The role of Cretaceous seal to the hydrocarbon potential of the Salawati and Bintuni basins, Irian Jaya, Indonesia

Conference · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1991 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:7024759

Samuel, L; Kartanegara, L ^[1]

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1. PERTAMINA, Jakarta (Indonesia)

The Salawati and Bintuni basins are late Tertiary depocenters located in the westernmost part of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. The two basins are closely located and only separated by a 50-km-wide structural high known as the Ajamaru Plateau. Petroleum exploration results in the Salawati basin are very successful. This basin has produced around 300 Mbbl of oil from the Miocene carbonates of the Kais Formation. Exploration with similar objectives in the Bintuni basin, however, gave only little success. Some oil was obtained from small Wasian and Mogoi fields, which jointly produced around 7 Mbbl of oil between 1951 and 1960. Extensive exploration campaigns between 1970 and 1980 with Miocene Kais Limestone as the objective resulted only in the discovery of the small Wiriagar field. The big difference in petroleum potentially of the Salawati and Bintuni basins has attracted explorationists to evaluate what significant geological factors had influenced it. Evaluation on available exploration data of the basins had some interesting results. In terms of geologic factors controlling hydrocarbon accumulation (presence of mature source rock, migration pathway, good reservoir quality, valid trap, and effective seal), it seems that shales of Cretaceous age have played the most important role. If this regional seal is absent or noneffective, oil could migrate vertically from pre-Tertiary sources to the Tertiary reservoirs. On the contrary, if the Cretaceous shales are present and sealing, then the underlying Mesozoic sequence is attractive and may trap hydrocarbon, if supported by the other geologic factors.

• OSTI ID: 7024759
• Report Number(s): CONF-910403--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States) Journal Volume: 75:3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
ASIA
CARBONATE ROCKS
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
INDONESIA
ISLANDS
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERAL RESOURCES
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
PETROLEUM GEOLOGY
RESERVOIR ROCK
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SOURCE ROCKS