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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 103, No. 6 (June 2019), P. 1443-1472.

Copyright ©2019. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1306/11151817276

Integrating strike-slip tectonism with three-dimensional basin and petroleum system analysis of the Salinas Basin, California

Tess Menotti,1 Allegra Hosford Scheirer,2 Kristian Meisling,3 and Stephan A. Graham4

1Earth Science Department, Chevron Energy Technology Company, Houston, Texas; [email protected]
2Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California; [email protected]
3Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California; [email protected]
4Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The Salinas Basin is a strike-slip basin in central California with stratigraphy dominantly composed of Miocene Monterey Formation. Despite a long history of oil production, aspects of petroleum system development in the basin remain poorly understood. Of the seven main oil fields, one—San Ardo field—has produced more than 500 million bbl of oil or 99% of all oil found in the basin. The evolution of this basin was profoundly influenced by strike-slip movement on the Rinconada Fault, which bisected the depocenter beginning circa 15 Ma. To address the influence of strike-slip motion on petroleum system development, we constructed a three-dimensional (3-D) basin and petroleum system model that incorporates strike-slip displacement. Seismic Previous HitreflectionTop profiles from a 3-D survey reveal four main tectonic stages that correspond to events in petroleum system evolution. Petroleum generation from type II kerogen source rock began circa 11 Ma, approximately 4 m.y. after strike-slip faulting began to offset a once-contiguous sedimentary depocenter. Two separate petroleum provinces—an eastern one and a western one—developed, and the fault zone likely was a conduit for petroleum, if nonsealing. Most accumulated petroleum was derived from the eastern pod of active source rock because of greater sedimentary burial east of the fault. Our model roughly replicates the skewed distribution in oil-field size. Factors controlling field size distribution include trap size and connectivity to source.

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