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Abstract

C. Bartolini, R. T. Buffler, and J. Blickwede, 2003, The Circum-Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean: Hydrocarbon habitats, basin formation, and plate tectonics: AAPG Memoir 79, p. 340-348.

Copyright copy2003. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

Economic Potential of the Yucatan Block of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize

Joshua H. Rosenfeld

Yax Balam, Inc., Granbury, Texas, U.S.A.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many geoscientists and companies have expended both energy and financial resources in order to provide the basis for our current understanding of the Yucataacuten Block. The author acknowledges, among others, the contributions of Ernesto Loacutepez-Ramos, Francisco Viniegra, Antonio Camargo, Glen Penfield, Virgil Sharpton, and Richard Buffler.

Among companies whose investments in the Previous HitexplorationNext Hit of Yucatan resulted in the acquisition of critical data are Petroleos Mexicanos, Texaco, Amoco, Shell, Gulf, Phillips, Sohio, Esso, Marathon, and Anschutz.

The author thanks Veritas Geophysical Company for support during the preparation of this work. This paper has benefited from discussions with Hector Palafox of the Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo. Arthur Berman, a friend and colleague, was generous with his time and knowledge during this work. Constructive comments of Ronald Phair and others were very helpful during the final preparation of the manuscript.

ABSTRACT

The Yucatan Block is a rifted continental microplate covering 450,000 sq km in southern Mexico, northern Guatemala, and Belize. The crystalline basement is mantled by a Late Jurassic through Holocene carbonate/evaporite platform up to six-km thick. While the northern and western edges of the Yucataacuten Block have been passive margins since the Mesozoic, its southern margin was affected by Late Cretaceous suturing to the Chortis microplate, followed by Miocene to Holocene strike-slip faulting. Its eastern margin was modified by Paleogene strike slip against the Cuban Arc Terrane. The Yucataacuten Block has received very little terrigenous sedimentation since being isolated from nearby landmasses by the Jurassic separation of North and South America.

Major hydrocarbon production exists in Mexico from the area immediately west of the Yucataacuten Block in the Reforma Trend, Campeche Sound, and the Macuspana Basin. Oil has also been found west and south of the block in the Sierra de Chiapas of Guatemala and Mexico. Only one commercial oil accumulation has been found to date on the stable block itself (Xan field in Guatemala), and mineral Previous HitexplorationNext Hit without commercial success has been limited to the small area of exposed crystalline basement in the Maya Mountains of Belize.

Based on current knowledge, it is the author's opinion that the economic potential of the Yucataacuten Block should not be discounted. Hydrocarbon and mineral Previous HitexplorationTop has been sporadic and generally low-tech, and there is a clear need for high-quality regional seismic data to reveal structural configuration and sedimentary architecture. Among the many geological factors to be understood are:

  1. geometry of Triassic-Jurassic rift structures (horsts and grabens);
  2. location and geometries of possible Jurassic and Cretaceous intraplatform hydrocarbon source basins, carbonate buildups, and structural traps in the evaporite/carbonate section;
  3. paleoheatflow as it affected organic maturation;
  4. effects within the block of tectonics along its margins (tilting, mass wasting, and foreland bulging); and
  5. possible role of the Chicxulub K/T astrobleme in hydrocarbon and mineral occurrence.

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