OTC 23210 3D Seismic Pore Pressure Analysis in Offshore Arenque Field, Mexico Victor Manuel Lopez-Solis (PEMEX-Exploración y Producción), David Velazquez-Cruz (Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo), Fabian Martinez-Gonzalez (PEMEX-Exploración y Producción), Gustavo Espinosa-Castañeda (Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo), Martin Alberto Díaz Viera (Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo) Copyright 2012, Offshore Technology Conference This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference held in Houston, Texas, USA, 30 April–3 May 2012. This paper was selected for presentation by an OTC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Offshore Technology Conference, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of OTC copyright. Abstract The Arenque marine field is located 30 km offshore in the East part of Tampico city. It is part of the Tampico-Misantla basin and it produces 30°API oil. The producing reservoirs are Jurassic San Andres made up by grainstone and lower Cretaceous Tamaulipas composite by naturally fractured fine-grained limestone. In 2004 PEMEX started a 3D seismic gathering, concluding in 2009 with a new reinterpreted geologic static model of San Andres and lower Tamaulipas reservoirs. The objective of 3D seismic was both, to explore new opportunities, and to accelerate the recovery of remaining reserves of the Arenque field. As a result of the reinterpretation, new paths of horizontal wells were defined, and a drilling program was worked out from 2010 to 2018 to drill both developed and infill wells as well as reentries. At the beginning of the present century, PEMEX drilled several horizontal wells in the Arenque field with drilling times above 150 days. These drilling times had non-productive times originated by pore pressure and well instability problems. In this paper we presented a pore pressure analysis using 3D seismic compiled in the Arenque field. The aims of the analysis were both, to visualize and quantify the behavior of geopressures in the field to redefine drilling designs of horizontal wells and to avoid non-productive times that duplicated programmed drilling times in the past. Within the analysis was defined the normal compaction trends for interval velocity, and also the pore pressure models were fixed to geological conditions of the marine portion of the Tampico-Misantla basin. Introduction Tampico Misantla basin including offshore area has 50,000 square kilometers and it is the oldest oil production zone in Mexico. Into this basin, exploration activity began in 1904 in Ebano-Panuco province which had produced more than 1,000 million of heavy crude oil from upper cretaceous calcareous rocks. Also, the basin produced in lower cretaceous and kimmeridgian carbonate rocks like in Tamaulipas-Constituciones and Arenque fields. The Golden Lane is situated at the south portion of the basin it was discovered in 1908, production comes from middle cretaceous reef carbonate rocks. The Golden Lane has both an onshore and offshore portion with fields like Cerro Azul, Alamo, Alazan, Temapache, Santa Agueda onshore part and Carpa, Bagre, Mejillon, Atun offshore. We find other important fields bordering the Golden Lane such as; Tres Hermanos, Poza Rica and San Andres, oil production comes from carbonates into stratigraphic traps. At the occident of Golden Lane, it was developed the Chicontepec Paleochannel with an extent of 3,000 square kilometers. The Chicontepec Paleochannel is made up by siliciclastic sediments of Paleocene and Eocene ages. The Tampico-Misantla basin recorded an average production in 2011 of 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD) after having reached a maximum of 600,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) in 1921. Nowadays, the basin has an accumulated production of 6,000 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) and the total remaining reserves are 18,000 million BOE. Figure 1(a) depicts Tampico-Misantla basin and the location of their main fields (PEMEX 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011a; Schlumberger, 1984).