Impact of shallow volcanics on seismic data quality in Chicontepec Basin, Mexico

Chicontepec Basin is one of the most productive in Mexico. Unlike the world-famous Cantarell and Poza Rica carbonate fields, characterized by high-producing wells tapping large continuous reservoirs, the Chicontepec play is characterized by thin, sometimes multistoried turbidite and fan reservoirs encased in shales and cut by mud slumps and mass transport complexes. The sand reservoirs are relatively small and have very low permeability. Most new wells need to be hydraulically fractured, with anomalously higher production being hypothesized as due to fractures draining nearby, otherwise disconnected, sand bodies.