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PSUSGS Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources for the Oligocene Frio and Anahuac Formations, Onshore Gulf of Mexico Basin, USA*
Sharon M. Swanson1 and Alexander W. Karlsen1
Search and Discovery Article #10178 (2009)
Posted February 28, 2009
*Adapted from poster presentation at AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas, April 22, 2008.
Authors’ Note: This article contains the abstract, text, and figures presented in that poster session. This same material currently is in internal peer review at the U.S. Geological Survey. Previous reports on the assessment of the Frio and Anahuac formations include Swanson et al. (2007) and Swanson and Karlsen (2008). Readers of the current presentation are encouraged to contact the authors via email with their questions and comments.
1 U.S. Geological Survey, National Center, MS 956, Reston VA 20192 ([email protected], [email protected])
The sand-rich, fluvio-deltaic Oligocene Frio Formation, a mature to supermature exploration trend, has been one of the largest hydrocarbon producers from Paleogene strata in the Gulf of Mexico Basin. The overlying Anahuac Formation is a transgressive marine shale having deltaic, shoreface, and slope sandstones in addition to carbonate sediments. In a recent U.S. Geological Survey assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in Tertiary strata of onshore lands and State waters, estimated total mean values of undiscovered resources for the Frio and Anahuac Formations were 172 million barrels of oil (MMBO), 9384 billion cubic feet of natural gas (BCFG), and 542 million barrels of natural gas liquids (MMBNGL). Five assessment units (AUs) for the Frio (including equivalents preserved in the Hackberry embayment) and Anahuac Formations were quantitatively assessed. Three of the Frio AUs were defined based on the character of reservoirs
in relation to structural and depositional features: (1) the “Frio Stable Shelf Oil and Gas AU”, containing
reservoirs
with a mean depth of about 4800 ft in normally pressured intervals; (2) the “Frio Expanded Fault Zone Oil and Gas AU”, containing
reservoirs
with a mean depth of about 9000 ft in overpressured intervals; and (3) the “Frio Slope and Basin Floor Gas AU”, which currently has no production, but has potential for deep gas resources (>15,000 ft). AUs also were defined for the Hackberry embayment and the Anahuac Formation. Of the five units assessed, the “Frio Slope and Basin Floor Gas AU” shows the greatest potential for undiscovered gas resources, having an estimated mean of 5589 BCFG.
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In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted an assessment of the technically recoverable, undiscovered Two proprietary, commercially available databases were used in the assessment. The first database (NRG Associates, Inc., 2006) contained reserve, cumulative production, and other types of information for most oil and gas fields of the United States larger than 0.5 million BOE. The data used were current as of December 31, 2004. The second database (IHS Energy Group, 2005a, 2005b) contained drilling and completion data. Data from these commercial databases are subject to proprietary license restrictions, and the USGS cannot publish, share, or serve any data from these databases.
The assessment was conducted using a Total Petroleum System (TPS) model. A TPS con¬sists of all genetically related petroleum generated by a pod or closely related pods of mature
The Frio Formation is composed of a series of deltaic and marginal-marine sandstones and shales that are the downdip equivalent of the continental Catahoula Formation (Galloway et al., 1982, 1991; Figures 1 and 2). The Frio is underlain by the Oligocene Vicksburg Formation, which is thickest and best developed within the Rio Grande embayment in south Texas (Galloway et al., 1982). The subsurface Frio and Anahuac Formations of Texas and Louisiana are subdivided into paleontological zones based on the occurrence of benthic foraminifera (Table 1). The Chickasawhay and lower part of the Paynes Hammock formations of southeast Mississippi, southwest Alabama, and the west Florida panhandle are the equivalents of the subsurface Frio and Catahoula of Texas and Louisiana (Galloway et al., 1991; Salvador and Quezada Muñeton, 1991; Figure 2).
In southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, a transgressive, deepwater shale and sandstone unit referred to as the “Hackberry” occurs in the In places, the Frio is regionally overlain by the Anahuac Formation, an onlapping, transgressive marine shale that occurs in the subsurface of Texas, Louisiana, and southwestern Mississippi (Galloway et al., 1982; Galloway et al., 1991) (Figure 2). Previous studies have reported the Anahuac to be in either the upper Oligocene or lower Miocene (Warren, 1957; Krutak and Beron, 1990, 1993). Structure contour and isopach maps (Figure 4) generated from published data (Bebout and Gutierrez, 1982, 1983; Dodge and Posey, 1981) for the USGS Tertiary Assessment (Swanson and Karlsen, 2007; 2008) indicate that the depth to the top of the Frio (including the Anahuac Formation) ranges from a minimum of less than 1000 ft in updip areas to a maximum of about 18,000 ft in southern Louisiana. The thickness of the Frio ranges from less than 1000 ft in southern Louisiana to close to 10,000 ft in coastal areas of Texas.
The
In a model developed by Wenger et al. (1994) and Hood et al. (2002), the northern outer regions of the basin are characterized by oil generated primarily from the Jurassic Smackover Formation and Cretaceous Eagle Ford Formation, whereas the interior (coastal and nearshore) areas of the basin are characterized by oils produced from the Wilcox and Sparta Frio Formation
The Frio Formation is one of the major Tertiary progradational wedges of the Texas Gulf coastal plain (Galloway et al., 1982). During the Oligocene, massive sediment influx from sources in Mexico and the southwestern United States occurred as a result of uplift and erosion that started in Mexico and was followed by uplift and erosion along the western margin of the Gulf basin itself (Galloway et al., 1982, 2000). Explosive volcanism and caldera formation along the Sierra Madre Occidental combined with the uplift to create a massive influx of recycled sedimentary Sediment dispersal axes along the northwest to central Gulf margin resulted in the formation of the Norma delta, Norias delta (Rio Grande embayment), Houston delta (Houston Embayment), and central Mississippi delta (Galloway et al., 1982, 2000; Galloway, 1986) (Figure 7). Of these deltas, the sand-rich, wave-dominated Norias delta was the largest. To the south, it merged laterally with the smaller sand-rich, wave-dominated Norma delta (Galloway et al., 2000). The fluvial system that supplied the Norias delta was a single river that carried relatively coarse-grained sediments (Galloway et al., 1982). In contrast, the fluvial system that supplied the Houston delta system consisted of several rivers that carried a mixed load of sand, silt, and clay (Galloway et al., 1982). In the late Oligocene, the Houston delta retrograded from the shelf margin, and the central Mississippi delta shrank markedly in area (Figure 7) (Galloway et al., 2000). Hackberry Embayment (Frio Formation) Early studies on the Hackberry trend of southwestern Louisiana identified two major units: (1) an upper predominantly shale section ranging in thickness from less than 100 ft to more than 3000 ft, consisting of a deep water microfaunal assemblage, and (2) a lower predominantly sandstone section ranging in thickness from zero to 700 ft (Paine, 1968) (Figure 3). Numerous abrupt local changes in lithologic character make correlations within the Hackberry difficult (Paine, 1968). Paine (1971) established that the lower Hackberry sandstones were turbidites and that the lower Hackberry sandstone had two depositional patterns: an updip, north-south channel pattern, and a downdip blanket type sandstone pattern (Paine, 1971). Shale and sandstone of the Hackberry sequence form a seaward-thickening wedge, which pinches out to the north along the Hartburg Flexure (Eubanks, 1987) (Figure 8). The Hartburg Flexure is defined as a zone of growth faulting that developed during the Oligocene, which may have represented the shelf margin and limited the updip extent of deep-water shale deposition (Berg and Powers, 1980; Bornhauser, 1960; Ewing and Reed, 1984). Over most of the embayment, the lower Hackberry consists of sand-rich channel filling units that were eroded as much as 800 ft into pre-Hackberry strata (Ewing and Reed, 1984). The Hackberry channel-fill sands were deposited in a submarine canyon-fan setting (Paine, 1968, 1971; Berg and Powers, 1980; Eubanks, 1987; Ewing and Reed, 1984; Cossey and Jacobs, 1992; Galloway et al., 2000) (Figure 9). Updip areas are described as an area of slope failure involving slide blocks, and downdip areas consist of channels where thick, turbidite sands were deposited (Cossey and Jacobs, 1992). Shelf margin slides may have been caused by a combination of salt withdrawal and a generally unstable shelf edge (Cossey and Jacobs, 1992). The Frio Formation is overlain by the Anahuac Formation, a transgressive marine shale, in Texas and Louisiana (Figure 2) (Galloway et al., 2000). The Anahuac onlaps the regressive Frio Formation in downdip areas, and it is overlain by the progradational sandstones of the lower Miocene (Galloway et al., 1982, 1991). Anahuac Formation strata of southwestern Louisiana and Texas are nearly identical, consisting of light- to dark- greenish gray calcareous shale interbedded with thin beds of locally calcareous sandstone and locally thin limestones (John et al., 1992a). Anahuac sediments are more calcareous from west to east (John et al., 1992a). Carbonates are found where clastic influx was minimal, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (Galloway et al., 2000). In some areas of eastern Louisiana, the section consists of reef and detrital limestones containing minor sandstone and shale that grade into carbonate deposits. In the eastern Gulf, petrographic analyses indicate the presence of hermatypic framework and binding organisms that constructed reefal or algal mound accumulations (Krutak and Beron, 1993). These buildups accumulated along a late Oligocene-early Miocene rimmed accretionary carbonate shelf, in nearshore waters of southeastern Louisiana and western Mississippi in carbonates both above and below the Heterostegina Zone (Krutak and Beron, 1990, 1993). At the climax of the late Oligocene transgressive flooding, Heterostegina carbonate buildups in the Anahuac Formation occurred as far west as the Houston salt basin (Galloway et al., 2000).
John et al. (1992a) identified three depositional systems of the Anahuac Formation in south central and southwestern Louisiana, based on relative amounts of sandstone and shale within the section and character of the sandstones: proximal deltaic, distal deltaic, and slope environments. In West Baton Rouge Parish of southern Louisiana, the Anahuac has an average thickness of 750 ft (Goddard et al., 2005) and the uppermost Heterostegina strata include calcareous sandstone and limestone beds, indicating that deposition occurred in an inner-shelf, shallow-marine depositional environment (Goddard et al., 2005). Interbedded shales and calcareous sandstones underlying the Heterostegina zone are typical of
Studies of the occurrence of During the Tertiary, large quantities of sand and mud were deposited along the margins of the Gulf of Mexico and these sediments accumulated in a series of wedges that thicken and dip gulfward (Bebout et al., 1978). Large growth fault systems formed near the downdip edge of each sediment wedge within the area of maximum deposition (Figure 10); these faults developed as a result of rapid sediment loading (Galloway et al., 1982). As a result of this loading, deeper, thick Jurassic salt was mobilized into a series of ridges and troughs (Bebout et al., 1978). In Texas, three major structural provinces can be defined for the Frio (Figure 7): (1) the Houston Embayment, characterized by salt diapirism and associated faulting (Galloway et al., 1982); (2) the San Marcos arch and the area southward towards the Rio Grande Embayment, where underlying salt is mostly absent and long, linear belts of growth faults and associated shale ridges and shale diapirs are dominant (Galloway et al., 1982; Bruce, 1973); and (3) the Rio Grande Embayment, where large, but more discontinuous, belts of growth faults and deep-seated shale ridges and massifs occur (Galloway et al., 1982). As the Frio section thickens gulfward, major fault and diapiric displacement extends up into and through the unit (Bebout et al., 1978; Galloway et al., 1982).
A major deltaic progradation in south Texas and northern Mexico in the early Oligocene created the Vicksburg Fault Zone (Stanley, 1970; Ewing, 1991a, 1991b), which is a narrow fault zone characterized by vertical displacement of the underlying section (Galloway et al., 1982) (Figure 10). The Vicksburg Fault Zone, or flexure, forms the updip limit of significant structural deformation of the Frio Formation (Loucks, 1978; Galloway et al., 1982). The Frio Fault Zone, downdip of the Vicksburg Fault Zone (Figure 10), is a broad, deep listric system that consists of 5 to 10 major normal faults spaced 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 mi) apart, with intervening rollover anticlines (Ewing, 1991a). High-resolution cross sections by Galloway et al. (1994) in south Texas, based on closely-spaced well logs in addition to regional seismic data, demonstrate that the thickening and displacement of Frio sediments are significantly greater in the Frio Fault Zone than in the Vicksburg Fault Zone (Figure 11). This trend in thickening and vertical displacement of the Frio in the Frio fault zone is also evident in cross sections of Tertiary Geologic Model Used to Define Assessment Units The USGS Paleogene assessment team used a geologic model (Figure 12) based on recurring regional-scale structural and depositional features in Paleogene strata to define assessment units. During progradation, deposition occurred in three general areas of the Gulf Coast basin, which we refer to as stable shelf, expanded fault, and slope and basin floor zones. The stable shelf zone occurs in the landward (updip) portions of the basin, where growth faulting is either absent or minimal in the stable shelf zones. The Frio interval is the exception to this model, and the Vicksburg Fault Zone was included in the stable shelf zone (refer to section in “Frio Stable Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment” for discussion). For all stratigraphic intervals assessed in the Paleogene, the expanded fault zone contains growth faults that formed at the dominant shelf edge of the underlying unit. Sediments in the expanded fault zone display extreme vertical displacement and thickening. For all stratigraphic intervals assessed, the slope and basin floor zone consists of environments formed basinward (downdip) of the shelf edge, an environment where growth faulting within the target interval was minimal and sediments were not extremely vertically displaced. As would be expected from the cyclical nature of these progradational systems for stratigraphic intervals assessed, there is overlap between stable shelf, expanded fault, and slope and basin floor zones through time. Each of these assessment units are described in more detail below.
The stable shelf assessment units of the Paleogene stratigraphic intervals assessed are composed primarily of fluvial and deltaic highstand and transgressive systems tracts (Figure 12). In the Frio Formation, barrier and shelf environments are also present. Expanded Fault Zone Assessment Units
The expanded fault zone assessment units of Paleogene intervals assessed contain stratigraphic intervals that display extreme thicknesses and vertical displacement resulting from syndepositional growth faulting (Figure 12). The expanded fault zone assessment units are mostly comprised of deltaic and marine highstand and lowstand systems tracts. Drilling depths to Slope and Basin Floor Assessment Units
The slope and basin floor assessment units of Paleogene intervals assessed have minimum to moderate fault-related expansion for the uppermost beds and are comprised mostly of delta front and marine distal highstand and lowstand systems tracts. Reservoir intervals are thin to moderate as compared to the stable shelf and expanded fault zone assessment units (Figure 12). The Paleogene Assessment Team defined the slope and basin floor assessment units as frontier to hypothetical hydrocarbon production areas, due to the lack of drilling and production data from these areas. Boundaries Used to Define Assessment Units A number of geologic and political boundaries were used to define assessment units in the Frio and Anahuac Formations (Figures 13 and 14). Each of these boundaries is described below; previous publications on definition of the assessment units include Swanson et al. (2007) and Swanson and Karlsen (2008).
Limit of Thermally Mature The Early Cretaceous shelf margin (Ewing and Lopez, 1991) was used to define assessment units (Figure 14). Because the Early Cretaceous shelf margin marks the updip limit of Wilcox Group or Sparta Formation shales that are thermally mature (Rowan et al., 2007), it was used as a limiting boundary for the Frio Stable Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment Unit and Frio Expanded Oil and Gas Assessment Units. Limit of Potential for Biogenic Gas
The 10,000 mg/l total dissolved solids (TDS) isoline (Pettijohn, 1996) was also used as a defining boundary for assessment units in the Frio Formation, to indicate the limits of potential for production of biogenic gas (Figure 14). Previous studies indicate the presence of biogenic gas accumulations in the Frio Formation of southwestern Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana (Champlin, 1995; Goddard and Zimmerman, 2003). Because isotopic data for coal gas samples collected from recent Wilcox coalbed gas exploration wells in Louisiana suggest that coal gases are produced primarily by the bacterial reduction of CO2 in a saline aquifer system (Warwick, 2004), we have hypothesized that microbes producing biogenic gas in the Frio Formation would have required saline aquifer systems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard for an underground Outcrop Boundary Because the outcrop of the Frio Formation is not continuous and could not be used as a boundary, the base (northern boundary) of the Miocene (Schruben et al., 1998; based on King and Beikman, 1974) (Figure 14) was used in determining the updip limit of some of the assessment units. State/Federal Water Boundaries The offshore State/Federal water boundary or USGS petroleum region and/or province boundaries (U.S. Geological Survey, 2004) also were used to define assessment units. Frio Basin Margin Assessment Unit The updip limit of the Frio Basin Margin Assessment Unit is defined by the boundary of the basal Miocene outcrop, whereas the downdip limit of the Frio Basin Margin Assessment Unit is based on a combination of factors including the 10,000 mg/l TDS isoline, Early Cretaceous shelf margin, and known production in certain areas (Figures 13 and 14). Because there is no known production in the Frio Basin Margin Assessment Unit (based on data from NRG Associates, Inc., 2006), and because the potential for biogenic gas is negligible, it was not formally assessed. Frio Stable Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment Unit
In much of the Frio Stable Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment Unit (Figure 15), growth faults are minimal, particularly within updip areas. However, the Vicksburg Fault Zone in south Texas is the exception, and in this area, growth faults commonly cut through the Frio. Although there is significant vertical expansion of the Frio within the Vicksburg Fault Zone, it is not as great as that in the Frio Fault Zone farther downdip (Figure 11). For this reason, the Vicksburg Fault Zone was included in the Frio Stable Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment Unit. The Frio Stable Shelf Zone is also characterized by normally pressured In most parts of the assessment unit, the updip margin follows the 10,000 mg/l TDS isoline (Figure 15), which is a possible indicator of the potential updip limit of biogenic methane. In south Texas, the base (northern boundary) of the Miocene outcrop was used as the updip limit of the assessment unit, due to the presence of oil and gas fields near the saltwater/freshwater interface. In eastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi, the assessment unit extends updip of the Early Cretaceous shelf margin, due to the potential for lateral migration of biogenic gas. In southwestern Mississippi, the assessment unit boundary extends beyond (north of) the 10,000 mg/l TDS isoline to account for known production in the area. Because the Early Cretaceous shelf margin marks the updip limit of Wilcox Group or Sparta Formation shales that are thermally mature (Rowan et al., 2008), it was also used as a defining boundary for the assessment unit. The downdip boundary of the Frio Stable Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment Unit was determined based on the updip extent of the Frio Fault Zone in Texas (Ewing, 1986, 1991a, 1991b; Ewing et al., 1990) and the updip boundary of unstable shelf areas in Louisiana, as reported in previous studies (Paine et al., 1968; John et al., 1992 b,c,d). The downdip boundary of the Frio Stable Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment Unit also generally marks the limit of known production in Frio well intervals in normally pressured zones. Frio Expanded Fault Zone Oil and Gas Assessment Unit In Texas, the updip boundary of the Frio Expanded Fault Zone Oil and Gas Assessment Unit (Figure 16) was determined based on (1) the updip extent of the Frio Fault Zone (Figure 10), a growth fault system occupying a belt about 64 km wide and having great potential for geopressured resources (Ewing, 1986, 1991a, 1991b; Ewing et al., 1990) ; and (2) the updip limit of production in Frio well intervals in the overpressured zone (greater than 0.5 psi/ft) (based on data from the IHS Energy Group, 2005a and Wallace et al., 1978, 1981). In Louisiana, the updip boundary was based on the updip limit of production in Frio well intervals in the overpressured zone (greater than 0.5 psi/ft) and unstable shelf areas in the Frio (Paine et al., 1968; John et al., 1992 b, c, d). The eastern boundary of the Frio Expanded Fault Zone Assessment Unit is delimited by the trace of the Early Cretaceous shelf margin. The downdip boundary for this assessment unit is the late Oligocene shelf margin at maximum progradation (Galloway et al., 2000). The shelf margin marks the downdip limit of siliciclastic shelf, carbonate shelf, and deltaic depositional systems (Galloway et al., 2000). Delta-fed aprons, shelf-fed aprons, and basin floor aprons are found downdip of the shelf margin (Galloway et al., 2000); these depositional areas would have had minimum expansion from growth faulting, as indicated in the geologic model used by the USGS Paleogene Assessment Team (see discussion in “Geologic Model” section).
This assessment unit is characterized by maximum vertical thickening due to growth faulting (refer to discussion in “Geologic Model” section).
The average depth to the top of Frio Slope and Basin Floor Gas Assessment Unit The updip boundary of the Frio Slope and Basin Floor Gas Assessment Unit (Figure 17) is the late Oligocene shelf margin (Galloway et al., 2000), whereas the downdip boundary is the State/Federal water boundary.
Well data are sparse in this assessment unit, and the assessment unit does not contain any discovered hydrocarbon Hackberry Oil and Gas Assessment Unit As described by Cossey and Jacobs (1992), the Hackberry play has an abrupt northern boundary where the Hackberry sharply onlaps the unfaulted margin of the lower Frio shelf sediments. The northern boundary defined by Cossey and Jacobs (1992) was used as the updip limit of the assessment unit (Figure 18). The eastern and western boundaries defined by Cossey and Jacobs (1992) were extended to include known Hackberry field data and well production information (based on data from the IHS Energy Group, 2005a, 2005b; and NRG Associates, Inc., 2006). Eastern and western boundaries of the assessment unit include field data reported by Bornhauser (1960), Paine (1968), and Ewing and Reed (1984). The southern extent of the Hackberry play as described by Cossey and Jacobs (1992) was limited by drilling economics to where the base of the Hackberry was at approximately 15,000 ft. For the USGS assessment, the southern boundary of the Hackberry Oil and Gas Assessment Unit was extended to the State/Federal water boundary for two reasons (Figure 18). First, previous work (Paine, 1968, 1971; Benson, 1971; Ewing and Reed, 1984; Cossey and Jacobs, 1992; Galloway et al., 2000) suggested that the downdip Hackberry was deposited in a slope environment. Based on geologic models from other areas, it seems reasonable to suggest that the slope system may extend as far as the State/Federal water boundary. Second, recent initial production tests and producing wells in the Hackberry are found at depths greater than 15,000 ft in downdip areas (based on data from IHS Energy Group, 2005a, 2005b).
The average depth to the top of Anahuac Oil and Gas Assessment Unit
The lateral extent of the Anahuac Oil and Gas Assessment Unit (Figure 19) across the Gulf Coast is based, in part, on the area defined as the “Anahuac Sea” by Burke (1958) and the position of the shoreline during the late Oligocene (Rainwater, 1964). In Louisiana, the updip limit of the assessment area was modified to encompass producing fields of Anahuac deltaic, shelf, and slope environments (John et al., 1992a) and to include the Heterostegina shelf margin (Krutak and Beron, 1990). Structural contours of the top of the Heterostegina Zone (Warren, 1957) were used to estimate the northern extent of potential hydrocarbon-producing Anahuac sandstones. The assessment unit extends downdip to the offshore State/Federal water boundary. The assessment unit in eastern and south-central Texas was extended updip of the late Oligocene paleoshoreline as defined by Rainwater (1964) to accommodate known producing
The updip limit of the Anahuac Oil and Gas Assessment Unit generally lies south of the Early Cretaceous shelf margin and the 10,000 mg/l TDS isoline (Pettijohn, 1996). However, in southeastern Louisiana, the assessment unit boundary extends updip of the Early Cretaceous shelf boundary to accommodate potential for biogenic gas. In south Texas, the boundary of the assessment unit extends slightly updip of the 10,000 mg/l TDS isoline due to the presence of known Anahuac
Reservoir depths of the Anahuac range from about 4000 to 16,000 ft (Nehring, 1991). Based on data from NRG Associates, Inc. (2006), the average depth to the top of Anahuac
Table 2 is a summary of the assessment results for the four assessment units in the Frio Formation and the one assessment unit in the Anahuac Formation by resource type (crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids). The total estimated means for undiscovered
The total estimated mean for undiscovered
The total estimated means for undiscovered
The authors would like to thank all members of the USGS Tertiary Assessment Team for providing their geologic and technical expertise throughout the assessment process (T.R. Klett, C.J. Schenk, R.R. Charpentier, and R.M. Pollastro; L.H. Biewick, J.L. Coleman, S.M. Condon, R.F. Dubiel, P. C. Hackley, D.O. Hayba, M.A. Keller, M.D. Lewan, P.H. Nelson, O. Pearson, J.K. Pitman, J.L. Ridgley, E.L. Rowan, and P.D. Warwick.) We would like to give special thanks to Peter Warwick and Jim Coleman for providing their geologic expertise. Tim Klett, Chris Schenk, and Rich Pollastro gave us much appreciated guidance in assessment methodologies. Elizabeth Rowan, Janet Pitman, and Mike Lewan provided information essential for understanding the thermal maturity of
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