 discoveries, or 25 percent, are mentation during Mesozoic and Lower discoveries from several published sources. located on basement structure highs, such Tertiary times, originally led to the de - The basement map is the product of as Vicksburg, Troika and Dawson. velopment of regional lows and regional Special Report: Gulf of Mexico Activity FIGURE 2 had mapped the Gulf’s basement as planar, sloping down to the abyss. The significant Appomattox & Vicksburg Discovery Locations seismic