Frisco City Sand: New Jurassic Reservoir in Southwest Alabama

Steven D. Mann, Robert M. Mink, Bennett L. Bearden, Robert D. Schneeflock, Jr.

The first commercial production of hydrocarbons from the Jurassic Haynesville Formation in southwestern Alabama was from the Frisco City field. The field currently produces 57.8° API gravity oil on 160-ac well spacing from a depth of approximately 12,000 ft. Perforations are in the Frisco City sand interval, in the lower part of the Haynesville Formation. Average porosity is 15% and average permeability is 45 md. Currently, the field has two producing wells with cumulative production of over 138.876 bbl of oil and 213,144 mcf of gas.

The hydrocarbon trap in the Frisco City field is a combination structural-stratigraphic trap. The Frisco City sand reservoir is located on a faulted anticline. The stratigraphic trap is produced by a permeability barrier near the crest of the structure and termination against a basement high.

The lower part of the Haynesville Formation in this area is comprised of (in ascending order) the Buckner Anhydrite Member, the Frisco City sand, and interbedded shale and anhydrite. Sandstones of the Frisco City sand interval were deposited in a shallow marine setting and have a sheetlike morphology. The sandstones are poorly to moderately sorted, angular to rounded arkose, and contain angular to rounded pebbles. The sandstones are interbedded with thin, sandy, mudstones that contribute, along with patchy carbonate and anhydrite cement, to considerable reservoir heterogeneity. Porosity is predominantly primary intergranular with a small amount of framework grain dissolution and decementation.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91029©1989 AAPG GCAGS and GC Section of SEPM Meeting, October 25-27, 1989, Corpus Christi, Texas.