Summary

Description

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed an assessment of the undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Jurassic-Cretaceous Composite Total Petroleum System (TPS) in the North Cuba Basin of northwestern Cuba (fig. 1). The TPS boundary is the postulated extent of the area in which petroleum migration from thermally mature Jurassic and possibly Cretaceous source rocks occurred. The assessment is based on available information characterizing the essential geologic elements that define a petroleum system, which include petroleum source rocks (source-rock maturation, petroleum generation, and migration), reservoir rocks (sedimentology and petrophysical properties), and petroleum traps (trap formation and timing). By using this approach, the USGS defined the Jurassic-Cretaceous Composite TPS within the North Cuba Basin and three Assessment Units (AU) within the TPS, and quantitatively estimated the undiscovered oil and gas resources within each AU (table 1).