Evaluation of heavy-oil and tar sands in Bourbon, Crawford, and Cherokee Counties, Kansas. Final report

The current national energy-resource situation has provided the incentive to investigate more fully deposits of heavy-oil bearing sandstone in southeastern Kansas, as part of a larger, three-state study. The results of this study indicate that the size of the heavy-oil resource in the three Kansas counties studied is smaller than earlier estimates suggested. A resource of 200 to 225 million barrels of oil in-place is estimated to be present in areas of ''known oil occurrence,'' as established by this study. The amount of this in-place resource which may be considered to be reserves, that is, recoverable under existing technology and economics, is zero. The estimates of resource-size are severely downgraded from earlier estimates mainly because of the discontinuous nature of the potential reservoir sandstone bodies and because of the thinness and shaliness of some of these sandstones. The earlier impression of these heavy-oil reservoirs, at least in Kansas, as being widespread, heavily oil saturated, ''blanket'' sandstones unfortunately is not correct. There are areas, shown on maps, which may warrant further investigation because of locally good oil-saturation, i.e., more than 400 barrels per acre foot, in trends of sandstone thicker than 20 feet. It is concluded that there will be no widespread exploitation of subsurface heavy-oil sandstones within the areas of Bourbon, Crawford, and Cherokee Counties, Kansas. Smaller areas indicated here may warrant further drilling and investigation, but the potential size of the heavy-oil resource is severely downgraded from earlier estimates