The Cretaceous Play Exploration Overview
Significant technical risks include reservoir presence and deliverability, hydrocarbon charge access, and trap/seal integrity.
Commercial challenges include hydrocarbon type (gas vs. oil), volumes required for commercial development, development
costs (hub and spoke versus stand-alone accumulations; number of development wells and FPSO's needed), and decreasing
contractor take. A quick review shows that nearly all successful (?) wells in the trend have been drilled from 5-40 km down
depositional dip from the Cretaceous paleo-shelf margin, though the technical factors mentioned above do not guarantee this
"sweet spot" will hold up over the long term. While new discoveries in deep-water Cretaceous reservoirs are possible within
the Caribbean-northern South America region, significant technical and commercial risks will continue to affect new
exploration drilling.
References Cited
Erbacher, J., D. Mosher, M. Malone, M., and O.L.S. Party, 2004, Drilling probes past carbon cycle perturbations on the
Demerara Rise: EOS, v. 85,
p. 57-68.
Erlich, R.N., T. Villamil, and J. Keens-Dumas, 2003. Controls on the deposition of Upper Cretaceous organic carbon-rich
rocks from Costa Rica to Suriname: In C. Bartolini, R.T. Buffler, and J. Blickwede (Eds.), The circum-Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean: Hydrocarbon habitats, basin formation, and plate tectonics. American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Memoir 79, p. 1-45.
Erlich, R.N., and J. Keens-Dumas, 2007, Late Cretaceous Palaeogeography of northeastern South America: implications for
source and reservoir development: In Proceedings of the 4th Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago Geological
Conference "Caribbean Exploration - Planning for the next century", 17th-22nd June 2007, Port of Spain, Trinidad.View entire presentation