Cantarell Giant Oilfield Fault-Thrust Kinematic Evolution and Synchronous Thermo-Fluid Dynamics

Summary The Cantrell complex, located in the continental shelf in the Southern Gulf of Mexico, is a naturally fractured carbonate field discovered in the late 70’s by PEMEX. The main field known as Akal is the largest with 32 Bboe OOIP. Underlying the Akal filed, the namely Sihil field (1.2 Bboe OOIP) constitutes the thrusted footwall block of a complex fault propagation fold and thrust belt structure. Even if the Cantarell complex has been studied for several decades and its exploitation reaches a mature declination stage, several questions remain related to the physical and geochemical processes occurring during the trap fold thrust evolution and the synchronous thermo-fluid dynamics: How was the thermal-pressure evolution between the overlying Akal and the Sihil footwall during fold thrust formation? What was the timing of HC expulsion and the fluid migration interactions between both blocks? How was the evolution of the fluid composition and PVT phase behavior during HC charge? What are the implications for near field exploration (NFE) and field development? The applied methodology is a 2D structural kinematic restoration meshing tool (KronosFlow), coupled with a fault-related petroleum system modelling (TemisFlow) and detailed 1D reservoir fluid PVT phase behavior modeling.