geomuseu.ist.utl.pt.docVIP

Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference series Vol. 7, 2010 Petroleum Geology: From Mature Basins to New Frontiers—Proceedings of the 7th Petroleum Geology Conference B. A. Vining, Baker Hughes, UKand S. C. Pickering, Schlumberger, Gatwick, UK Global petroleum systems in space and time S. May1, R. Kleist2, E. Kneller1, C. Johnson1 and S. Creaney2 Abstract Each of the Earths approximately 900 sedimentary basins is a unique result of geologic, hydrologic, atmospheric and biologic processes. The interaction of these processes results in complex histories that are palaeogeographically linked within tectonic provinces. Process-based genetic analysis provides the fundamental framework for predicting the distribution and character of petroleum systems. New technologies enable the exploitation of this predictability and are themselves the origin of new ideas and improved systems understanding. Petroleum geoscience embraces both forward modelling of processes as well as observation, calibration and inverse modelling. This approach of forward and inverse modelling promotes a general scientific methodology of simulation, prediction, testing and learning that allows us to describe the genetics of sedimentary basins. Genetic analysis can be applied to the spectrum of resource types from hydrocarbon to groundwater to mineral systems and across the range of scales from regional to play to prospect. Like the study of evolution through the fossil record, fundamental characteristics of petroleum systems can be recovered from the patterns of their distribution within the framework provided by plate motion, palaeogeography and palaeoclimate. These fundamental drivers control regional tectonics, subsidence, fill history and deformation that result in the phenotypic expression of individual basins and their fluid systems. Genetic analysis results in a taxonomic hierarchy that facilitates prediction and guides resource exploration. Although genetic analysis p