Paleoenvironmental reconstruction for infill drilling, White City Penn-South Carlsbad Field Areas, Eddy County, New Mexico
The White City field and the southern part of the South Carlsbad field are located on the Northwest shelf in central Eddy County, approximately 15 mi south of Carlsbad and 4 mi east of White City, New Mexico. The field is a structural-stratigraphic reservoir producing predominately from a thick section of Pennsylvanian (Morrow, Atoka, Strawn) clastics and carbonates that were deposited on a shallow shelf edge. The older Morrowan clastics comprise most of the production in this area. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction and petrographic analyses characterize the lower half of the Morrowan as an overall prograding fluvial-deltaic sequence of channels, point bars, and channel mouth bars sourced from the northwest. This sequence trends toward the southeast, normal to depositional strike. The uppermost sand units are capped by shoal-water carbonate biograinstones. These strandling deposits are eventually overlain by a thick interval of transgressive Morrowan limestones. Although the study area involves a significant structural overprint, important stratigraphic traps are created in the sandstones by variations in cementation and depositional patterns. Because of the variable nature of deltaic deposition, the Morrow clastics were sliced into several correlatable genetic sand packages, and the lateral variability within each package was mapped using electric log signatures and assigning the associated environmental interpretations. This process helped define the size, geometry, and orientation of sands at each interval, thus allowing the workers to establish reservoir limits and to understand the porosity and permeability behavior and facies changes within each slice. When these slices are vertically stacked, a three-dimensional attitude is realized for the entire reservoir, and detailed paleoenvironmental reconstruction is possible.
- Research Organization:
- Sohio Petroleum Co., Dallas, TX
- OSTI ID:
- 6987257
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8604186-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Vol. 70:3; Conference: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Southwest Section convention, Ruidoso, NM, USA, 27 Apr 1986
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Lower Pennsylvanian reservoirs of Parkway-Empire south field area, Eddy County, New Mexico
Carlsbad South Strawn field, Eddy County, New Mexico
Related Subjects
NEW MEXICO
OIL FIELDS
RESERVOIR ROCK
DEPOSITION
STRATIGRAPHY
CARBONATE ROCKS
CONGLOMERATES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
PENNSYLVANIAN PERIOD
SANDSTONES
FEDERAL REGION VI
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGY
MINERAL RESOURCES
NORTH AMERICA
PALEOZOIC ERA
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
USA
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration