Mexico, Gulf

Kaufman, R. L., Ahmed, A. S. Elsinger, R. J. 1990. Gas chromatography as a development and production tool for fingerprinting oils from individual reservoirs applieations in the Gulf of Mexico. Gulf Coast Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Research Conference, 315-342. 

The Kuroshio enters the SCS in the form of a loop current. After shedding off the Kuroshio, the water mass intrudes into the NSCS in an eddy style all the year round, which is analogous to the Mexico Gulf Stream. The horizontal scale of a cyclonic ring away from the Kuroshio is about 150 km, and the vertical scale is about 1,000 m. The maximum surface velocity is about 1 m/s (Li et al., 1997). 

M.T. Halbouty, Salt Domes, Gulf Region, United States and Mexico, Gulf Publishing Co., Houston (1967), p. 125. 

Marzano, M.S. "Controls on Permeability for Unconsolidated Sands From Conventional Core Data Offshore Gulf of Mexico," Gulf Coast Ass. Trans. 39 (1988) 113-120. 

With a few exceptions reservoir rocks are sediments. The two main categories are siliciclastic rocks, usually referred to as elastics or sandstones , and carbonate rocks. Most reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea are contained in a clastic depositional environment many of the giant fields of the Middle East are contained in carbonate rocks. Before looking at the significance of depositional environments for the production process let us investigate some of the main characteristics of both categories. 

For example, the many deepwater fields located in the Gulf of Mexico are of Tertiary age and are comprised of complex sand bodies which were deposited in a deepwater turbidite sequence. The BP Prudhoe Bay sandstone reservoir in Alaska is of Triassic/ Cretaceous age and was deposited by a large shallow water fluvial-alluvial fan delta system. The Saudi Arabian Ghawar limestone reservoir is of Jurassic age and was deposited in a warm, shallow marine sea. Although these reservoirs were deposited in very different depositional environments they all contain producible accumulations of hydrocarbons, though the fraction of recoverable oil varies. In fact, these three fields are some of the largest in the world, containing over 12 billion barrels of oil each ... 

Introduction and commercial application Investment opportunities in the exploration and production (E P) sector of oil and gas business are abundant. Despite areas such as the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the North Slope in Alaska being mature areas, there are still many new fields under development in those regions, and new areas of business interest are opening up in South America, Africa and South East Asia. Some fields which have a production history of decades are being redeveloped, such as the Pedernales Field in Venezuela. 

There are currently more than 6,500 oil and gas installations located on the continental shelves of some 53 countries. About 4,000 of these are in the US Gulf of Mexico, 950 in Asia, 700 in the Middle East and 400 in Europe. 

Sulfur and Chlorine Pipelines. Underground sulfur is melted by superheated water and then piped as Hquid to the surface with compressed air. At the surface, molten sulfur is transported by heated pipeline to a storage or shipping terminal. One such pipeline, located under 15 m of water in the Gulf of Mexico, is insulated and surrounded by steel casing to which are strapped two 130-mm dia pipelines that carry return water from the deposit. The superheated water is carried from shore to the deposit in a 63.5-mm dia pipe inside the pipeline that carries the molten sulfur (21). 

M. T. Halbouty, Sa/t Domes, GulfKegion, United States, Mexico, 2nd ed.. Gulf Pubhshing Co., Houston, Tex., 1979. 

The documented occurrence of pesticides in surface water is indicative that mnoff is an important pathway for transport of pesticide away from the site of appHcation. An estimated 160 t of atra2ine, 71 t of sima2ine, 56 t of metolachlor, and 18 t of alachlor enter the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River annually as the result of mnoff (47). Field appHcation of pesticides inevitably leads to pesticide contamination of surface mnoff water unless mnoff does not occur while pesticide residues remain on the surface of the soil. The amount of pesticides transported in a field in mnoff varies from site to site. It is controUed by the timing of mnoff events, pesticide formulation, physical—chemical properties of the pesticide, and properties of the soil surface (48). Under worst-case conditions, 10% or more of the appHed pesticide can leave the edge of the field where it was appHed. 

Salt-Dome Sulfur Deposits. The sulfur deposits associated with salt domes in the Gulf Coast regions of the southern United States and Mexico have historically been the primary sources of U.S. sulfur. These remain an important segment of both U.S. and world sulfur supply. Although the reserves are finite, many are large and voluntary productive capacity ensures the importance of these sources for some time to come. In 1994, the output from the salt domes in the U.S. was about 2.09 million metric tons (21). 

Other natural sodium sulfate brines of commercial importance are found in dry lake beds of southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada (70) Laguna del Ray in Coahuila, Mexico the Gulf of Kara-bogaz of the former USSR and western China. 

Surface water enrichment is the result of aeolian and fluvial inputs, which are thought to be the most important sources of Th to the ocean. Thorinm-232 has been proposed as a link between the radiogenic thorium isotopes and trace metals and anthropogenic pollutants. " While the pathways are very different for the radiogenic thorium isotopes, Th is delivered to the ocean in a fashion similar to many pollutants and trace metals. For example, Guo et found Th distributions in the Gulf of Mexico and off Cape Hatteras in the North Atlantic Ocean agreed well with the general distribution pattern of aluminum. 

This system has proven to provide adequate levels of safety in the Gulf of Mexico and other similar areas where it is possible to abandon the location during a catastrophic event. In the North Sea where harsh environmental conditions exist, a different approach to safety has evolved which is based on developing a Safety Case and calculating an Individual Risk Rate (IRR) to show that the risk to any individual working in the facility is As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). 

Gulf Coast region of the USA and Mexico, and from the evaporite basin deposits in west Texas, Poland, the former USSR and Iran. 

This is largely due to the discovery and development of major natural gas fields in the U.S. Southwest, mid-contment, on- and offshore areas of the Gulf of Mexico and Canada—and the development of safe and efficient interstate natural gas trans-missiou pipelines to transport natural gas to markets across the country. Some 77 percent at the natural gas consumers use is produced domestically. 

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