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The Talara Offshore (Northern Peru): A Preserved Extensional Mini-Basin in a

Subduction Complex

Conference Paper · September 2016

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THE TALARA OFFSHORE (NORTHERN PERU): A PRESERVED EXTENSIONAL MINI-
BASIN IN A SUBDUCTION COMPLEX.

1 2 3
Eduardo A. Rossello , Stephen P.J. Cossey and Guzman Fernandez

1) CONICET-Universidad Buenos Aires, FCEN, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
2) Cossey & Associates Inc., Durango, Colorado 81302, U.S.A.
3) Union Oil and Gas Group. Plaza Independencia 177, 1100 Montevideo, Uruguay.

ABSTRACT from the basin exceeds 1.68 billion bbl of oil

and 1.95 Tcf of gas from 42 oil and gas fields
The undrilled deepwater Talara Basin is (Higley, 2004).
located along the northern Pacific margin of
Peru. It is the western component of the
Cretaceous-Tertiary stratigraphy of the large,
traditional reservoirs of the onshore Talara
Basin oilfields, which have been produced over
1.5 billion barrels of oil in the last one hundred
years. However, this basin is also located
above the active margin of the Nazca plate,
which is subducting under South America. It is
located between the trench and the
onshore/shallow-marine oilfields, where
several passive-margin extensional structures
(horsts and grabens) are described. The
interpretation of high quality 3D seismic data in
a detailed tectonostratigraphic context has
shown the existence of the following typically
passive-margin features: i) Synsedimentary
gravity slides with normal and frontal thrust
faults, ii) Rotational blocks of thick marine to
deep-marine Cretaceous to more shallow
Tertiary sequences, iii) Rollover anticlines, and
iv) Neogene growth sequences preserved as
piggy-backed mini-basins. The concave
geometry of the master growth-faults has
produced locally convergent radial slides which
define the exploration plays and have created Figure 1. Regional location of the Peruvian basins
efficient hydrocarbon traps. The knowledge on the Pacific margin of South America.
and insight obtained from this segment of the
South American Pacific can be extrapolated to The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the
the more frontier exploration areas, such as mean recoverable oil, gas, and natural gas
the Colombian Pacific margin. liquid resources from undiscovered fields in the
basin could be up to 1.71 billion bbl of oil, 4.79
INTRODUCTION Tcf of gas, and 255 million bbl of natural gas
liquids (Higley, 2004). This estimate is based
The presence of petroleum in coastal on a combined Cretaceous–Tertiary source
northwest Peru (Fig. 1) has been known for rock contribution. Gonzalez and Alarcon
centuries. Original inhabitants used oil from (2002), assuming only a Cretaceous shale as
natural seeps for various purposes, and early the hydrocarbon source rock, calculated a total
Spanish colonists extracted and refined tar volume of generated hydrocarbons of 275
from the La Brea seep south of the city of billion bbl of oil and 22500 Tcf of gas. Their
Talara and used pitch to caulk their ships and estimate of total volume of recoverable
to waterproof utensils. The first well in the hydrocarbons from the Talara basin province,
basin was drilled in 1874, making Talara one of including current production, is 3.72 billion bbl
the first producing petroleum basins of South of oil and 9.344 Tcf of gas. Gonzales and
America (Travis, 1953). Cumulative production Alarcon (2002) estimated the volume of
remaining recoverable hydrocarbons
(excluding current production) to be 2.22 billion
bbl of oil and 5.844 Tcf of gas Fildani (2005).
Despite the variable resource estimates based
on different source rocks, agreement exists
among authors that the mature Talara basin
has been, and will continue to be, a significant
petroleum province in the world energy
panorama, whereas the offshore of the basin is
unexplored. Although petroleum systems
include source, reservoir, and trap, the
presence of a source rock is the most
important factor governing the accumulation of
hydrocarbons (Dahl et al. 1994). However,
even after a high cumulative production of oil,
the source rocks have not been rigorously
documented and have not been penetrated in
the offshore part of the basin. Nevertheless,
different Upper Cretaceous intervals are cited
as source rocks (Zuñiga-Rivero et al. 1999;
Arispe, 2001a; Gonzales and Alarcon 2002).
Figure 2. Stratigraphic column of the Talara basin.
Wavy lines and gray zones bracket periods of
erosion or non-deposition. Possible source-rock
intervals are labeled with a small gray box. Modified
from AIPC (no date), Gonzales Torres (1999),
Kingston (1994), Kraemer et al. (1999), Perupetro
(1999), Petroconsultants (1996) and Seranne
(1987).
GEOLOGICAL SETTING
The Talara offshore basin is located along the
northern Pacific margin of Peru. Different
tectonic models have been proposed for the
coastal area of Ecuador and northwest Peru,
reflecting the fact that the post-Paleozoic
tectonic history of the area was complicated
and not simply related to subduction
(Shepherd and Moberly 1981). A more detailed
account of basin evolution and sedimentary
successions can be found in Fildani (2004,
2005).
The western boundary and the unexplored
offshore portions of the Talara basin are poorly
defined (Fig. 1). The onshore (eastern) margin
is bounded by Paleozoic basement exposed in
the Amotape Mountains and the Silla de Paita.
The Amotape Mountains extend at a 60º angle
from the Andes and, along with the Tamarindo
high, separate the Talara basin from the
Lancones basin (Valencia and Uyen 2002).
The southern limit of the onshore Talara basin
is the Paita high (Silla de Paita) but there are
no evident barriers present in the offshore
portion. The basin is bounded to the north by
the Dolores-Guayaquil megashear and the
Pillars de Zorritos (Kraemer et al. 1999; Higley
2004).
Figure 3. The regional setting of the Talara offshore
portion immediately west of the traditional Talara oil
fields (taken from UOGG`s files).
2
The Talara basin covers at least 15,000 km ,
less than half of which is onshore (Fig. 3)
(Fildani 2004). The onshore sedimentary
deposits range from Cretaceous to Eocene in
age (Fig. 2) and consist of clastic fill that is in
excess of 9000 m thick (Carozzi and Palomino
1993). Middle–late Eocene strata of the Talara
basin record a more complex story with a
deepening trend and deposition of deep-water
systems. There was periodic extension after
the early Tertiary when subsidence was
controlled by normal faulting. This subsidence
was filled during the Paleocene-Eocene by
siliciclastic sediment from multiple origins,
predominantly from the east and the northeast
(Fildani 2004). Limited carbonate facies are
restricted to parts of the Cretaceous and
Pliocene-Pleistocene sections (Marsaglia and
Carozzi 1991, Carozzi and Palomino 1993).
Figure 4. Prospects are located within a mini passive-margin setting downdip of a large down-to-west growth-fault
controlled by gravitational gliding. The offshore Talara location is in the oil kitchen of the traditional Talara oil fields
(Los Organos- Peña Negra).
The oldest formation in the region is the
Amotape Fm. which is exposed in the Amotape
Mountains and consists of Devonian to
Permian age low-grade metamorphic rocks
(Shepherd and Moberly 1981). Mesozoic rocks
are not well exposed in any part of the basin
and the few known outcrops are difficult to
access. The Cretaceous Pananga and Muerto
formations rest unconformably on the Amotape
Fm. and consist of limestone and bituminous
marl.
The Muerto Formation is overlain by a series of
Cretaceous and Paleocene siliciclastic units.
Various authors have suggested that shales
and limestones of the Cretaceous are the
petroleum source rocks for the Talara basin
(mostly Muerto Fm. bituminous marl and the
Redondo Fm. black shale) (Zuñiga-Rivero et
al. 1999a, 1999b, Arispe 2001a, 2001b,
Gonzales and Alarcon 2002).
The Eocene strata are characterized by
alternating marine shales, sandstones, and
conglomerates deposited almost continuously
during the early Tertiary. Many of the Eocene
sandstone intervals are producing reservoirs
onshore.
Normal faulting affected the basin extensively
during and after deposition of the basin-fill.
The coastline is marked by a series of raised
Pleistocene marine terraces (tablazos)
composed of transgressive limestone and
coquina beds, covering about 60% of the
onshore basin and have limited the usefulness
of seismic in exploration (De Vries 1988).
PROSPECTIVENESS
Seismic mapping within the mini passive-
margin growth faults (Fig. 4) has revealed
several structural stratigraphic traps which
formed early in the structural development of
the area (Fig 5).
The key mapping horizons in the area are
subtle unconformities which control the trap
and do not necessitate the presence of a four-
way structural closure (Fig. 4).
These traps are developed in the center and
the lateral edges of the large growth faults
within the mini passive-margin (Fig. 6).
Normally, these types of prospects are found
within ―normal‖ passive-margin settings and
not in subduction tectonic settings.

Figure 4. Multiple buried structural-stratigraphic
traps found within the large listric faults. Reservoirs
onlap the unconformities, creating pinchout traps
where several flat-spots and seismic anomalies are
identified.
Figure 5. Model for the development of traps
formed in normal listric faults where locally
convergent radial growth occurs.
These traps are in the migration way beetwen the
deeper generation areas to the traditional Talara
oilfields (Fig.
Figure 6. Schematic migration pattern (taken from
UOGG files).
CONCLUSIONS
The offshore Talara basin consists of the western
Cretaceous-Tertiary sequences of the traditional
large Talara oilfields and its main Cretaceous
source. Here, we have recognized large,
extensional structures, typical of a passive margin,
in the offshore Talara basin, between the trench
and the continental margin,
A better understanding of these exploratory
objectives in the Peruvian margin of the South
America can be possibly extrapolated to those
currently being explored on the Colombian Pacific
margin.
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