Petroleum Potential of U.S. Atlantic Slope, Rise, and Abyssal Plain

Abstract

A Mesozoic shelf margin below the present continental slope is believed to have the potential for hydrocarbon accumulations. Of special interest for the petroleum geologist are reef carbonate deposits that may be associated with this paleoshelf edge. Carbonate reef trends of the Edwards Limestone of Texas and the El Abra-Tamaulipas Formation of the Mexican Golden Lane are chosen as analogs to infer the locations of potential reservoirs and the probable relations between potential reservoirs and seals. Petroleum could have been generated in Mesozoic or younger basin facies and migrated essentially updip, but possibly down section, to reservoir rocks in the Mesozoic shelf margin. Other exploration targets associated with this paleomargin complex and which could have been charged by migrating petroleum are structural highs above the predicted reef buildups and closures associated with known faults. Seaward of the Mesozoic shelf edge, potential exploration targets include stratigraphic pinchouts of Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic sediments near the base of the present slope, abandoned canyon-fan complexes, channel fills on the present rise, and inferred Cretaceous and Jurassic turbidites beneath the present rise and abyssal plain. Although current petroleum prices do not justify the development of petroleum resources in such deep-water areas, some of these targets, especially those beneath the present slope, may be of considerable interest in the near future.