The Cenozoic Song Hong and Beibuwan Basins, Vietnam

The Vietnamese offshore margin holds a substantially underexplored petroleum potential. The key to unravelling this potential lies in understanding the tectono-stratigraphic framework of the region including the Cenozoic mechanisms governing syn-rift and source rock deposition. This is essential for prediction of, for instance the presence and nature of source rocks in South-East Asia and possible reservoir intervals in the syn-rift packages. The Vietnamese part of the Song Hong and Beibuwan Basins (Fig. 1) differs from other basins along the western margin of the South China Sea in that the Palaeogene syn-rift succession is sporadically exposed due to uplift and inversion. These exposures provide a unique glimpse into the Cenozoic syn-rift succession of the basin.