West Side Canal Gas Field

By

John M. Parker

Independent, Dana Point, CA

Louis C. Bortz

Independent, Denver, CO

West Side Canal Field, one of the larger gas fields in the greater Green River Basin, was discovered by Kirby Petroleum in 1964. The discovery location was based on an integration of surface and subsurface and seismic data. That allowed Parker to interpret a structure with 150 ft of closure at the Lewis objective despite contradicting seismic reflection data. Production started in 1966 after a pipeline to the field was completed.

West Side Canal Gas Field has six producing intervals in the Fort Union Formation, seventeen in the Lance Formation, eight in the Lewis Shale, one in the Almond, and one in the Amsden. Minor gas reserves are also found in lower Wasatch sands. The shallower reservoirs are productive primarily within the West Side Canal closure. Gas production from the deeper Lewis sand reservoirs also occurs outside the area of structural closure, where the trap is the regional eastward pinch out of individual sands along the eastern margin of the study area.

Production is now continuous from South Baggs to West Side Canal, Pole Gulch, Sand Hills, and Four Mile Creek. The “Greater” West Side Canal area has produced about 249 billion cubic feet of gas to the end of 1999, about 75% of which came from the West Side Canal closure. Estimated remaining reserves are 131 billion cubic ft.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90004©2002 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section, Laramie, Wyoming