LUO, SONGQIAO, and M. A. MEYLAN,* University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS

ABSTRACT: Subsurface Structure and Hydrocarbon Occurrence, Cretaceous Rocks of Maxie and Pistol Ridge Fields, Southeastern Mississippi

Maxie and Pistol Ridge fields are located along the southern boundary of the Mississippi Salt basin and northern edge of the Wiggins arch in Forrest and Pearl River counties, Mississippi. Together, the fields have produced about 12 million bbl of oil and 600 mcf of gas to date, primarily from the lower Tuscaloosa Formation. Production ranges from the Hosston to the Wilcox. A field study using 281 electric logs was done to determine controls on hydrocarbon distribution, emphasizing the Dantzler and Upper Cretaceous section.

Almost all hydrocarbon traps at the fields are related to the Maxie-Pistol Ridge fault, a northward-dipping normal fault extending about 18 mi in an east-west direction. Maximum throw along the fault is about 300 ft (at the Dantzler and Lower Tuscaloosa Formation horizons), and it dies out upward into the lower part of the Tertiary. Several smaller antithetic and synthetic faults occur parallel to subparallel to the main fault.

On the downthrown side of the fault, hydrocarbons occur in two rollover structures designated here as the Maxie anticline and the Pistol Ridge faulted anticline. The former, slightly higher, has trapped mostly lower Tuscaloosa gas, while the latter, structurally lower, contains dominantly oil, spread stratigraphically from the Paluxy to the Eutaw/upper Tuscaloosa. Upthrown structural traps are low-relief simple closures or fault-closed noses on what are designated as the East and West Wiggins anticlines. Hosston and Rodessa pay in the latter is referred to as West Pistol Ridge field.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90989©1993 GCAGS and Gulf Coast SEPM 43rd Annual Meeting, Shreveport, Louisiana, October 20-22, 1993.