Structural controls on Ochoan salt dissolution and Delaware Mountain Group oil field permeability trends in the Delaware basin, west Texas and southeast New Mexico

Conference · Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:7079082

Zaengle, J F; Lohmann, K C ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor (United States)

A Landsat TM image of the Delaware basin, west Texas and southeast New Mexico, reveals geomorphic lineaments and tonal anomalies with preferred northwest-southeast and northeast-southwest orientations. Lineament orientations are the same as the trend of joints and fractures observed in Delaware Mountain exposures and from subsurface borehole break-out and televiewer data. These data suggest that lineament trends are controlled by subsurface joints and fractures. Petrographic data indicate that Delaware Mountain Group porosity/permeability development is controlled in large part by the occurrence of calcite/dolomite cement and chlorite/corrensite clays. The unimodality of grain size, sorting, and framework grain mineralogy, along with the virtual absence of detrital clays, favors a diagenetic control on cementation patterns. These observations coupled with formation water chemistry, and cement carbon-oxygen isotope and fluid inclusion data suggest that the occurrence of Delaware Mountain Group cements is related to diagenetic alteration by waters that have dissolved Ochoan halite and potash salts. Hydrodynamic fluid flow along joint and fracture systems coupled with rock-water interactions are proposed that account for the coincidence of salt dissolution fronts and oil field permeability barriers as well as formation water chemical trends and cement isotopic signatures. Preliminary data suggest fracture systems provide conduits for hydrodynamic fluid flow capable of extensive Ochoan salt dissolution and the transport of reactive solutions to remote horizons both laterally and vertically in the basin.

• OSTI ID: 7079082
• Report Number(s): CONF-910403-; CODEN: AABUD
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States), Vol. 75:3; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), Dallas, TX (United States), 7-10 Apr 1991; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
03 NATURAL GAS
NEW MEXICO
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESERVOIR ROCK
DIAGENESIS
PERMEABILITY
TEXAS
CALCITE
CEMENTS
CHLORITE MINERALS
DISSOLUTION
DOLOMITE
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
HALITE
INCLUSIONS
INTERSTITIAL WATER
LANDSAT SATELLITES
LINEAMENTS
MINERALOGY
MULTISPECTRAL PHOTOGRAPHY
ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS
SALT DEPOSITS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
WATER CHEMISTRY
BUILDING MATERIALS
CARBONATE MINERALS
CHEMISTRY
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
FEDERAL REGION VI
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GROUND WATER
HALIDE MINERALS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
MINERAL RESOURCES
MINERALS
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOGRAPHY
RESOURCES
SATELLITES
SILICATE MINERALS
USA
WATER
020200* - Petroleum- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
030200 - Natural Gas- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration