Geological and geophysical basin characterization of the Cenozoic across the Tangier 3D Seismic Survey, central Scotian Slope, Canada with focus on the subsurface architecture of associated prospective hydrocarbon seep sites.

Nova Scotia has potential undiscovered hydrocarbon reservoirs in the deep-water region of the Scotian Margin. Deep-water environments can involve major challenges with high exploration risk because the presence, quality, size, and distribution of source and reservoir rocks are still relatively unknown in many areas. New data are therefore needed to de-risk offshore exploration for the next generation of discoveries. This research project investigates the shallow (0 to 3 km) Cenozoic section of BP's Tangier 3D Seismic Survey, located on the central Scotian Slope. The Tangier 3D Area is one of the most geologically complex regions of the Scotian Slope encompassing two salt structural regions: the western diapiric and eastern canopy complex subprovinces. Seismic interpretation and attribute analysis of the Cenozoic suggests that the region hosts a complex subsurface geology comprising of modern-day and paleo-channels and canyons, sediment drifts, slope failure complexes, and slope drapes. Salt-related structural features, which some occur deeper than 3 km, include welds, wings, feeders, pedestals, rollers, withdrawal minibasins, rafted overburden, and growth and crestal faults. Also observed within the Tangier 3D Area are three amplitude anomalies, which two are situated above diapirs and one above a salt canopy, interpreted to be direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs). The shallow-level DHIs strongly indicate the presence of migrating fluids. The architectural investigation of these DHIs provides evidence of a working petroleum system governed by salt mobility, which provides migration pathways for deeply sourced fluids. However, further study is needed to determine if the fluids filling these DHIs are thermogenic hydrocarbons escaped from deeper Jurassic or Cretaceous sources and breached reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]