The team at U3 Explore has been refining the classic “Play-Based” Exploration methodology by integrating a deformable plate model and large-scale regional databases of reservoir properties, geochemical information and potential fields data in one of the most complex settings for petroleum exploration on earth: the Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico basins, presented here in our “CAMGOM” Product.
This dynamic approach, pioneered in the circum-Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico basins (and applicable in many other complex margins), enhances global petroleum system assessments, enabling energy companies to evaluate play continuity across tectonically complex regions and passive margins alike.
2025 Product: Area of interest for basin history deformable plate reconstructions covering key time periods in the evolution of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and Northern South America.
Global Tectonics has developed a unique approach to plate modelling and reconstruction in a Deformable Plate Model, incorporating local and regional observations and utilizing beta-factor-based stretching algorithms to quantify nonlinear changes in crustal thickness during the pre-breakup phase of basin formation. The variations in margin geometry are calculated both along strike and from proximal to distal areas, and constrain the pre-seafloor spreading deformational history (via deformable plates).
The plate reconstruction generates a contextual framework for understanding the early breakup and passive margin phases critical to modeling the distribution of source (data from geochemical analyses from Geochemical Solutions International-GSI) and reservoir intervals (U3D, the updated version of the “Cossey Deepwater” database). Projects may also integrate information from clients’ in-house databases.
The CAMGOM Product combines these new methods and databases with the existing CAMGOM datasets, which integrate well penetrations and hydrocarbon production data in a play-based framework on the southern margin of the Caribbean Plate. Outputs enhance the industry’s knowledge of the integrated Caribbean-area petroleum systems from Colombia to Trinidad in the South, and through Central America to Cuba in the West and North.
Overall, the Caribbean-Atlantic Margin and Gulf of Mexico Basins (CAMGOM) Joint Industry Project and its associated databases deliver a comprehensive geodynamic framework for reconstructing petroleum systems through time, delivering refined predictions of source rock deposition and maturation, migration pathways, reservoir development, and trap formation.
Deliverables and Access
Clients may access the Project deliverables by subscription to specific products or outputs and/or consultancy with U3 Explore’s team utilizing the toolset.
Different levels of licensing provide differing deliverables in addition to the written report (here from minimal deliverable to highest level subscription):
- Key reconstructed time slices viewable in a GIS portal.
- A collection of downloadable maps in geotiff format, registered for use in ArcGIS.
- A full ArcGIS dataset for combining the internal and external datasets and maps.
- Subscriptions for continuously updated specialized databases used in the study.
Additional datasets used in the study are available for purchase with the data licenses, either as a package or separately depending on Company need:
- Global Tectonics deformable plate model for the Central-South Atlantic and Caribbean study area (plate boundaries, poles of opening, rotation files, beta factors, and crustal thickness in grid and shape file formats).
- Selected areas of Regional Caribbean and Atlantic Margins GSI databases (organic geochemistry and interpretation of piston cores, seeps, oil analysis).
- Gravity inversion products for the regions of South America, Caribbean and GOM (depth to basement, Moho, regional structural interpretation) at different scales, calibrated with published data - geochemical interpretation, basement penetrations, seismic interpretation, and outcrops (format to suit client).
- Global U3D Analogue database (formerly Cossey Deepwater DB) updated at basin, field, and reservoir levels with contextual, analytical platform and integrated GIS database.
For Licensing Information Contact
Kenneth Mohn Mobile Phone:+1-713-485-9696 E-mail: kwmohn123@gmail.com
