ABSTRACT

The Sunniland and Forty Mile Bend fields were the first two oil-producing fields of south Florida. The Sunniland field was discovered in 1943, while the Forty Mile Bend field was discovered ten years later. These two fields are oil productive from the Cretaceous Sunniland Formation and are biostratigraphically and lithologically similar in the pay zones. A similar lithology is also found in the pay zone of the Bear Island field discovered in 1972. The relatively great timespan between field discoveries is indicative of the slow pace of exploration in this basin at that time. In the early 1970s increased drilling (from 2 to more than 15 wells per year) resulted in the discovery of eight more fields. Since exploration started 73 years ago, only a little over 200 wells, both wildcat and development, have been drilled in this basin. Although exploration methods initially relied on gravity and magnetics, subsequent geophysical methods have proved disappointing. Effective exploration in this area applies petrology, sedimentology, and electric-log response. Because the biostratigraphy of the Sunniland Formation pay zone is not the same in all the fields, this study investigated three fields having similar biostratigraphic pay zones. Facts that can be used in future exploration were documented from the study of many cores and thin sections from these fields.