Central Utah Thrust Belt-Hingeline: This New Oil and Gas Province Has Enormous Potential
Moulton, Floyd C.1 and Michael L. Pinnell2
1Consultant, Salt Lake
City, UT
2Chief Operating, Salt Lake City, Sandy, UT
The Wolverine Gas and Oil central Utah thrust belt-hingeline oil
discovery made on May 3, 2004, opened a new and very large oil and
gas exploration-production province. It ranges from the north near
Pineview field 160 miles to Cedar City, Utah on the south. It is
bounded on the east by thrusted sediments near Highway 89, then
extends westward perhaps 50 miles to the central Delta desert area.
The play is presently defined by at least ten producing wells, 120 dry
holes, numerous thrusted outcrops of Mesozoic and older rocks, older
and recent seismic, magnetic, and gravity data plus surface
hydrocarbon seeps and satellite-defined hydrocarbon microseepage
anomalies. The Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, always recognized as a
world class 1,200 foot thick potential hydrocarbon reservoir, did not
disappoint when Wolverine's KMR 17-1 well flowed 708 barrels of
40 gravity, water-driven, low-sulfur oil. Shallower Jurassic Twin
Creek limestone is apparently productive, but not yet developed.
However, there were some surprises: (1) The Navajo Sandstone
was 1,320 feet higher than mapped, (2) The production was oil, not
gas, (3) Two Navajo Sandstones were present, and (4) Oil sourced
from Paleozoic rocks was, at least in part, remigrated. We predict at
least 30 structural anomalies will be drilled after several massive 3-D
group and company seismic programs are completed along the four
major, east vergent thrusts and a west vergent Laramide back thrust.
Paleozoic reservoir rocks may eventually provide more reserves than
Mesozioc rocks. Cretaceous and Permian shales may be significant
source rocks. Recoverable reserves may exceed several billion barrels
of oil and several tens of trillion cubic feet of gas.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90071 © 2007 AAPG Rocky Mountain Meeting, Snowbird, Utah