• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.83-94
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• 2011

Extra heavy oil reservoirs are distributed over the world but most of them is deposited in the northern part of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, in the area of 5,500 $km^2$, This region, which has been commonly called "the Orinoco Oil Belt", contains estimated 1.3 trillion barrels of original oil-in-place and 250 billion barrels of established reserves. The Venezuela extra heavy oil has an API gravity of less than 10 degree and in situ viscosity of 5,000 cP at reservoir condition. Although the presence of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco Oil Belt has been initially reported in the 1930's, the commercial development using in situ cold production started in the 1990's. The Orinoco heavy oil deposits are clustered into 4 development areas, Boyaco, Junin, Ayachoco, and Carabobo respectively, and they are subdivided into totally 31 production blocks. Nowadays, PDVSA (Petr$\'{o}$leos de Venzuela, S.A.) makes a development of each production block with the international oil companies from more than 20 countries forming a international joint-venture company. The Eastern Venezuela Basin, the Orinoco Oil Belt is included in, is one of the major oil-bearing sedimentary basins in Venezuela and is first formed as a passive margin basin by the Jurassic tectonic plate motion. The major source rock of heavy oil is the late Cretaceous calcareous shale in the central Eastern Venezuela Basin. Hydrocarbon materials migrated an average of 150 km up dip to the southern margin of the basin. During the migration, lighter fractions in the hydrocarbon were removed by biodegradation and the oil changed into heavy and/or extra heavy oil. Miocene Oficina Formation, the main extra heavy oil reservoir, is the unconsolidated sand and shale alternation formed in fluvial-estuarine environment and also has irregularly a large number of the Cenozoic faults induced by basin subsidence and tectonics. Because Oficina Formation has not only complex lithology distribution but also irregular geology structure, geological evolution and characteristics of the reservoirs have to be determined for economical production well design and effective oil recovery. This study introduces geological formation and evolution of the Venezuela extra heavy oil reservoirs and suggest their significant geological characteristics which are (1) thickness and geometry of reservoir pay sands, (2) continuity and thickness of mud beds, (3) geometry of faults, (4) depth and geothermal character of reservoir, (5) in-situ stress field of reservoir, and (6) chemical composition of extra heavy oil. Newly developed exploration techniques, such as 3-D seismic survey and LWD (logging while drilling), can be expected as powerful methods to recognize the geological reservoir characteristics in the Orinoco Oil Belt.

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.2 no.2 s.3
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• pp.59-70
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• 1994

The Cenozoic geological structures and the tectonic evolution of the southern Ulleung Basin were studied with seismic profiles and exploration well data. Basement structure of the Korea Strait is distinctly characterized by normal faults trending northeast to southwest. The normal faults of the basement are most likely related to the initial liking and extensional tectonics of Ulleung Basin. Tsushima fault along the west coast of Tsushima islands runs northeastward to the central Ulleung Basin. The Middle Miocene and older sequences in the Tsushima Strait show folds and faults mostly trending northeast to southwest. These folds and faults may be interpreted as a result of compressional tectonics. The Late Miocene to Qauternary sequences are not much deformed, but numerous faults mostly N-S trending are dominated in the Tsushima Strait. The Ulleung Basin was in intial rifting during Oligocene, and then active extension and subsidence from Early to early Middle Miocene. Therefore SW Japan separated from Korea Peninsula and drifted toward southeast, and Ulleung Basin was formed as a pull-apart basin under dextral transtensional tectonic regime. During rifting and extensional stage, Tsushima fault as a main tectonic line separating SW Japan block from the Korean Peninsula acted as a normal faulting with right-lateral strike-slip motion as SW Japan drifted southeastward. During middle Middle Miocene to early Late Miocene, the opening of Ulleung basin stopped and uplifted due to compressional tectonics. The southwest Japan block converging on the Korean Peninsula caused compressional stress to the southern margin of Ulleung Basin, resulting in strong deformation under sinistral transpressional tectonic regime. Tsushima fault acted as thrust fault with left-lateral strike-slip motion. From middle Late Miocene to Quaternary, the southern margin of Ulleung Basin has been controlled by compressional motion. Thus the Tsushima fault still appears to be an active thrust fault by compressional tectonic regime.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.113-126
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• 2022

The tectonic history of the Chukchi Abyssal Plain in the Amerasia Basin, Arctic Ocean, has not been fully explored due to the harsh conditions of sea ice preventing detailed observation. Existing models of the tectonic history of the region provide contrasting interpretation of the timing of formation of the crust (Mesozoic to Cenozoic), crust type (from hyper-extended continental crust to oceanic crust), and formation process (from parallel/fan-shaped rifting to transformation faulting). To help determine the age of the oceanic crust, the geothermal gradient was measured at three stations in the south of abyssal plain at depth of 2,160-2,250 m below sea level. Heat flow measurement stations were located perpendicular to the spreading axis over a 40 km-long transect. In-situ thermal conductivity measurement, corrected by the laboratory test, gave observed marine heat flows of 55 to 61 mW/m². All measurements were taken during Arctic expeditions in 2018 (ARA09C expedition) and 2021 (ARA12C expedition) by the Korean ice-breaking research vessel (IBRV) Araon. Given the assumption of oceanic crust, the results correspond to formation in the Late Cretaceous (Mesozoic). The inferred age supports the hypothesis of formation activated by the opening of the Makarov Basin during the Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic. This would make it contemporaneous with rifting of the Chukchi Border Land immediately east of the abyssal plain. The heat flow data indicate the base of the gas hydrate stability zone is located 332-367 m below the seafloor, this will help to identify the gas hydrate-related bottom simulating reflector in the future seismic survey, as already identified on the Chukchi Plateau. Further geophysical surveys, including heat flow measurements, are required to increase our understanding of the formation process and thermal mantle structure of the abyssal plain.