Sequence stratigraphy and hydrocarbon exploration: updip Wilcox trend in south Texas

Conference · Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1988 · AAPG Bull.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5791694

Smith, W M; Breyer, J A

Five unconformity-bounded depositional sequences occur in the sub-surface lower and middle Wilcox in south Texas. All of the sequences are oil and gas productive in the updip Wilcox trend. Forty-four class D and E oil and gas fields, with a combined cumulative production of over 40 million bbl of oil and 12,000 million ft/sup 3/ of gas, produce from the lower and middle Wilcox in a 4,000-mi/sup 2/ area in the northern part of the Rio Grande embayment. Much of the established production is from sands associated with the basal unconformity of each sequence. Twenty-four of the 38 fields producing from Sequence B produce from the basal sand in the sequence. Most of the fields occur in areas of relatively low sand percent. The low-sand areas occur in different places in different sequences because the locus of sand accumulation shifted during the deposition of the Wilcox Group. The potentially productive low-sand areas are not apparent on a sand percent map for the composite lower and middle Wilcox. The techniques they used to delineate potential productive areas in the updip Wilcox trend in south Texas can be applied throughout much of the Gulf Coast basin and in other petroleum provinces with terrigenous clastic depositional systems as well.

• Research Organization: Texas Christian Univ., Fort Worth (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5791694
• Report Number(s): CONF-880301-
• Journal Information: AAPG Bull.; (United States), Vol. 72:2; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Houston, TX, USA, 20-23 Mar 1988
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
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SEDIMENTARY BASINS
FEDERAL REGION VI
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