Structural Styles of the Canela and Its Surrounded Areas, Tabasco - Southern Mexico

Raul Ysaccis¹, Gustavo Hernandez², Raul Villa², Jaime Barker², Miguel Araujo¹, Felipe Audemard¹, and Javier Meneses Rocha^2
1 Schlumberger - DCS, Mexico, Villahermosa, Mexico
² PEMEX - Exploración y Producción, Region Sur, Mexico

A 1000 Km² Pre Stack Time Migration survey was recently processed for the Canela Area. It offers new insights of the structural framework to unravel several alternate thoughts about the tectonic evolution of the southern onshore Mexican basins: (1) Chiapas Compression combined with Salt dynamics; (2) Gravitational gliding controlled by salt systems at the front of the compression; (3) Mainly salt induced over the front of the Chiapas.

Several profiles are used to discuss the pros and cons of each scenario. In summary, from top to bottom, three tectono-stratigraphic units are found: - The upper tectono–stratigraphic Tertiary unit resulted from the Pliocene-Holocene extension/ salt evacuation; - The basal two, involving folded Mesozoic strata of allochthonous and autochthonous natures, mainly produced by Miocene contraction/ compression related to salt-based detachment. This deformation overprinted a previous extensional phase, which was coupled to salt pillowing during the Late Jurassic to Cretaceous producing evident changes in thickness within the Mesozoic strata, and opened the option for the partially Paleogene salt evacuation.

Although the structural configuration documented in this work with NW-SE alignments seems to favor a salt detached foldbelt style partially influenced by the Chiapas tectonics, an integration of the Canela 3D seismic with the surrounded 3D seismics is needed to constraint the tectonic framework.

Seven prospects have been identified within this block. They target light oil in fractured Mesozoic carbonate reservoirs; an opportunity is viewed as the northeast continuation of the giant A.J. Bermudez complex, a producer of > 2.4 Billion barrel of oil and 3.2 Tcf of gas.