Future petroleum resource potential of northern Rocky Mountain-Great Plains area

Conference · Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA)

OSTI ID:5497960

Peterson, J A ^[1]

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1. Geological Survey, Missoula, MT (USA)

The northern Rocky Mountain-Great Plains area includes nine main petroleum exploration provinces: (1) Wyoming-Utah-Idaho thrust belt; (2) southwestern Wyoming basins, (3) Big Horn basin, (4) Wind River basin, (5) Powder River basin, (6) western Montana province, (7) Sweetgrass arch province, (8) central Montana province, and (9) Williston basin-Sioux uplift province. More than 2,500 oil and gas fields have been discovered in these provinces, with cumulative production up to 1986 of approximately 8 billion bbl of oil and more than 15 tcf of gas. Twenty-five giants fields (> 100 million bbl of oil), many of which were discovered early in the century, account for more than half of the cumulative production. Oil and gas production is from carbonate and sandstone reservoirs ranging in age from Cambrian to Tertiary. Organic-rich petroleum source rocks are present in the Ordovician, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Cretaceous, and Tertiary stratigraphic sections. US Geological Survey mean estimates of undiscovered conventional recoverable petroleum resources in the region are approximately 4.4 billion bbl of oil and 29 tcf of gas. Significant resources of unconventional gas in low-permeability reservoirs and as coal-bed methane also are present in the region. The future potential is encouraging, depending on economic factors, but increasingly refined exploration and production technology will be necessary to explore for the remaining resources, a large part of which is expected to be in relatively small accumulations.

• OSTI ID: 5497960
• Report Number(s): CONF-8910195--
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA), Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (USA) Vol. 73:9; ISSN AABUD; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200* -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
03 NATURAL GAS
030200 -- Natural Gas-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
CARBONATE ROCKS
CENOZOIC ERA
COLORADO
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
DEVONIAN PERIOD
EXPLORATION
FEDERAL REGION VIII
FEDERAL REGION X
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
IDAHO
JURASSIC PERIOD
MATURATION
MESOZOIC ERA
MINERAL RESOURCES
MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
MONTANA
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH DAKOTA
PALEOZOIC ERA
PENNSYLVANIAN PERIOD
PERMEABILITY
PERMIAN PERIOD
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS
RESERVOIR ROCK
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SOURCE ROCKS
SOUTH DAKOTA
TERTIARY PERIOD
USA
UTAH
WYOMING