U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
Assessment of the Mesaverde Total Petroleum
System in Southwestern
Wyoming Province: a petroleum system approach to assessing undiscovered oil and gas resources Compiled PowerPoint* Slides by Ronald C. Johnson and Thomas M. Finn
USGS Open-File Report 03-472
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ABSTRACT The U.S. Geological Survey, in a recent
assessment of the undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Southwestern
Wyoming Province using a Total Petroleum System (TPS) approach, estimated
a mean of 84.6 trillion cubic feet of gas (TCFG), 131 million barrels of
oil (MMBO) and 2.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids (BBNGL) that
have the potential to be added to reserves over the next 30 years.
Only a fraction of this, however, may be economically recoverable
Continuous-type reservoirs in the Mesaverde TPS were subdivided into the Almond Continuous Gas Assessment Unit (AU) (mean of 13.35 TCFG), Rock Springs-Ericson Continuous Gas AU (mean of 12.18 TCFG), and the Mesaverde Coalbed Gas AU (mean of 0.25 TCFG). Geologic analysis was used to determine the favorable “sweet spots” for potential gas resources. The Almond AU has been heavily explored at depths less than 11,000 ft, thus additions to reserves will most likely be the result of infill drilling in existing fields and the discovery of sweet spots at depths greater than 11,000 ft. There is much uncertainty in the size of undiscovered resource in the Rock Springs-Ericson AU because potential reservoirs are only sparsely explored. Only a small fraction of in-place coal-bed gas is considered to be recoverable because of low permeability and problems posed by produced water. INTRODUCTION This presentation was given at the “Petroleum Systems and Reservoirs of Southwest Wyoming” Symposium sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists and the PTTC-Rocky Mountain Region on September 19, 2003, in Denver Colorado. |
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