William Dickson

General Motors (Poland)

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Mark E. Odegard

Frontier Geosciences (Canada)

Craig Schiefelbein

ECSI Fibrotools (United States)

Janice M. Christ

James W. Granath

Stony Brook University

Webster Ueipass Mohriak

Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Marcelo Francisco de Nóbrega

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

John E. Zumberge

Benchmark Research (United States)

James Ganath

Benedito Souza Gomes

Petrobras (Brazil)

James M. Brooks

University of Connecticut

Cooperative Institutions

Slovak Academy of Sciences

Comenius University Bratislava

Getech (United Kingdom)

Benchmark Research (United States)

ConocoPhillips (United States)

University of Aberdeen

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Community Service Council

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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ABSTRACT: Finding the Pearl in the Pearl River Mouth Basin, Offshore China: A Deepwater Turbidite Oil Play?

AAPG Bulletin (2002)

William Dickson

River mouth

10.1306/61eee368-173e-11d7-8645000102c1865d

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Citations (2)

Defining a supergiant petroleum system in Brazil’s Santos Basin with multidisciplinary methods: One template for exploration success

Interpretation (2019)

William Dickson Craig Schiefelbein Mark E. Odegard

Is there a petroleum system here? How extensive and effective is it? How is it defined? Although we had presented a 2005 AAPG poster to address these questions, we now have performed an exploration look-back or case study demonstrating basin-wide presalt charge across Brazil’s Santos Basin. Santos has been a disappointing gas province with meager results compared to the adjacent Campos Basin for the past two decades. We have reviewed and expanded presentations at AAPG and SEG conferences from 1998 to 2005, which were followed 17 months later by the supergiant Tupi discovery, now Lula Field. We document the progression of analyses and revision of interpretations as a case history for multidisciplinary work in a frontier region with, at the time, scant coverage of key data types. Despite our access to a broad range of material (oil and cuttings samples, piston core extracts, slicks analysis, regional seismic lines, potential field coverages, and published literature), only a handful of point samples directly fitted our hypothesis of a mature oil-prone presalt source, supported by our inference, from leakage at the basin margins, of basin-wide migration and charge. Although the volumes of data collected across the Santos Basin are orders of magnitude larger in 2019, with a concomitant improvement in understanding the petroleum system and overall basin evolution, we take pains to limit our focus to what was known as of mid-2005 (although perhaps published later), which still sufficed to point to the future success. Because the source presence and effectiveness are the first consideration in evaluating frontier basins, our methodology provides one template for understanding a key geologic risk. We emphasize the importance of careful screening of inputs when information is scant and thus erroneous inferences are easily reached, with the need to take an exploration inference wherever data, once cross-validated, direct the explorer.

10.1190/int-2018-0204.1

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Citations (6)

Structural And Litological Inversion Using Gravity And Mangetic Data Integrated With Geological Infomation

AGUSM (2007)

Mark E. Odegard William Dickson James W. Granath

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West African and Brazilian Conjugate Margins: Crustal Types, Architecture, and Plate Configurations

SOCIETY OF ECONOMIC PALEONTOLOGISTS AND MINERALOGISTS eBooks (2005)

Bruce R. Rosendahl Webster Ueipass Mohriak Mark E. Odegard Jonathan P. Turner William Dickson

A combination of seismic reflection and gravimetric imagery has been used to map four sectors of proto-oceanic crust along conjugate segments of the West African and Brazilian margins. These form corridors isolating oceanic crust, produced about the post-118 Ma pole of rotation, from continental crust. Seaward of the proto-oceanic crust/oceanic crust boundary, relatively uniform, thin oceanic crust (4.2–6.5 km thick) has been generated at the paleo-Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Structural variability is limited largely to fracture zones. Proto-oceanic crust in the northern sectors (i.e., Kribi, Mbini, and Ogooue) is up to 10 km thick, block-faulted, compartmentalized, and seismically layered. These sectors of proto-oceanic crust likely were generated by slow spreading, as the relative plate motions evolved from left-lateral dislocation along the

10.5724/gcs.05.25.0261

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Citations (33)

Geological and geophysical interpretation of the Rio Grande Rise, south-eastern Brazilian margin: extensional tectonics and rifting of continental and oceanic crusts

Petroleum Geoscience (2010)

Webster Ueipass Mohriak Marcelo Francisco de Nóbrega Mark E. Odegard Benedito Souza Gomes William Dickson

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the geological and geophysical interpretation of rift structures in the region extending from the Rio Grande Rise, in the Southeastern Brazilian margin, towards the Cabo Frio High, which separates the Campos and Santos basins. We have analysed potential field data (gravity and magnetic) from the Argentine to the Brazilian oceanic basins and extending over the Pelotas, Santos and Campos basins. The Rio Grande Rise shows a relatively negative Bouguer anomaly in an area that corresponds to a major positive bathymetric feature between the Argentine and Brazil basins. North–south propagators related to the early spreading centres of the Atlantic Ocean are observed from Argentina towards the southern Santos Basin, which is characterized by an elevated basement topography relative to the Pelotas Basin. The region adjacent to the Florianopolis Fracture Zone between the Santos and Pelotas basins is also characterized by an elevated basement region aligned in an east–west direction, and locally it is marked by rift structures aligned along a NW–SE direction, forming a lineament or shear zone (Cruzeiro do Sul lineament) that extends from the Cabo Frio High towards the Rio Grande Rise, thus involving both continental and oceanic crusts. The Rio Grande Rise is associated with the east–west-trending fracture zones, which are characterized by several aligned magnetic anomalies in the southern Santos Basin. The Rio Grande Fracture Zone continues landward as the Sao Paulo Ridge, and extends towards the platform as the Florianopolis High. Oceanic propagators are identified from Argentina towards the Pelotas and Santos basins, and locally we observe rupturing of the salt layer by igneous intrusions or possibly by mantle exhumation. The Florianopolis (or Rio Grande) Fracture Zone is marked by an abrupt topographic offset separating the Pelotas Basin from the southern Santos Basin, and the associated volcanic belts limit the southernmost occurrence of the late Aptian evaporite sequence. The evaporite sequence in this segment of the continental margin shows remarkable layering of halite, anhydrite and carnalite. Conjugate to the Rio Grande Rise, the Walvis Ridge, offshore Namibia, is similarly a topographic high, but rift structures as observed in the Brazilian side are apparently unique in the South Atlantic. Alternative interpretations for the origin of the Rio Grande Rise include: a volcanic edifice or plateau rooted in the mantle; an intraplate shear zone affecting both continental and oceanic crust; an oceanic area of igneous over-productivity caused by a hotspot or a thermal anomaly in the mantle; a palaeo-spreading centre in the Cretaceous Atlantic Ocean; an area of excessive volcanic activity resulting from mantle differentiation due to adiabatic decompression; or perhaps an isolated remnant of continental crust left outboard of the Brazilian continental margin during the drifting process.

Lineament

Fracture zone

Basement

Continental Margin

African Plate

10.1144/1354-079309-910

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Citations (137)

Abstract: Insights on Prospectivity of Disputed Zones, South China Sea

Janice M. Christ William Dickson James W. Granath

Abstract Disputed areas of the South China Sea (SCS) can be explored effectively ahead of boundary settlements by using potential fields data coupled with geological literature. Potential fields techniques are uniquely suited to such screening evaluations because the foundation data sets, particularly gravity, are seamless, cover huge areas at low cost, provide basin-scale sedimentation as well as structural information and can identify large targets. When integrated with published knowledge, gravity and magnetics data provide powerful exploration tools; in disputed zones, perhaps the only ones available. The authors used potential fields data processed and displayed by GETECH's proprietary methods to revamp the tectonic interpretation of the SCS, redefine basins and identify new depocenters, structures, and sediment delivery systems. The disputed areas of current oil and gas production will be discussed: the Xisha Trough, southeastern Qiongdongnan Basin, Phu Khanh/Nha Trang Basin, Tu Chinh/Vung May Basin and the carbonate bank regions of the northern and southern margins of the SCS. The Phu Khanh and southern Qiongdongnan basins in particular have been redefined and extended. Hydrocarbon sourcing is a key issue over much of the outboard area due to the thinness of the Cenozoic section outside of the major basins. Indications of hydrocarbons do occur in both the basins and banks areas. Gravity derivatives, a sediment isopach calculated from depth to magnetic basement, and corroboration from the literature provide the basis for mapping depocenters. The depocenters are interpreted as having mainly Cenozoic fill, with inferred Paleogene source rocks, but significant Pre-Tertiary sections and Pre-Tertiary hydrocarbon sources may be a component of some. Thermal maturity will be a key discriminator between oil and gas. Heat flow variations with time will be a major factor in modeling thermal maturity because of differences in the relative timing of tectonic events across the area. Clastic reservoirs are more likely to offer sealed traps than the numerous reefs and carbonate banks, which often grow to the seafloor. The synrift section offers the best chance of sandstone reservoirs, sealed by post-rift deepwater mudstones. Gravity attribute and derivative image interpretation indicates that the more established sediment delivery systems did not reach most of this area. A few speculative canyon systems are mapped outboard of the Northwest Palawan Basin, but nearly all channel signatures are short, discontinuous, local features. Structures are present in all basins. Fault-related highs between the grabens/half-grabens should provide structural targets in the marginal banks areas. Given the resolution of the gravity data used by the authors (approximately 6–8 km), mappable structures are large. Large targets are an economic necessity because most of the outboard disputed zones are in water depths greater than 1000 m. The deep water, combined with boundary issues, will delay seismic exploration and drilling, but potential fields interpretation indicates areas worth further investigation. Political progress is being made in addressing disputed zones in the SCS. Perhaps we will yet see some of these areas thoroughly tested. Presented at: 2005 South East Asia Petroleum Exploration Society (SEAPEX) Conference, Singapore, 2003

Prospectivity mapping

Isopach map

Trough (economics)

Hydrocarbon exploration

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Development history of the southern terminus of the Central Atlantic; Guyana–Suriname case study

Geological Society London Special Publications (2015)

Michal Němčok Samuel Rybár Mark E. Odegard William Dickson Ondrej Pelech

Abstract The study focuses on the offshore Guyana–Suriname–French Guiana region. It draws from seismic, well, gravimetric and magnetic data. They indicate that the continental break-up along the western margin of the Demerara Plateau took place during the Callovian–Oxfordian, associated with the Central Atlantic opening, and accommodated by normal faults. The continental break-up in the SE offshore Guyana accommodated by strike-slip faults was coeval. The continental break-up along the NE and eastern margins of the Demerara Plateau took place during the late Aptian–Albian, associated with the opening of the Equatorial Atlantic, and accommodated by dextral strike-slip and normal faults, respectively. Different spreading vectors of the Central and Equatorial Atlantic required development of the Accommodation Block during the late Aptian/Albian–Paleocene in their contact region, and in the region between the Central Atlantic and its southernmost portion represented by the Offshore Guyana Block, which were separated from each other by the opening Equatorial Atlantic. Its role was to accommodate for about 20° mismatch between the Central and Equatorial Atlantic spreading vectors, which has decreased from the late Aptian/Albian to Paleocene down to 0°. Differential movements between the Central and Equatorial Atlantic oceans were also accommodated by strike-slip faults of the Guyana continental margin, some active until the Paleocene. Supplementary material: Extended methods and discussion chapters are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18875

Atlantic World

10.1144/sp431.10

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Citations (14)

Introduction to special section: Atlantic margin of Canada

Interpretation (2020)

Ian Atkinson Vsevolod Egorov David Brown John Cody William Dickson

Section (typography)

Margin (machine learning)

Special section

10.1190/int-2020-0406-spseintro.1

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Petroleum systems asymmetry across the South Atlantic Equatorial Margins

Geological Society London Special Publications (2016)

William Dickson Craig Schiefelbein Mark E. Odegard John E. Zumberge

Abstract We describe an examination of two lines of evidence, tectono-structural evolution and hydrocarbon geochemistry, of asymmetric opening of the Atlantic Equatorial Margin. Our structural mapping used compilations of geophysical data and a review of both published literature and oil company public presentations. Geochemically, we accessed regional non-exclusive oil studies of the conjugate margins of Africa and South America, plus considerable published material. A group of non-exclusive oils was refined to 286, which clustered into five families, all represented along the NE Brazil margin but only one along the West African Transform (WAT) margin. Multiple lacustrine-sourced oils were seen around the South Atlantic, including NE Brazil, but a rich, oil-prone lacustrine source was not indicated offshore Ivory Coast and Ghana. Despite minor evidence of mixed source, possibly lacustrine stringers within an alluvial to marine setting, the predominant source is marine Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Turonian and possibly Albian). We find that opening asymmetry (a) biased the location of lacustrine (Early to mid-Cretaceous prerift to early synrift) source rocks to the NE Brazil margin and (b) locally narrowed the width of the optimal marine (Mid-Late Cretaceous postrift) WAT Margin source kitchens. Burial of the latter has aggravated the risk of late charge from light (condensate and gas) hydrocarbons.

10.1144/sp431.13

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Citations (10)

South Atlantic Margins Basin Analysis (Samba) - Gravity Constraints on Plate Reconstruction

81st EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2019 (1999)

J. D. Fairhead William Dickson

Integration of satellite, land and marine gravity data from the entire South Atlantic region and improved continental margin bathymetry have been used to study and compare tectonic features on both African and South American continental margins.

Continental Margin

Margin (machine learning)

10.3997/2214-4609.201407641

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