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Pimienta-Tamabra(!)— A giant supercharged petroleum system in the southern Gulf of Mexico, onshore and offshore Mexico

January 1, 2001

Pimienta-Tamabra(!) is a giant supercharged petroleum system in the southern Gulf of Mexico with cumulative production and total reserves of 66.3 billion barrels of oil and 103.7 tcf of natural gas, or 83.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). The effectiveness of this system results largely from the widespread distribution of good to excellent thermally mature, Upper Jurassic source rock underlying numerous stratigraphic and structural traps that contain excellent carbonate reservoirs. Expulsion of oil and gas as a supercritical fluid from Upper Jurassic source rock occurred when the thickness of overburden rock exceeded 5 km. This burial event started in the Eocene, culminated in the Miocene, and continues to a lesser extent today. The expelled hydrocarbons started migrating laterally and then upward as a gas-saturated 35-40° API oil with less than 1 wt.% sulfur and a gas-to-oil ratio (GOR) of 500-1000 ft3/BO. The generation-accumulation efficiency is about 6%.

Publication Year 2001
Title Pimienta-Tamabra(!)— A giant supercharged petroleum system in the southern Gulf of Mexico, onshore and offshore Mexico
DOI 10.1306/M75768C4
Authors Leslie B. Magoon, Travis L. Hudson, Harry E. Cook
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title AAPG Memoir
Index ID 70023422
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse