Maquoketa paleotopography key to reservoirs in western Illinois

Journal Article · Mon Aug 12 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Oil and Gas Journal

OSTI ID:276604

Whitaker, S T ^[1]; Ledbetter, J C ^[2]

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1. IBEX Geological Consultants Inc., Champaign, IL (United States)
2. Nyvatex Oil Corp., Billings, MT (United States)

Shallow Silurian reservoirs in western Illinois have been a primary target for exploration since the late 1950s. It was not until the discovery and development of Buckhorn Consolidated field in the early 1980s, however, that significant drilling efforts for Silurian reservoirs were focused on western Illinois. At Buckhorn, 1.7 million bbl of oil have been produced from a basal Silurian dolomite at about 650 ft. Drawn by inexpensive drilling and available acreage, hundreds of operators flocked to western Illinois to try their luck. By the late 1980s, however, exploration efforts in western Illinois were curtailed due to the failure to locate additional significant reservoirs. Much of this failure was due to the lack of a suitable geologic model that could be used to explain the reason for reservoir development and thereby guide exploration efforts. An article by Whitaker and Howard in 1995 presented a geologic model explaining Silurian reservoir development and stratigraphic entrapment of oil at Buckhorn Consolidated field were formed as Silurian dolomite in-filled a shallow paleovalley cut into the underlying Ordovician Maquoketa shale. Some companies have recently initiated new exploration efforts in the area using this model. This paper discusses the efforts and results of several of these new areas.

• OSTI ID: 276604
• Journal Information: Oil and Gas Journal, Journal Name: Oil and Gas Journal Journal Issue: 33 Vol. 94; ISSN 0030-1388; ISSN OIGJAV
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
EXPLORATION
EXPLORATORY WELLS
GEOLOGIC MODELS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGIC TRAPS
ILLINOIS
MAPS
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
STRATIGRAPHY
WELL DRILLING