Nathan Eichelberger¹,  Roberta Masotti², Duncan Bate², Ian McGregor¹ , and Alan Nunns^1.

¹ StructureSolver    ² TGS

Summary

Newly available fast track pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) data from the Labrador Sea reprocessed by TGS has clearly imaged abundant structural traps related to early Cretaceous rifting and a gravitationally-driven Tertiary fault system. This study applies interactive kinematic forward models of fault-related folding to assess possible plays with a higher degree of confidence than standard interpretation techniques alone. When combined with high quality data, structural models provide robust constraints on fault displacements, across-fault horizon correlations, growth strata geometries, and structural histories. This study shows that interactive structural modeling can provide significant insights into potential structural play locations, potential trap development, and fault seal at an early stage of the exploration process in a frontier basin. In the Labrador Basin Complex, these models reveal significant accumulations of known syn-rift source rocks within deep rift structures and show that structural trap formation within the Tertiary section was likely compatible with the timing of hydrocarbon expulsion.