Petroleum system evolution in the Conecuh Embayment southwest Alabama U.S. Gulf Coast

Journal Article · Sun Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · AAPG Bulletin

OSTI ID:411917

Wade, W J ^[1]

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1. LSS International, Woodlands, TX (United States)

Analyses of hydrocarbon maturation trends in Smackover reservoirs of southwest Alabama indicates that crude oils in updip reservoirs of the Conecuh Embayment are anomalously mature for their present temperature-depth regimes. It is inferred that these mature oils equilibrated to depth-temperature conditions in deeper reservoirs downdip, and subsequently remigrated to their present positions. Burial history reconstructions, regional structure, and reservoir distributions support a model in which these mature oils leaked from the Jay-Flomaton-Big Escambia Creek field complex during Tertiary time, migrated through the Norphlet Formation, and accumulated in updip Smackover and Haynesville traps associated with basement knobs. Geochemical evidence suggests that hydrocarbon leakage from the Jay-Flomaton-Big Escambia Creek complex may have been triggered by an influx of very mature gas condensates with high non-hydrocarbon gas contents from failed reservoirs still farther downdip. This scenario has potential implications for (1) predicting potential migration pathways and preferential areas of crude oil accumulation in the updip portions of the Conecuh Embayment; and (2) reinterpreting organic-inorganic burial diagenetic reactions in the Norphlet Formation reservoirs of offshore Mobile Bay.

• OSTI ID: 411917
• Report Number(s): CONF-9610180--
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin, Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 80; ISSN 0149-1423; ISSN AABUD2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
ALABAMA
DIAGENESIS
EXPLORATION
HYDROCARBONS
MATURATION
ORIGIN
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESERVOIR ROCK
US GULF COAST