--> Abstract: Hydrocarbon Potential of the Aruba and Western Curacao Basins, Offshore Venezuela; #90063 (2007)

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Hydrocarbon Potential of the Aruba and Western Curacao Basins, Offshore Venezuela

 

El-Mowafy, Hamed Zeidan1, Paul Mann2, Alejandro Escalona2 (1) Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (2) Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

 

Although Venezuela is the sixth largest oil producer in the world, there is no significant hydrocarbon production from its offshore basins.

 

We use a 885 km grid of 2D seismic data and three deep exploration wells drilled in 1989/90 to evaluate the hydrocarbon potential of two, 5.4-6 km-thick offshore basins near Aruba.

 

Four seismic sequences are defined: Sequence 1 consists of a 1300-m-thick section of continentally-derived clastic deep-water sediments, overlying an irregular basement of Late Cretaceous-Paleogene arc rocks; thicknesses are controlled by an east-striking set of parallel normal faults. Sequence 2 consists of a 2600-m-thick, early Miocene section of deep-marine deposits controlled by northwest-striking normal faults; the top of sequence 2 corresponds to the Middle Miocene unconformity of regional extent. Sequences 3 and 4 record 1450-m of a late Miocene deepwater to shelfal clastic and carbonate basin section; shelf-slope-fan clastic systems infill from small deltaic systems along the Venezuelan coast; normal displacements are observed on a set of northwest-striking faults.

Limited maturation data from the three wells indicates that only the southwestern part of the study area falls within the oil and gas window. These observations are consistent with bright spots seen on the seismic data and by gas shows reported from the wells.

A potential source is the continentally-derived terrigenous section of sequence 1; potential reservoirs include slope fans within sequence 3 and carbonate buildups on footwall blocks within sequence 4. Migration pathways are provided by northwest-striking normal faults that penetrate from the basement level through sequence 4.

 

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California