Abstract

Oil and gas fields in Tertiary basins of Southeast Asia are catalogued into a pattern of hydrocarbon occurrence related to regional cycles of sedimentation. Eight basin areas, peripheral to the Sunda Shield - from Burma through Indonesia and East Malaysia to northwest Palawan, are cited as exhibiting a general continuity of sedimentary cycles during Tertiary time. However, each of these basins has its unique structural, stratigraphic and temperature gradient character, reflecting its individual plate-tectonic setting.

Magnitudes of oil and gas reserves, in both clastic and carbonate facies, show a pattern of distribution within these sedimentary cycles of deposition. Empirically, this relationship forms a basis for improved exploration predictability in other Tertiary basin areas of Southeast Asia.

Detailed examples of Tertiary depositional cycles and hydrocarbon occurrences are cited from exploration areas in the East Java Sea (Indonesia) and northwest Palawan (Philippines).