The Siliciclastic Upper Cretaceous Play of Eastern Mississippi Canyon

摘要

The eastern Mississippi Canyon area has been largely a Miocene oil and gas province in which recent discoveries in the Jurassic Norphlet Formation have been made. This paper focuses on a nascent Cretaceous play targeting the eastern Tuscaloosa fan comprised of large symmetric and asymmetric structures created by an expulsion-rollover system in the pre-Miocene interval. The top of the Cretaceous interval is found between 15, 000' and 27, 000', is up to 15,000' thick, and is underlain by a mature Tithonian source rock. The play extends downdip from the Cretaceous shelf edge and the reservoir is interpreted to be the equivalent of the Tuscaloosa Formation of onshore South Louisiana. This paper will examine the idea that the central Cretaceous basin is in the optimal zone for the trend of appropriate subsurface temperatures, depth, and significantly expanded reservoir section in the Upper and Lower Cretaceous intervals.