Abstract
Abundant subsurface data for Mesozoic and Cenozoic sections of the US Gulf Coast and the Middle East make it possible to track the relationship of shelf carbonates and evaporites (associated with minor amounts of clastics) to eustasy. Our contention is that because the sedimentary deposition for both regions was in part controlled by gentle tectonic subsidence punctuated by eustatic variations. The major hydrocarbon fields which occur here can be related to sea-level behavior at the time of deposition of the reservoir sections and their early diagenesis. Keep-up reservoirs with sheet-like geometry formed when carbonate accumulation matched sea-level rise, aggrading to form shoaling-upward cycles during sea-level highstands. Give-up and catch-up reservoirs with lense-like carbonate geometry formed on drowned shelves during and following rapid sea-level rises, often downslope from carbonate margins. Give-up reservoirs occur when carbonate accumulation was unable to match sea-level rise and catch-up reservoirs form where carbonate accumulation was initially unable to keep pace with the sea-level rise but then aggraded to sea-level. Reservoirs with the prograded discontinuous clinoform geometry of the platform margin, formed during stillstands by carbonate accumulation that not only kept up with the sea-level rise, but also advanced in a seaward direction.