WorldOil

Regional geology of deepwater salt architecture: New plays in the GOM

In deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the new Lower Tertiary play shows great promise—as much as 15 billion bbl of potentially recoverable reserves, according to the MMS. There has been a rash of discoveries in recent years, including the much publicized Jack-2 and Kaskida fields in the Lower Tertiary formations, which is sometimes referred to as the Wilcox trend, and has long been recognized as a major petroleum resource throughout the Texas and southwestern Louisiana area. Discovery well depths have been as shallow as 15,000 ft in some areas to as deep as 30,000 ft in others. Significant work has been done in unraveling the deepwater geology and salt tectonics of the Gulf of Mexico. A number of authors have recognized the presence of allochthonous and autochthonous Louann salt bodies in Gulf of Mexico. The mechanism of salt evacuation in relation to sediment loading and forming into various salt archetypes . . .