Basement Structure

“Basement” is a term frequently used in geologic literature and in exploration or production reports to describe a surface or a drilling objective, but the term is generally not adequately defined by the author. The term may mean one thing to one person and something quite different to another. This module will discuss seven terms, Geologic, Economic, Acoustic, “Buffler”, Magnetic, Gravity, Refraction, that describe a [...]

Basement structure and basement structural history are two key parameters in any basin evaluation or regional geological analysis. A basement structure map provides a unique tool for interpretation of regional structural style and for correlation between basement structure and structure or stratigraphy in overlying sediments. It can also be used to explain relationships between basement structure and oil/gas distribution in the region. However, in many [...]

A qualitative interpretation of magnetic data can be a very fast and useful approach to making a general evaluation of regional geologic structure, but it does not provide adequate information about the depth of key components of the structural features. In fact, the qualitative approach can lead to a somewhat subconscious, but erroneous, concept that anomaly amplitude rather than anomaly wavelength is a reflection of [...]

A key to determining an individual prospect's potential is the delineation of its drainage area based on its position relative to the surrounding structural based migration pathways. Learning Objectives After completing this unit, you’ll be able to: Understand and describe the Migration Pathway or “Initial Plumbing” Use the Magnetic Basement Structure to delineate and group migration pathways. Explain the association of the Migration Pathways and [...]

There may be times when a G&G interpreter, somewhat unfamiliar with gravity or magnetic interpretation, will look at a gravity or magnetic contour map of a frontier area and wonder whether the anomalies represent shallow or deep source bodies. The interpreter understands that anomaly amplitudes are related to source body density or magnetization, not depth, and that short-wavelength anomalies have shallower sources than long-wavelength anomalies [...]