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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Southeast Asia Petroleum Exploration Society (SEAPEX)

Abstract


Offshore South East Asia Conference, 1976
Pages 228-249

The Balabac Sub-Basin Southwestern Sulu Sea, Philippines

Leslie R. Beddoes, Jr.

Abstract

The Balabac sub-basin is a relatively small, wrench-faulted Middle Miocene to Early Pliocene depression in the southwestern Sulu Sea. It is underlain by deep water Early Miocene shale deposited in the western part of an archipelagic basin, and is overlain by shallow water carbonates of the Late Pliocene to Recent Sulu Sea continental margin basin.

Seismic isochron maps and structural analysis of folds and faults in the Balabac sub-basin combine with lithology, age and paleoenvironments of Neogene sediments drilled in Coral No. 1 to form a geological model for the complicated Balabac corner area.

Structural development of the Balabac sub-basin probably commenced through a change in direction of principal compressive stresses, possibly the result of a collusion of the relatively flexible Palawan and Sulu volcanic arc systems with rigid continental crust of northern Sabah.

Petroleum exploration in the Balabac sub-basin is in an early stage and several hydrocarbon “play concepts” remain untested, despite disappointing results of the Coral No. 1 well.


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