Petroleum Geology of the Lehigh Park Field and Its Implications for Future Exploration in the South Florida Basin

The Lehigh Park field, located in Lee County, south Florida, was discovered in 1974 by Exxon. Production is from the Lower Cretaceous (Comanchean) age Sunniland formation in a combination structural-stratigraphic trap at an approximate depth of 11,400 feet. The Lehigh Park field is the northwesternmost of 14 oil fields discovered to date in the Sunniland trend. Cumulative production from this trend exceeds 100 million barrels of oil (MMBO). Production to date (through September, 2007) at Lehigh Park is about 5.89 MMBO from five wells, only one of which is still producing. The oil produced from the Lehigh Park field has an API gravity of about 28 degrees, a low gas-oil ratio, and a moderately high sulfur content. It is trucked from the Lehigh Park tank battery to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, from where it is transported by tanker, usually to refineries in the Texas Gulf Coast.

In addition to the Sunniland formation, which is commonly subdivided into four productive intervals, several other carbonate-evaporite cyclothems are present in deeper intervals within the basin. The paucity of deep tests in the South Florida Basin, combined with favorable petroleum source, reservoir, and trapping characteristics; as well as proximity to Mesozoic production in the Mexican Gulf Coast and northern Cuba, make the South Florida Basin an underexplored, but relatively attractive area for future petroleum exploration.