Upper Miocene depositional environments of the Kikinda-Mokrin High (Serbia)

Abstract

Exploration for oil and gas in mature areas, such as the Pannonian Basin, can benefit from reexamination of old data using more advanced modern workflows that focus on the temporal and spatial aspects of sediment deposition. Specifically, we apply a new environment of deposition model that interprets the Upper Miocene-Pliocene sediments as being deposited in a rapidly filling basin characterized by quick shelf edge progradation from the northwest toward the southeast. Reconstruction of this shelf edge trajectory reveals the absence of a Lake Pannon level drop during this time; rather, deposition was done during a highstand systems tract. We divided the Serbian postrift sediments into the Hetin, Majdan, Mokrin, Kikinda, and Paludina Formations used by geoscientists in Hungary and Slovakia. Hemipelagic marls of the Hetin Formation serve as the source rocks for the Majdan Formation basin-center turbidite reservoirs. These turbidite reservoirs are in turn sealed by clays and marls of the Mokrin slope formation. In contrast to previous interpretations of this part of the basin, our new sequence stratigraphy interpretation of the depositional environment interpretation significantly reduces the miscorrelation of the target sandstone reservoirs. Application of this sequence stratigraphy model also promises a better understanding of the other elements of the hydrocarbon system, which should lead to better production performance and reservoir management.