Classification of rifted sedimentary basins of the Pannonian Basin System according to the structural genesis, evolutionary history and hydrocarbon maturation zones

Abstract

We apply the concept that sedimentary basins can be classified according to their structural genesis and evolutionary history to the Tertiary rifts of the Pannonian Basin of Eastern Europe. We have approached the classification by breaking the basins down into the cycles or stages that they comprise. This approach helps us to understand the basin evolution better and allows us to compare the basins more easily. The drivers that define the cycles of basin history are (1) basin-forming tectonics, (2) sedimentary processes, and (3) basin-modifying tectonics. We link common elements of petroleum systems and plays to these natural cycles or stages in basin evolution to improve the prediction of which plays could be expected to occur in a particular basin or region. This concept is constructed through several steps. These steps are (1) to identify standard evolutionary patterns related to geodynamic drivers, (2) to group the basins with similar tectono-stratigraphic evolution and correlate these with petroleum system development, (3) to relate basin trap types to basin history and (4) to calculate characteristic hydrocarbon maturation zones by thermal modeling. We present an application to the Pannonian Basin System of Eastern Europe, an area formed by Miocene back-arc extension and affected by compressional reactivation during its late-stage evolution. The sub-basins of the Pannonian Basin System appear to have experienced comparable magnitudes of deformation, to have developed similar trap types and to have experienced a characteristic hydrocarbon maturation history in a way that supports play prospectivity.