Oil Fields in Railroad Valley Nevada

Abstract

Nevada's first oil field, Eagle Springs, was discovered by Shell Oil in 1954. What led Shell Oil to explore for oil and gas in a remote valley in east-central Nevada? Possibly, because some droplets of live oil were found in goniatites in 1946 by Walt Youngquist in the Mississippian Chainman shale, 30 miles northwest of the Eagle Springs field. Since 1954, nine oil fields have been discovered in Railroad Valley, and to-date have produced a total of 47,000,000 barrels of oil. Production is from Oligocene volcanics, Eocene lacustrine limestones and Paleozoic carbonates. Case histories of three fields will be summarized (Eagle Springs, Trap Spring and Grant Canyon-Bacon Flat). Future exploration will be for both conventional and unconventional fields.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90266 © 2016 AAPG Pacific Section and Rocky Mountain Section Joint Meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2-5, 2016