Petroleum System Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources in the Upper Jurassic Haynesville (Kimmeridgian) and Bossier (Tithonian) Formations, Onshore U.S. Gulf Coast

Abstract

In 2017 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessed undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, gas, and natural gas liquids in the Upper Jurassic Haynesville and Bossier Formations in the onshore Gulf Coast from south Texas to the Florida panhandle. The Haynesville and Bossier Formations are part of the Upper Jurassic-Cretaceous-Tertiary Total Petroleum System (TPS) in onshore lands and State waters of the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Each assessment unit (AU) within the TPS has unique stratigraphy, depositional environment and structural setting, which combined with knowledge of the tectonic and burial history of the basin, provide insights to timing and extent of oil and gas generation as it relates to the reservoirs, traps, and seals within a given AU. Mudstones in the Upper Jurassic Smackover, Haynesville, and Bossier Formations are sources of oil and gas throughout the assessment area. Conventional carbonate reservoirs of the Haynesville Formation in the western Gulf consist of lithofacies associated with deposition on a shallow marine shelf and include grainstone shoals/bars and local pinnacle reefs. Conventional sandstone reservoirs of Haynesville Formation in the eastern Gulf include facies deposited in fluviodeltaic, marginal marine and marine shelf, slope, and basin floor settings. Continuous mudstones reservoirs of the Haynesville Formation are interbedded with and (or) basinward of the Haynesville carbonate facies in the Central Gulf. Conventional sandstone reservoirs in the Bossier Formation, distributed on the perimeter of the Gulf, were deposited in marginal marine and marine shelf, slope, and basin floor depositional settings. Continuous mudstones reservoirs of the Bossier Formation are located basinward of Bossier and Upper Jurassic Cotton Valley Group sandstone facies. Two conventional and two continuous AUs were defined for the Haynesville Formation and two conventional AUs and one continuous AU for the Bossier Formation. Assessment of these AUs yields estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 1.1 billion barrels of conventional oil and 195.8 trillion cubic feet of conventional and continuous gas for the Haynesville Formation and 2.9 billion barrels of conventional oil and 108.6 trillion cubic feet of conventional and continuous gas for the Bossier Formation.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90357 ©2019 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Cheyenne, Wyoming, September 15-18, 2019