Gulf Coast Submarine Banks as Potential Hydrocarbon Traps Available to Purchase

The real possibilities of a serious energy shortage in the U.S.have been emphasized recently by economic and political events afiecting the petroleum industry. As a result, many explorationists are pressing for new means and approaches by which to increase domestic reserves. As one example of the latter, interest in subtle traps resulting from fades changes, erosional processes, and paleogeomorphic features is increasing in the Gulf Coast as the more obvious structural features become exhausted. A group of calcareous banks along the outer edge of the northern Gulf continental shelf represents potential paleogeomorphic traps of a type that may have been conmion on ancient Gulf shelves since the Oligocene Epoch. Microfaunal and lithologic facies analyses, as demonstrated on and around the existing banks, provide powerful tools by which to recognize analogous features in the subsurface.