Abstract: Carbonate Mound Reservoirs in the Paradox Formation: An Outcrop Analogue along the San Juan River, Southeastern Utah
Thomas C. Chidsey Jr., Craig D. Morgan, David
E. Eby, Lise Brinton, Kris Hartmann
Carbonate mound reservoirs within the Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Paradox Formation are major producers of oil and gas in the Paradox basin of Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. Outcrops of the Paradox Formation along the San Juan River of southeastern Utah provide small-scale analogues of reservoir heterogeneity, flow barriers and baffles, lithofacies, and geometry. These characteristics can be used in reservoir simulation models for secondary/tertiary recovery of oil from small fields in the basin.
Exposures of the Paradox Formation Ismay zone in the wild Horse Canyon area display lateral facies changes from phylloid algal mounds to off-mound detrital wedges or fans bounded at the top by a flooding surface. The phylloid mounds are composed of bafflestone, skeletal grainstone, packstone, and cementstone. Algal plates, brachiopods, bryozoans, and rugose corals are commonly found in the phylloid mounds. The mound wall is composed of rudstone, lumpstone, and cementstone. The detrital fan consists of transported algal material, grainstone, and mudstone with open-marine fossils. Within the mound complex is an inter-mound trough tentatively interpreted to be a tidal channel. The geometry and composition of the rocks in the trough significantly add to the overall heterogeneity of the mo nd.
Reservoir models are being developed for possible water- and carbon-dioxide floods of small Paradox basin fields to determine the most effective secondary/tertiary recovery method. The models will include lithologic fabrics, flooding surfaces, and inter-mound troughs, based on the mound complex exposed at Wild Horse Canyon. This project may also provide reservoir information for simulation models in small Paleozoic carbonate mound fields in other basins worldwide.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90952©1996 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Billings, Montana