Review of principal hydrocarbon-bearing basins of the South China Sea area

Abstract

As a consequence of exploration for hydrocarbons, and of research programs conducted by academic and international institutions, substantial progress has been made in recent years in definition of hydrocarbon bearing basins, and those potentially so, in Southeast Asia and the South China Sea. Basins and depositional provinces now recognized include: the Thai Basin, the Malay Basin, West Natuna and Penyu Basins, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) and Mekong (Vung Tau) Basins, East Natuna area, the Greater Sarawak Basin including Central Luconia and Balingian depositional provinces, the Baram Delta/Brunei-Sabah Basin and the Northwest Palawan Shelf. Where hydrocarbons have been encountered, the deposits are commonly associated with rocks of mid- and Upper Miocene age. Oligocene and Pliocene occurrences are locally significant.With some exceptions, most sedimentary basin-fill was deposited within continental to coastal environments. Such sediments are commonly gas-prone. Where oil-prone, there are suggestions that the oil has been generated under conditions of greater thermal maturity. Stratigraphic correlation depends largely on recognition of cyclic successions by means of integration of information derived from seismic stratigraphy, and paleontological and environmental analysis. Structures are commonly anticlinal and fault-associated; the anticlines are commonly suspected to have diapiric cores. Major transcurrent faults of regional extent may have been instrumental in formation of depositional provinces and anticlinal trends.