Oil accumulation, production characteristics, and targets for additional recovery in major oil reservoirs of Texas

UT Librarie

Geology and geohydrology of the Palo Duro Basin, Texas panhandle : a report on the progress of nuclear waste isolation feasibility studies (1978)

Contract no. EY-77-S-05-5466; ORO/5466-10UT Librarie

Sediment compaction rates and subsidence in deltaic plains : numerical constraints and stratigraphic influences

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Basin Research 19 (2007): 19-31, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2117.2006.00310.x.Natural sediment compaction in deltaic plains influences subsidence rates and the evolution of deltaic morphology. Determining compaction rates requires detailed knowledge of subsurface geotechnical properties and depositional history, neither of which is often readily available. To overcome this lack of knowledge, we numerically forward model the incremental sedimentation and compaction of stochastically generated stratigraphies with geotechnical properties typical of modern depositional environments in the Mississippi River delta plain. Using a Monte Carlo approach, the range of probable compaction rates for stratigraphies with compacted thicknesses <150 m and accumulation times <20 kyr. varies, but maximum values rarely exceed a few mm yr-1. The fastest compacting stratigraphies are composed primarily of peat and bar sand, whereas the slowest compacting stratigraphies are composed of prodelta mud and natural levee deposits. These results suggest that compaction rates can significantly influence vertical and lateral stratigraphic trends during deltaic evolution

Intra‐clinothem variability in sedimentary texture and process regime recorded down slope profiles

Shelf‐margin clinothem successions can archive process interactions at the shelf to slope transition, and their architecture provides constraints on the interplay of factors that control basin‐margin evolution. However, detailed textural analysis and facies distributions from shelf to slope transitions remain poorly documented. This study uses quantitative grain‐size and sorting data from coeval shelf and slope deposits of a single clinothem that crops out along a 5 km long, dip‐parallel transect of the Eocene Sobrarbe Deltaic Complex (Ainsa Basin, south‐central Pyrenees, Spain). Systematic sampling of sandstone beds tied to measured sections has captured vertical and basinward changes in sedimentary texture and facies distributions at an intra‐clinothem scale. Two types of hyperpycnal flow‐related slope deposits, both rich in mica and terrestrial organic matter, are differentiated according to grain size, sorting and bed geometry: (i) sustained hyperpycnal flow deposits, which are physically linked to coarse channelized sediments in the shelf setting and which deposit sand down the complete slope profile; (ii) episodic hyperpycnal flow deposits, which are disconnected from, and incise into, shelf sands and which are associated with sediment bypass of the proximal slope and coarse‐grained sand deposition on the medial and distal slope. Both types of hyperpycnites are interbedded with relatively homogenous, organic‐free and mica‐free, well‐sorted, very fine‐grained sandstones, which are interpreted to be remobilized from wave‐dominated shelf environments; these wave‐dominated deposits are found only on the proximal and medial slope. Coarse‐grained sediment bypass into the deeper‐water slope settings is therefore dominated by episodic hyperpycnal flows, whilst sustained hyperpycnal flows and turbidity currents remobilizing wave‐dominated shelf deposits are responsible for the full range of grain sizes in the proximal and medial slope, thus facilitating clinoform progradation. This novel dataset highlights previously undocumented intra‐clinothem variability related to updip changes in the shelf process‐regime, which is therefore a key factor controlling downdip architecture and resulting sedimentary texture

From marine bands to hybrid flows: sedimentology of a Mississippian black shale

Organic‐rich mudstones have long been of interest as conventional and unconventional source rocks and are an important organic carbon sink. Yet the processes that deposited organic‐rich muds in epicontinental seaways are poorly understood, partly because few modern analogues exist. This study investigates the processes that transported and deposited sediment and organic matter through part of the Bowland Shale Formation, from the Mississippian Rheic–Tethys seaway. Field to micron‐scale sedimentological analysis reveals a heterogeneous succession of carbonate‐rich, siliceous, and siliciclastic, argillaceous muds. Deposition of these facies at basinal and slope locations was moderated by progradation of the nearby Pendle delta system, fourth‐order eustatic sea‐level fluctuation and localized block and basin tectonism. Marine transgressions deposited bioclastic ‘marine band’ (hemi)pelagic packages. These include abundant euhaline macrofaunal tests, and phosphatic concretions of organic matter and radiolarian tests interpreted as faecal pellets sourced from a productive water column. Lens‐rich (lenticular) mudstones, hybrid, debrite and turbidite beds successively overlie marine band packages and suggest reducing basin accommodation promoted sediment deposition via laminar and hybrid flows sourced from the basin margins. Mud lenses in lenticular mudstones lack organic linings and bioclasts and are equant in early‐cemented lenses and in plan‐view, and are largest and most abundant in mudstones overlying marine band packages. Thus, lenses likely represent partially consolidated mud clasts that were scoured and transported in bedload from the shelf or proximal slope, as a ‘shelf to basin’ conveyor, during periods of reduced basin accommodation. Candidate in situ microbial mats in strongly lenticular mudstones, and as rip‐up fragments in the down‐dip hybrid beds, suggest that these were potentially key biostabilizers of mud. Deltaic mud export was fast, despite the intrabasinal complexity, likely an order of magnitude higher than similar successions deposited in North America. Epicontinental basins remotely linked to delta systems were therefore capable of rapidly accumulating both sediment and organic matter

Sandstone consolidation analysis to delineate areas of high-quality reservoirs suitable for production of geopressured geothermal energy along the Texas Gulf Coast

Analysis of reservoir quality of lower Tertiary sandstones along the Texas Gulf Coast delineates areas most favorable for geopressured geothermal exploration. Reservoir quality is determined by whole core, acoustic log, and petrographic analyses. The Wilcox Group has good reservoir potential for geopressured geothermal energy in the Middle Texas Gulf Coast and possibly in adjacent areas, but other Wilcox areas are marginal. The Vicksburg Formation in the Lower Texas Gulf Coast is not prospective. Reservoir quality in the Frio Formation increases from very poor in lowermost Texas, to marginal into the Middle Texas Gulf Coast and to good through the Upper Texas Gulf Coast. The Frio Formation in the Upper Texas Gulf Coast has the best deep-reservoir quality of any unit along the Texas Gulf Coast. (MHR

Hydrocarbon Accumulation Analysis by Reconstructing the Canyon-Fill Sequence using Seismic Stratigraphic Interpretation in the Central Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas

The Texas Gulf region has been extensively studied and explored due to its high volume of oil and gas accumulation. One of the most highly productive sequences in the region is the lower Wilcox Group, which was deposited during a gradually sea level rising. The high rate of Tertiary sedimentary source influx and repeatedly transgression and regression resulted in numerous reservoirs and ideal traps. Regression caused the development of incised canyon systems, and later the canyon was filled with marine shales during the transgression. The complex canyon-fill sequence makes petroleum accumulation possible. Both stratigraphic and structural trapping mechanisms are found in the study area. The stratigraphy of the Wilcox Group is divided based on the lithological data and electric logs. In order to investigate the lateral variations of erosional sequences and the distributions of thin-bed sand bodies, we correlate the well logging across the survey. The seismic sequences and related sandstones are identified on the seismic sections after the well-to-seismic tie. Finally, the complex canyon-fill system is rebuilt and the hydrocarbon accumulation pattern is analyzed by conducting seismic stratigraphic interpretation in the study area