How a Better Knowledge of the Basins Can Reduce the Risk of Exploration: Input of Basin Modelling

Abstract

Basin modelling software has been widely developed in the 80'sand is still the subject of active Research and Development in the oilcompanies, contractors and consultant agencies, and also in the universities. A complete range of software applicaCble to the basin levelare now available to explorationists, including 1-D, 2-D and soon 3-Dtools. Most of them are devoted to the validation of structural hypotheses, to the prediction of source rock maturities. or to a reconstruction of petroleum formation and migration in basins. Anotherclass of software, mostly developed in the universities, attempts todescribe the thermomechanical behaviour of the lithosphere during basin formation and subsequent inversion (DURAND et al., 1997).The question now is: how can these tools help explorationists inreducing the risks (and as a consequence the costs) of exploration?In order to discuss and answer this question, we will present a case study in which IFP software has been used to reassess the petroleum potential of the Southeast Basin and Gulf of Lyon in SE France.These two areas have been the focus of active exploration from the60's to the early 80's, without commercial results. The analysis andappraisal of failures have already been done and the different potentialpetroleum systems recognized. Then 1-D and 2-D modelling wasperformed in order to select within this 50,000 km2 area the few places where further exploration can be conducted with a minimumof technical and economic hazards.