Source identification of sea surface oil with geochemical data in Cantarell, Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the world's largest petroleum regions. Cantarell is an important oil field located in the Akal Pillar province. This region is characterized by several oil seeps. However, there is no consensus on the Cantarell oil seep subsurface provenance. Surface oil samples (seepage) and subsurface oil samples (reservoirs) from the Akal Pillar province were analyzed using gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and gas chromatography with a mass spectrometry detector (GC-MS). The data obtained were used to identify and characterize biomarker and diamondoid distributions. Multivariate statistical analyses of geochemical results were made to identify the Cantarell oil seep origin. Geochemical analysis showed small differences between the results which could help the correlation studies between the samples. Cluster analysis indicated a good correlation of the seepage samples with a unique subsurface oil sample, CAN8, from the reservoir in the Paleocene/Cretaceous breccia.