ABSTRACT

Recent advances in the understanding of depositional environments and diagenesis of carbonate rocks provide us with a wealth of information regarding the nature of carbonate hydrocarbon traps. Projections of such data from control wells to the unexplored areas is somewhat limited in scope because of the paucity of data. This problem is particular acute in frontier regions, where observations from few wells have to be projected into a vast unexplored area.

The effects of eustatic sea-level fluctuations on carbonate facies is another focus of recent research. Undoubtedly, sea-level fluctuations have a great influence on the environmental and diagenetic stratigraphy of carbonate rocks. Additionally, however, the mechanisms of subsidence in various types of basins profoundly control the morphology and distribution of carbonate facies. The object of this paper is to document the influences of syn-sedimentary tectonics on development of carbonate traps in a variety of plate-tectonic settings. Understanding of such models will allow us to project environmental and diagenetic data from a limited number of control wells to the sparsely explored areas utilizing tectonic models as guides.