ABSTRACT Perla gas field is a world-class giant and one of the most significant in Latin America in the last decade. The field was discovered in August 2009. It is the largest gas field in Latin America with approximately 17 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in place, or 3.1 BBOE. The field, located in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Venezuela, was discovered, and is operated by Cardon IV S.A., a 50/50 joint operating company formed by Repsol and Eni. The Perla discovery is important because it is a Play opener for the southern Caribbean domain, triggering a new exploration cycle in the region and proving a previously unknown Tertiary thermogenic petroleum system. The discovery well encountered a thick carbonate section (240 m [787 ft] thick) with excellent primary reservoir properties. The trap is a combination structural and stratigraphic, defined by a northwest–southeast trending asymmetric faulted structure and pinch-out of the carbonate reservoir rock to the north. The proven hydrocarbon column exceeds 350 m (1148 ft) and is in complete hydraulic continuity, and the structural-stratigraphic closure exceeds 100 km 2 (39 mi 2 ).

Abstract A great variety of complex structures found in northern Colombia, northern Venezuela, the Lesser Antilles, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago record the eastward movement of the Caribbean plate relative to the South American plate through time. The development of these structures includes transtensional and foredeep basins as well as fold-and-thrust belts that become younger eastward since the Cretaceous. In northern Colombia, terrane accretion began in the Triassic and ended in the late Cretaceous, along the Gulf of Uraba, and the Sinu–San Jacinto Belt. Further east, the structure offshore Guajira, east from the Bucaramanga fault, is characterized by accretion involving the South American metamorphic basement. Well and seismic data in the Maracaibo Basin record the Paleogene flexure related to terrane collision and accretion. In the Gulf of Venezuela, offshore eastern Falcon, and La Vela, transtensional basins record the eastward movement of the Caribbean plate. Onshore northern Venezuela, the Villa de Cura subduction mélange in the Cordillera de la Costa nappes represents the accretionary wedges involving ophiolites of Eocene age. The Guarico flysch records the flexure of the accretionary wedge during Oligocene time and fills the foredeep of the same age. The Cariaco, Carupano, and La Blanquilla are pull-apart basins related to a younger Oligocene–Miocene-stage strike-slip as the Caribbean plate advances toward the east. Ophiolitic obduction of the Caribbean oceanic domain onto the accreted terranes is represented by the thrusted ophiolites of Isla Margarita. The Monagas area or Serrania del Interior folded belt is a characterized Oligocene to Miocene thin-skinned thrusting involving the passive margin units of the South American plate and is overlain by the Carapita accretionary wedge. The Maturin Basin is the flexural basin associated with the loading of the Serrania del Interior thrust stack and extends to the east toward the Delta Centro and Punta Pescador areas, in the Orinoco delta and south of Trinidad. The Gulf of Paria pull-apart basin in eastern Venezuela and Trinidad developed since the late Miocene and is the easternmost strike-slip basin related to the eastward advance of the Caribbean plate, and terminates against the frontal accretionary wedge of the Caribbean plate of Barbados and Trinidad that is a Miocene to present-day shale-dominated accretionary wedge.

Abstract The approximately 300-m (984.2 ft)-thick Oligo–Miocene carbonates of the Perla field consist of an overall deepening-upward sequence predominantly composed of larger benthic foraminifera and red algae (oligophotic production) with a minor contribution from shallow-water (euphotic) carbonate components (green algae and corals). Two types of facies successions occur. In the lower part, lithofacies persistently occur in transgressive-regressive sequences bounded by erosional surfaces (Type 1). In Type 1 successions, the interactive analysis of the skeletal components and textures, along with the order of the facies succession (Walther’s Law) permit the establishment of the depositional model, the architecture of the building blocks, and their stacking patterns. Deposited in a context of tectonic subsidence, the building blocks progressively onlapped with backstepping configuration onto a paleoisland. In the upper part, volumetrically less important, lithofacies recurrence is sporadic, while fining-upward successions are common. They commonly have gray-black coloration (pyrite, phosphate, and glauconite) and planktonic foraminifers and nannofossils are abundant (Type 2). They are interpreted as gravity-flow deposits deposited below a chemocline. This requires a younger carbonate factory updip of the cored area, consistent with the subsidence, to supply the rhodolith-rich deposits of the upper part of the Perla limestone. A gentle distally steepened ramp model (distal bulge) is considered. Nevertheless, waves fail to explain the facies distribution in the Perla ramp; the turbulence induced by breaking internal waves is the best candidate to explain the facies distribution in the outer ramp.