Deep-water reservoir distribution on a salt-influenced slope, Santos Basin, offshore Brazil

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: http://doi.org/10.1306/11182017340. This is version 2 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Clara Rodríguez, Christopher Aiden-Lee Jackson , Rebecca E. Bell, Atle Rotevatn, Malcolm Francis

Abstract

Studies of near-seabed datasets show that salt tectonics controls the distribution and architecture of deep-water reservoirs in many salt-influenced basins. It is typically difficult, however, to study the distribution and stratigraphic evolution of depositional systems preserved at deeper, economically significant depths, reflecting poor seismic imaging of steeply dipping strata flanking high-relief salt structures. 3D seismic and borehole data from the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil allow us to identify a range of depositional elements that form the building blocks of three main tectono-stratigraphic phases. During the first phase, channel systems and lobes were confined within updip minibasins and to the hangingwalls of salt-detached faults. During the second phase, channel systems and lobes filled updip minibasins to bypass sediment downslope, with coarse clastic deposition then occurring in downdip minibasins, >100 km from the coeval shelf margin. Syndepositional seafloor relief caused: (i) channel system deflection and diversion around salt-cored highs; (ii) channel system uplift and rotation on the flanks of rising salt structures; (iii) lateral and frontal confinement of channel systems. During the final phase, rising salt walls dissected previously deposited deep-water systems, with MTCs deposition becoming increasingly important. Our results have important implications for post-salt prospectivity in the Santos Basin and other salt-influenced sedimentary basins, with a range of reservoirs and trapping styles present in this underexplored interval. More specifically, we show that large volumes of clastic sediment were not trapped behind the ‘Albian Gap’, a salt-controlled depocenter dominating the north-western basin margin, but were instead delivered further basinward.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/osf.io/8v6x7

Subjects

Earth Sciences, Geology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure

Keywords

salt tectonics, minibasin, slope depositional systems, MTCs, channel-levee complexes, deep-water depositional systems, fill-and-spill, offshore Brazil, Santos Basin, turbidite channels, turbidite lobes

Dates

Published: 2019-08-07 19:14

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License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International