Geology of supergiant Cano Limon field and Llanos basin, Colombia
After 40 years of sporadic exploration that yielded negative or marginal results, the Llanos basin of eastern Colombia was thrust to the forefront of world attention by the discovery of the supergiant Cano Limon field in July 1983. This discovery culminated an intensive 3-year exploration effort by Occidental involving 4000 km of dynamite seismic, 20 stratigraphic tests from 1300 to 3500 ft deep, and 13 exploratory wells. Cost prior to discovery was $45 million. The Llanos is an oily basin with abundant excellent reservoir sands. The problem has been to define traps. The basin deep lies along the foot of the eastern Cordillera, from which a sediment thickness of 30,000 ft thins gradually to the east on a homoclinal flank terminating at the Guyana shield. Except for the very young folding along the Andean front, structural traps are generally sparse. An exception is the Cano Limon area, which is dominated by major early Tertiary northeast-southwest strike-slip faulting. Concurrent folding and fault sealing formed Cano Limon and other smaller fields. The Cano Limon field with its other half, the Guafita field in Venezuela, contains an estimated initial potential of 3160 million bbl of oil, of which about 1460 million bbl is expected to be recovered. The bulk of the oil is in deltaic sands of the Eocene Mirador with additional reservoirs in the Upper Cretaceous. Average porosity of the Mirador is 24%, permeability is 4 darcies, and water saturation is 24%. The average initial flow rate of the first 15 wells is 10,000 BOPD. Exploration opportunities exist in a deep unexplored Paleozoic rift, in stratigraphic traps of Cretaceous and Tertiary age, and in fault-related traps along the basin flanks.
- Research Organization:
- Occidental International Exploration and Production Co., Bakersfield, CA
- OSTI ID:
- 7053378
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8608105-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Vol. 70:7; ISSN AAPGB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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The giant Cano Limon field, Llanos basin, Colombia
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Related Subjects
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
CENOZOIC ERA
COLOMBIA
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPLORATORY WELLS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGIC TRAPS
LATIN AMERICA
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERAL RESOURCES
OIL FIELDS
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESERVOIR ROCK
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SOUTH AMERICA
TERTIARY PERIOD
WELLS