Alternatives for Hydrocarbon Exploration Offshore Southern Cuba

Abstract

Today oil and gas exploration has integrated to the geology and geophysics studies, new technologiesas data from remote sensing that helps to detect interesting aspects for research. Cuban southernpetroleum province has a low exploration level. The study area includes Ana María Gulf and the deepwaters sector between Bahia de Cochinos and Cabo Cruz (batimetry over 200m). In 2010, usingGoogle Earth non professional system was taken and image of the study area and were detectedtwelve (12) anomalies associated to seabed, they look like depressions, their shape is almost circularand they have a big size (higher than 2000 m), these anomalies could be similar to pockmarks,that are depressions in seabed mainly circulars with a range of diameters from units of meters to10 – 12 km, and they have been found in shallow and deep waters in any latitude. The majority ofpockmarks are associated to the presence of oil, gas and hydrates of gas. The seabed study withdifferent nontraditional methods can be useful for hydrocarbon exploration in offshore Southern Cuba.