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PSUSGS Assessment of Undiscovered Conventional Oil and Gas Resources, Middle-Upper Eocene Claiborne Group, Gulf of Mexico Onshore and State Waters, USA*
Paul C. Hackley
Search and Discovery Article #10176 (2008)
Posted December 8, 2008
*Author’s Note: This article contains the abstract, figures, and references presented April 22, 2008, in a poster session at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. This same material currently is in manuscript format in internal peer review at the U.S. Geological Survey. Readers of the current presentation are encouraged to contact the author via email with their questions and comments.
1 U.S. Geological Survey, MS 956 National Center, Reston, VA 20192 ([email protected])
The Middle-Upper Eocene Claiborne Group was assessed for undiscovered, technically recoverable conventional hydrocarbon resources as part of the 2007 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of Tertiary strata of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico onshore and State waters. Total estimated mean undiscovered conventional resources are 52 million barrels of oil, 19.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 1.2 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. Source rocks for oil accumulations probably are downdip organic-rich facies of the Paleocene-Eocene Wilcox Group and Sparta Sand (Eocene, Lower Claiborne Group); gas accumulations may be sourced from the Jurassic Smackover Formation, Cretaceous Eagle Ford Formation, or the Wilcox-Sparta interval. Primary Claiborne reservoir formations are the Queen City Sand, Cook Mountain Formation, Sparta Sand, Yegua Formation, and the Cockfield Formation.
A geologic model, supported by spatial analysis of petroleum geology data including discovered reservoir depth, thickness, temperature, porosity-permeability, and pressure, was used to divide the Claiborne into seven assessment units (AUs). The AUs include: (1) Lower Claiborne Stable Shelf Gas and Oil, (2) Lower Claiborne Expanded Fault Zone Gas, (3) Lower Claiborne Slope and Basin Floor Gas, (4) Lower Claiborne Cane River, (5) Upper Claiborne Stable Shelf Gas and Oil, (6) Upper Claiborne Expanded Fault Zone Gas, and (7) Upper Claiborne Slope and Basin Floor Gas.
The great bulk of undiscovered resources in the Claiborne are non-associated gas and condensate contained in deep (mostly >12,000 ft) reservoirs. These are commonly overpressured, structurally complex, relatively unexplored, outer shelf or slope and basin floor reservoirs. Continuing development of these downdip objectives is expected to be the primary focus of exploration and production activity for the onshore Middle-Upper Eocene strata in the Gulf Coast in the coming decades.
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Discussions with the USGS National Oil and Gas Assessment review committee (T.R. Klett, C.J. Schenk, R.R. Charpentier, and R.M. Pollastro) during the geologic review and assessment meetings guided the analysis of numbers and sizes of undiscovered reservoirs in the Claiborne Group. S.A. Kinney provided GIS support and processing of spatial information related to the delineation of the assessment units, and for the structure and depth of the Claiborne across the basin. J.L. Coleman drafted Figure 23A and M. Merrill assisted with drafting Figure 23B. M.S. Hopkins assisted in delineating data subsets from the IHS and Nehring databases. For their leadership and for the sharing of their ideas and geologic experience, the author is indebted to other members of the Gulf Coast basin assessment team (L.H. Biewick, J.L. Coleman, S.M. Condon, R.F. Dubiel, D.O. Hayba, A.W. Karlsen, M.A. Keller, M.D. Lewan, P.H. Nelson, O. Pearson, J.K. Pitman, J.L. Ridgley, E.L. Rowan, S.M. Swanson, and P.D. 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