INFOPET.GIS Project: Representation And Geosite Data For Petroleum Exploration
Authors: Gomez-Herrera J.E. , Linares-Cala E. , Garcia-Sanchez R. , Yero-Batista M. , Valdes-Pino P. 
Published: July 2010

The Cuban Archipelago is situated in the Caribbean Sea between Yucatan (Mexico), Florida (USA), Haiti and Jamaica, with a total area of 110,860 km2 and more than 1,600 keys or small islands. The offshore shelf area of the Cuban archipelago covers an area of 67,831 km2.

Cuba can be divided into two hydrocarbon provinces: the North Province (continental margin carbonates deposited up to the pre-Campanian with synorogenic sediments), which contains most of the fields and discoveries today; and the South Cuban Province (part of the Caribbean Plate volcanic-arc islands, overlain by synorogenic and postorogenic sediments). The latter has been less explored up to the present, and is partially thrusted by the Placetas, Camajuani, and Remedios Tectostratigraphic Units (TSU).

Hydrocarbons are trapped most commonly in thrusted, fractured carbonates of Jurassic to Cretaceous age, and also in fractured serpentinites and volcanic rocks. The most proven rock potential is found in the Placetas and Camajuani TSUs, where organically rich, low maturity carbonates show high hydrogen indices and good source potential.

At present, more than 20 oil fields have been discovered, including the small old Motembo field (1881), and the largest Varadero (1971). The last discovery, named Puerto Escondido (1997) is still being developed by horizontal drilling.

The conservation of this natural and important heritage, has established different approaches, called "geotopi" in Italian, "geologic points of interest" in the Spanish language, and "geosite" in English language. These are defined as singular elements of the environment that contain an extraordinary scientific knowledge(1). In our particular case, we denominate these elements as oil-geosites. The term is designed to include all locations and objectives that include any information or scientific knowledge about petroleum exploration and production.

The idea for the compilation of the oil-geosites of Cuba first began to develop in 1985, and the project Oil&Geosite was started in 1998, when the concept of an oil-geosite guide or atlas was developed by leading geologists and cartographers.

The Geographical Information Systems (GIS) project "SISTEMA INFORMATICO PARA PETR?LEO (INFOPET.GIS)" was designed and created to solve complex problems in oil computer science. The main purpose of the INFOPET.GIS system is the collection, storage and analysis of oil and gas objectives, and other very important geologic events. The INFOPET.GIS's application is a computer-based tool and a procedure, built around a decision support system involving the integration of spatially referenced data.

Project Objectives

Management of the topographical information contained in the digital cartographic base. Management of the geologic information contained in the digital cartographic base. Management of the alphanumeric information of the different oil-geosite locations. Creation of the geographical databases with a relational platform for standard desktop mapping.

The project is represented by the main screen, a data show, where we explain the history of the work evolution tables, cartographic materials, and slides, pictures, and other parameters concerning both volumes, including an explanatory text about the resources potential of Cuba.