Sedimentary build-ups of pre-salt isolated carbonate platforms and formation of deep-water giant oil fields in Santos Basin, Brazil

Abstract

In response to the problems of unclear distribution of deep-water pre-salt carbonate reservoirs and formation conditions of large oil fields in the Santos passive continental margin basin, based on comprehensive utilization of geological, seismic, and core data, and reconstruction of Early Cretaceous prototype basin and lithofacies paleogeography, it is proposed for the first time that the construction of pre-salt carbonate build-ups was controlled by two types of isolated platforms: inter-depression fault-uplift and intra-depression fault-high. The inter-depression fault-uplift isolated platforms are distributed on the present-day pre-salt uplifted zones between depressions, and are built on half- and fault-horst blocks that were inherited and developed in the early intra-continental and inter-continental rift stages. The late intra-continental rift coquinas of the ITP Formation and the early inter-continental rift microbial limestones of the BVE Formation are continuously constructed; intra-depression fault-high isolated platforms are distributed in the current pre-salt depression zones, built on the uplifted zones formed by volcanic rock build-ups in the early prototype stage of intra-continental rifts, and only the BVE microbial limestones are developed. Both types of limestones formed into mound-shoal bodies, that have the characteristics of large reservoir thickness and good physical properties. Based on the dissection of large pre-salt oil fields discovered in the Santos Basin, it has been found that both types of platforms could form large-scale combined structural-stratigraphic traps, surrounded by high-quality lacustrine and lagoon source rocks at the periphery, and efficiently sealed by thick high-quality evaporite rocks above, forming the optimal combination of source, reservoir and cap in the form of “lower generation, middle storage, and upper cap”, with a high degree of oil and gas enrichment. It has been found that the large oil fields are all bottom water massive oil fields with a unified pressure system, and they are all filled to the spill-point. The future exploration is recommended to focus on the inter-depression fault-uplift isolated platforms in the western uplift zone and the southern section of eastern uplift zones, as well as intra-depression fault-high isolated platforms in the central depression zone. The result not only provides an important basis for the advanced selection of potential play fairways, bidding of new blocks, and deployment of awarded exploration blocks in the Santos Basin, but also provides a reference for the global selection of deep-water exploration blocks in passive continental margin basins.