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A joint AAPG/Associación Mexicana de Geólogos Petroleros (AM GP) Hedberg Research Conference was held to examine issues associated with heavy oil in deep water. This article reports on the meeting highlights. Deep-water exploration has become increasingly important over the last three decades. For the deep-water environment to be economically viable, these accumulations need to be both volumetrically significant and capable of maintaining high production rates. Largely independent of the rise in crude oil price, there has been an increasing number of economically viable deepwater discoveries, where the resource base now exceeds 100 billion bbl oil equivalent. A significant percentage of this resource is heavy oil, with heavy oil dominating the resource base in such settings as offshore Mexico and Brazil. Economic success in both exploration and commercialization requires integration across disciplines as well as across the value chain, integrating the upstream, midstream, and downstream operations. Basin models were commonly used as the integration tool for exploration programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neogene shelf, slope, canyon, and slope-to-basin-floor transition plays in the southern Laguna Madre-Tuxpan (LM-T) continental shelf reflect a variety of structural and stratigraphic controls, including gravity sliding and extension, compression, salt evacuation, and lowstand canyon and fan systems. The Neogene in the LM-T area was deposited along narrow shelves associated with a tectonically active coast affected by significant uplift and erosion of carbonate and volcanic terrains. This study characterizes 4 structurally defined trends and 32 Neogene plays in a more than 50,000-km² (19,300-mi²) area linking the Veracruz and Burgos basins. The Cañonero trend in the southern part of the LM-T area contains deep-seated basement faults caused by Laramide compression. Many of these faults are directly linked to the interpreted Mesozoic source rocks, providing potential pathways for vertically migrating hydrocarbons. In contrast, the Lankahuasa trend, north of the Cañonero trend, contains listric faults, which detach into a shallow horizon. This trend is associated with thick Pliocene shelf depocenters. The dominant plays in the Faja de Oro-Náyade trend in the central part of the LM-T area contain thick lower and middle Miocene successions of steeply dipping slope deposits, reflecting significant uplift and erosion of the carbonate Tuxpan platform. These slope plays consist of narrow channel-fill and levee sandstones encased in siltstones and mudstones. Plays in the north end of the LM-T area, in the southern part of the Burgos basin, contain intensely deformed strata linked to salt and shale diapirism. Outer-shelf, slope, and proximal basin-floor plays in the Lamprea trend are internally complex and contain muddy debris-flow and slump deposits. Risk factors and the relative importance of play elements vary greatly among LM-T plays. Reservoir quality is a critical limiting play element in many plays, especially those in the Cañonero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]