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ABSTRACT
The Guyana Basin is located along the passive margin of northeastern South America. With no major oil discoveries, the region is considered by the U.S. Geological Survey the second
least explored basin in the world. We integrated approximately
3000 km (1870 mi) of industry two-dimensional seismic data
and 16 offshore wells in offshore Guyana to provide a regional
framework and its hydrocarbon potential.
Four main stratigraphic sequences from the Cretaceous to
the Pliocene were recognized.
Sequence 1 of the Cretaceous consists of shelfal sedimentation and submarine fan systems. The main Cretaceous depocenter is located in the southeastern part of the area, which
coincides with a free-air gravity low, suggesting a basement
depression inherited from Jurassic rifting.
Sequence 2 of the Paleogene consists of shelfal clastic and
carbonate deposits. Listric faults affect the shelf edge and slope,
resulting in large turbidites down the slope. The west-southwest
east-northeastoriented Waini arch developed along the northern shelf, and it may reflect a flexural long-distance effect of
the Caribbean plate convergence with the northwestern South
American plate.
Sequence 3 of the early to middle Miocene consists of
isolated carbonate platforms at the shelf edge surrounded by
siliciclastics. On the sequence top, a regional unconformity
was identified by large incised valleys. We suggest that this
unconformity was caused by the peak of the Caribbean orogeny in the Trinidad area.
Sequence 4 of the late Miocene to Pliocene shows the
largest terrigenous progradational event in the shelf, which
was built up by clear sigmoidal clinoforms. We suggest that the
large progradation pattern change is caused by paleodrainage
system changes in northern South America since the middle
Miocene and by glacioeustasy.
AUTHORS
Wenxiu Yang International Research Institute of Stavanger, 8046 Stavanger, Norway;
wenxiu.yang@uis.no
Wenxiu Yang received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, in 2007. At present, she
works as a postdoctoral researcher for the
International Research Institute of Stavanger
and the University of Stavanger in Norway. She
is currently interpreting regional seismic and
well data on the northwestern offshore of Cuba.
Alejandro Escalona Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger,
4036 Stavanger, Norway;
alejandro.escalona@uis.no
Alejandro Escalona received his Ph.D. in geology
from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003.
At present, he is an associate professor at the
University of Stavanger in Norway. His research
is about basin evolution of continental margins,
tectonics, regional to reservoir-scale analysis
to define petroleum systems, and sequence/
seismic stratigraphy, using workstations to interpret both two-dimensional and three-dimensional
seismic data integrated with well and core
data, GIS Arc/Info database management, and
visualization techniques.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the sponsors of the Caribbean Basins,
Tectonics and Hydrocarbons consortium for
the main economic support, Christopher Kendall
at the University of South Carolina for data
donation that made this project possible, and
Paul Mann for constructive discussions. We thank
Landmark Graphics Corporation, Schlumberger,
Zetaware, and Chesapeake Technology for software support. We thank the reviewers Mourad
M. Bedir, Jan Golonka, and Joseph J. Lambiase
for their helpful contributions.
The AAPG Editor thanks the following reviewers
for their work on this paper: Mourad M. Bedir,
Jan Golonka, and Joseph J. Lambiase.
EDITORS NOTE
Copyright 2011. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
Manuscript received June 18, 2010; provisional acceptance August 3, 2010; revised manuscript received
September 7, 2010; final acceptance January 3, 2011.
DOI:10.1306/01031110106
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Figure 2. Plate tectonic evolution of the Guyana Basin using the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics PLATES database and
PaleoGIS software. (A) Central Atlantic phase (200145 Ma). (B) African rifting phase (145113 Ma). (C) Passive margin phase (1130 Ma).
Formation conformably overlay the previous formations. The Takutu Formation includes the reddishbrown shale interbeds of very fine grained sandstone,
siltstone, and micritic limestone sediments developed within the fluvial and coastal facies of the
formation and could be a good reservoir (Crawford
et al., 1985).
Africa Rifting Phase (145113 Ma)
During the Early Cretaceous, South Africa and
South America started to rift apart. The rifting event
happened in the South Atlantic because of the
counterclockwise rotation of Africa relative to South
America (Pindell, 1991; Mann et al., 1995), resulting in two conjugate margins, the Guinea Rise on
the African margin and the Demerara Rise on the
South American margin (Figure 2B). Because of
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Tectonostratigraphic Evolution of the Guyana Basin
Figure 3. Generalized stratigraphic column showing the lithology distribution along the basin dip (left) and along the shelf (right) of the Guyana Basin.
Well Data
Information on 16 wells (Figure 4A; Table 1) was
used to correlate the 2-D seismic data interpretation. Eleven wells from published articles (Erlich
et al., 2003; Campbell, 2005) and well reports (T.
Doran, 1985, personal communication; B. Chevallier,
1988, personal communication; A. Noyau, 1991,
personal communication) were used to display key
geologic tops to correlate the seismic data and extend the important strata information throughout
the entire Guyana Basin. In addition, five ODP
wells (12571261, leg 207) from the Demerara
region were available and used as distal correlation
for the continental shelf (Figure 4A) (Erbacher
et al., 2004).
Methodology
The seismic framework follows the convention
proposed by Mitchum et al. (1977), in which seismic sequences are bounded by unconformities and
their correlative conformities. These seismic sequence boundaries are designated by their stratigraphic ages identified in seismic data and tied to the
wells in the basin (Figure 4B). They are correlated
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Figure 4. (A) Topography and bathymetry basemap showing the seismic data and well data used. Red points represent wells used from
published sources, green points are Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) wells, red lines represent the seismic transects from published articles
that were used as a reference in the work, and the black lines represent the seismic transects that were interpreted in the work.
(B) Correlation between seismic tectonic sequences and the Arapaima-1 well. Locations are shown in (A).
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Well Name
Company
Arap-1
Esseq-2
Berbice-2
OG-1
Mahai-1
Mahai-2
Abary-1
CO-1
NCO-1
GO-1
Well-A
1257
1258
1259
1260
1261
Arapaima-1
Essequibo-2
Berbice-2
Offshore-Guyana-1
Mahaica-1
Mahaica-2
Abary-1
Coronie-1
Ncoronie-1
Galibi-Offshore-1
Well-A
ODP-1257
ODP-1258
ODP-1259
ODP-1260
ODP-1261
Total
Total
Shell
Shell
Shell
Shell
Shell
Conoco
ELF
Tenneco
Petrleos de Venezuela, S.A.
Ocean Drilling Program
Ocean Drilling Program
Ocean Drilling Program
Ocean Drilling Program
Ocean Drilling Program
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Tectonostratigraphic Evolution of the Guyana Basin
Figure 5. Well cross sections in the Guyana Basin. (A) Well correlation showing the stratigraphic distribution along offshore Guyana Basin. (B) Well correlation section showing the
stratigraphic distribution along the Guyana Basin dip. The two cross sections indicate Cretaceous source rock thicknesses of as much as 550 m (1800 ft) and continuous along the
shelf. (C) Free-air gravity base map showing the location of cross sections A and B (Sandwell and Smith, 2009).
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Figure 7. (A) Regional isochron map showing the distribution of the two different types of basement interpreted. The black dashed line
represents the boundary between the two different basements. (B) Regional structural map of the top of the acoustic basement. The purple
line represents the basement shelf edge. (C) Regional structural map of the top of the Cretaceous. Purple line represents the Cretaceous
shelf edge, and the dashed black line represents the basement shelf edge showing that the Cretaceous shelf edge moved basinward.
(D) Interpreted Cretaceous depocenter on the top of the free-air gravity, suggesting that the Cretaceous depocenter developed on the top of
an inherited Jurassic graben (Sandwell and Smith, 2009).
map (Figure 7C). Most of the progradation occurred on top of the Cretaceous depocenter in the
southeastern part of the basin by 60 km (37 mi);
whereas in the center and northern parts of the
study area, progradation was minimal, reflecting a
low accommodation space. Similar to sequence 1,
listric faults of the Miocene affected this interval,
causing collapse of carbonate buildups and sandstones, resulting in turbidite and debris-flow de-
Figure 6. (A) Uninterpreted seismic line and interpreted seismic line showing the main tectonosequences. The depth of the basement
top increases rapidly from 1700 ms in the southwest to about 5000 ms in the northeast. (B) Uninterpreted seismic line and interpreted
seismic line showing that the depth of the basement top is 800 ms in the southwest and changes to approximately 3000 ms in the
northeast. A strong parallel reflector can be observed within the basement. This reflection is dipping in a seaward direction and
thickening basinward from 500 ms to 1300 ms. Location of the lines are shown on Figure 4A.
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DISCUSSION
Plate Movement Effect on the Guyana
Continental Shelf
The Guyana continental shelf and basin have developed as passive margins since the Late Jurassic
to Early Cretaceous. However, several tectonic
events seemed to have affected this region, resulting in the development of subtle regional structures, unconformities, and variations in the depositional patterns. Two different plate tectonic
elements seem to be related to the disturbances
observed on the basin that include oblique rifting
with the African plate during the Early Cretaceous
and oblique convergence of the Caribbean plate
with northern South America since the Late Cretaceous. In this section, we provide a plausible explanation of the possible causes of the main events
observed in the Guyana continental shelf.
Figure 9. (A) Regional isochron map of sequence 1 (Cretaceous). The map shows that the main depocenter developed in the
southeastern Guyana Basin. A main canyon connects this depocenter with onland paleodrainage systems. (B) Uninterpreted seismic line
and interpreted seismic line showing seismic canyon fill facies into the Cretaceous depocenter in the southeastern region of the basin.
Location of the line is shown in Figure 4A.
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Figure 10. (A) Regional structural map of the top of sequence 2 (Paleogene). The purple line represents the Paleogene shelf edge, and
the dashed black line represents the Cretaceous shelf edge showing shelf edges progradation in the southeastern region. (B) Regional
isochron map of sequence 2. Two Paleogene depocenters are interpreted toward each end of the basin and separated by a westsouthwesteast-northeast regional uplift developed in the central region of the basin (Waini arch).
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2.
3.
4.
5.
Figure 11. (A) Uninterpreted seismic line and interpreted seismic line showing the eastern flank of the Waini arch. Pinch-out against the
arch is Lower Cretaceousmiddle Miocene. (B) Uninterpreted seismic line and interpreted seismic line showing the character of the middle
Miocene unconformity, showing incised valleys that erode large parts of sequence 2. Locations of the lines are shown in Figure 4A.
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Tectonostratigraphic Evolution of the Guyana Basin
Figure 12. (A) Regional structural map of the top of sequence 3 (lower and middle Miocene). Purple line represents the middle Miocene shelf edge, and the dashed black line represents
the Paleogene shelf edge showing slight basinward progradation. (B) Regional isochron map of sequence 3 showing thinning toward the Waini arch and continuous development of
depocenters at both flanks. (C) Regional structural map of the top of sequence 4 (Pliocene). Purple line represents Pliocene shelf edge, and the dashed black line represents the middle
Miocene shelf edge showing considerable progradation of sequence 3. (D) Regional isochron map of sequence 4 showing that the main depocenters are located off the shelf edge.
Figure 13. Proposed long-distance effect of the Caribbean plate on the Guyana Basin. (A) In the Late Cretaceous (80 Ma), the Caribbean plate started to move eastward and collided
with South America. The Guyana shield supplied sediments to the Atlantic Ocean during this period. (B) During the end of the Paleogene (30 Ma), continuous west to east Caribbean
collision with northern South America caused uplift of the Cordillera de la Costa and flexural loading, resulting in uplift of the Waini arch. (C) During the early and middle Miocene (14
Ma), major convergence in the Trinidad region produced regional uplift that affected the Guyana Basin region. (D) During the Pliocene (5 Ma), rapid uplift of the Andean mountains,
development of major paleodrainages, and east-directed erosion of the uplifted Guyana Shield resulted in a large progradation on the Guyana Basin.
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Tectonostratigraphic Evolution of the Guyana Basin
Figure 14. Subsidence analysis on wells of Arapaima-1 (A) and Essequibo-2 (B) showing the main tectonic phases in the Guyana continental shelf.
Figure 15. Burial history analysis of well (A) Arapaima-1, (B) Essequibo-2, and (C) CO-1.
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interpretation of these structures and basin modeling are needed to corroborate this assumption.
The Waini arch may play a more important role
both as a structural and stratigraphic trap. Late
Cretaceous to lower Miocene sediments pinch out
in both directions of the arch and also form anticlinal traps on top of the arch (Figure 16C). Hydrocarbons could have accumulated by stratigraphic
migration from the northwest, from the Eastern
Venezuelan and Columbus basins, and/or from the
southeast in the Guyana Basin, similarly to the
Venezuelan heavy oil belt. More exploration and
drilling in this area are required to test this play.
Stratigraphic Traps
These are probably the most common and attractive types of trap in the basin. They consist of Cretaceous canyons in the southeastern part of the
basin, Cretaceous to Miocene debris flows and
turbidites in the toe of the slope, Paleogene carbonate buildups in the shelf edge, middle Miocene
incised valleys, and shelfal Pliocene sandstones.
We speculate that the presence of hydrocarbon
seeps and oil fields along the Guyana and Suriname
coastlines (Figure 1A) are caused by updip migration through Late Cretaceous and middle Miocene canyons and incised valleys from the Cretaceous depocenter and deep basin. If this is true,
open possibilities for stratigraphic traps within the
shelf and slope of the basin exist.
CONCLUSIONS
The main results of this study follow:
1. Four tectonic sequences from the Cretaceous
to the Pliocene are interpreted.
2. Three normal fault families are interpreted in
the basin: (1) Jurassic high-angle normal faults
that developed on top of the basement as part
of the opening of the central Atlantic; (2) middle Miocene listric normal faults that developed
on the outer-shelf region and detached in the
Upper Cretaceous shales; and (3) Pliocene listric
faults that formed in the shelf edge.
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