INTEGRATED GEOCHEMICAL EXPLORATION IN THE NORTH SECTOR OF OFFSHORE ARGENTINA BASIN

GOMEZ DACAL, ALEJANDRO; SILIO, OFELIA; PALMA, FERMÍN; PRINCIPI, SEBASTIÁN; BREA, FABIAN; BOLATTI, NESTOR

Aracajú

Congreso; Latin American Congress on Organic Geochemistry (ALAGO 2023); 2023

Surface geochemical analyses are a valuable resourcefor exploring frontier areas that lack well data, includingoffshore basins. This is because source rocks andreservoirs release liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons fromthe subsurface to the marine seabed. Variousgeochemical techniques have been developed over theyears for offshore prospecting to identify hydrocarbonanomalies in core samples taken from the ocean floorsediments.The Pampa Azul Project is an interdisciplinary initiative ofthe Argentine government to study the Argentine sea. Inthis framework, YPF and CONICET signed an agreementto study the Continental Margin by the execution ofoceanographic research cruises onboard the R/V AustralVessel. This work describes the seafloor geochemistryresults obtained from the samples taken in the northernoffshore Argentina Basin during the YTEC-GTGM 4cruise in 2019.In the present contribution, we identified migratedhydrocarbons through the integrated analysis of theorganic, inorganic, chromatographic and isotope data.Furthermore, we analyzed the origin, distribution,maturity, and secondary processes which affected thehydrocarbon accumulations. Finally, we estimated whichgeochemical proxies are related to the presence of seepsand which are associated with the sedimentary dynamic