science

Sureste Basin

Sureste Basin is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sureste Basin rather than just read about it. In short: The Sureste Basin or Salinas-Sureste Basin is a hydrocarbon province located in southeast Mexico. The basin covers an area of 188,000 km2 (73,000 sq mi) and comprises proven reserves of 50 billion barrels of oil.

Key takeaways

Sureste Basin belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sureste Basin to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sureste Basin from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Sureste Basin or Salinas-Sureste Basin is a hydrocarbon province located in southeast Mexico. The basin covers an area of 188,000 km2 (73,000 sq mi) and comprises proven reserves of 50 billion barrels of oil. Due to recent successful explorations, the area has been called a Super Basin. The first oil explorations in the onshore Sureste Basin started in 1907. Offshore explorations started in the mid 20th century. Improvement of drilling techniques in the 1970s allowed the discovering of giant oil fields, such as Cantarell. Since 2015, oil companies have started exploration in deep waters. In 2017, the Zama oil field was discovered.

Description Sureste Basin covers an area of 188,000 km2 (73,000 sq mi), that extends from the Chiapas fold belt in the onshore southern limit, to the base of the Campeche Slope in the deep-waters region. It includes prolific oil sub-basins such as Salina, Sonda de Campeche, and Campeche-Tabasco. Deposits range from the late Triassic to Holocene ages. It's described as a highly structural salt basin.

Other Names The basin has been previously named Campeche Basin (Cuenca de Campeche), Isthmian Salt Basin (Cuenca de Salina del Istmo) and Cuenca Salina (Salt Basin). Also, the northern part of the basin has been named separately as Yucatán Salt Basin, despite there are not geological separation. The Mexican National Commission of Hydrocarbons (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos, CNH) and the Mexican state-owned oil company PEMEX adopted the name Sureste Basin.

Oil Explorations

In the onshore and shallow-water area of the Sureste Basin, there had been made around 140 oil discoveries until 2017. However, in the deep waters area of the basin, there had been made only 12 exploration wildcats. In 2017, proven reserves of the Sureste Basin were over 50 billion barrels of oil. First oil discoveries were made in onshore Tabasco by wildcatters following oil seepage around the flanks of onshore surface piercing. Due to the complex salt-core geology of the region, these first efforts were cautious. The Filisola oil field was the first discovery in the area, made in 1907, and followed by the Ixhuatlán oil field in 1911. By 1930, around 50 exploration wildcats were made, allowing the discovery of several oil fields such as Tupilco, Tonala, and Nuevo Teapa. Offshore exploration started in 1949 after a marine geophysical survey of the Coatzacoalcos and Grijalva rivers was acquired. In 1959, the Santa Ana field was discovered offshore. 2D seismic technology and better deep drilling techniques allowed the discovering of giant oil fields in the 1970s, such as Cactus, Samaria, Cunducuan, Iride, and Cantarell. Since 2014, oil companies have explored the deep-water extension with 3D seismic technology. In 2017, Zama oil field was discovered. In 2020, Italian-based oil company Eni announced its plans to invest $130 million for drilling oil and gas explorations wells in the Sureste Basin.

See also Cantarell Field List of oil fields

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sureste Basin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sureste Basin claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sureste Basin before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sureste Basin ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sureste Basin

In research: Sureste Basin appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sureste Basin in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sureste Basin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Geography of Mexico, Oil exploration, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sureste Basin outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sureste Basin in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sureste Basin means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sureste Basin out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sureste Basin in simple terms?

Why does Sureste Basin matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sureste Basin?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sureste Basin.