Regional aspects of cretaceous and tertiary evolution, depositional history, and relation to the occurrence of petroleum of the Saba Bank, Northeastern Caribbean

Abstract

The Saba Bank in the Northeast Caribbean is a completely submerged carbonate platform raised approximately 1,000 m ( 3, 290 ft) above the general seafloor. The Saba Bank area has been under active exploration for hydrocarbons since the early 1970's. This exploration by oil companies is the source for the majority of the data on the geological history of the ~ area. There has been 3,600 plus km of seismic data acquired over the bank, two wells drilled, and numerous published and unpublished reports on the area's petroleum potential. The work proved the existence of a Tertiary sedimentary section. When the new seismic, acquired in 1988 over the Saba Bank, is integrated with the old data, the existence of a deeper Upper Cretaceous sedimentary section underlying the drilled Tertiary section becomes apparent.