A summary report of the regional geology, petroleum potential, environmental geology, and operational considerations in the area of proposed lease sale No. 68, offshore southern California
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Abstract
This report reviews geological, geophysical and technological data that are pertinent to proposed OCS Lease Sale 68. Under consideration are 26,000 mi2 (67,400 km2) of the California Continental Borderland north of the U.S.-Mexico boundary. The area includes both leased and unleased tracts and lies adjacent to the highly productive coastal basins of southern California.
Factors that have contributed to petroleum generation in the onshore basins, such as thickness, burial depth and hydrocarbon content, are less favorable in parts of the offshore region. Nevertheless, regional geologic and geophysical mapping together with data from stratigraphic test wells and bottom samples suggest that source beds, reservoir rocks and traps are present beneath the borderland. Strata of Miocene age are widespread within the area of proposed OCS Lease Sale 68 and contain fair to excellent potential source rocks. Eocene and early Miocene sandstone beds in the Cortes Bank test well and late Miocene and Pliocene rocks in the Point Conception test well have porosities that are within the range of good reservoir rocks. Late middle Miocene through Pliocene sandy turbidites of reservoir quality possibly occur in some outer borderland basins. Additional prospective targets are fractured Miocene shale beds that may be present in the deeper basins and on the down-flank margins of major uplifts. Numerous structural and stratigraphic traps, which formed in response to late Cenozoic wrench tectonics, are distributed throughout the borderland.
Study Area
| Publication type | Report |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | USGS Numbered Series |
| Title | A summary report of the regional geology, petroleum potential, environmental geology, and operational considerations in the area of proposed lease sale No. 68, offshore southern California |
| Series title | Open-File Report |
| Series number | 80-198 |
| DOI | 10.3133/ofr80198 |
| Year Published | 1980 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | U.S. Geological Survey |
| Description | 62 p. |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Other Geospatial | southern California |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |