Abstract: New Developments in Methods of Resource Estimation, Gulf of Mexico and Permian Basin, West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico

Betty M. Miller, Kurt H. Carlson, William Markewich

An Interagency Oil and Gas Supply Project was initiated late in 1976 under the direction of the U.S. Department of the Interior to provide planning data for investigation of the relations between the estimated oil and gas resource base and the manner in which the availability of resources is affected by economics. The project is divided into a series of tasks, each under the direction and responsibility of separate groups within the participating agencies.

Task I is the responsibility of the U.S. Geological Survey, Oil and Gas Resource Appraisal Group, and is to provide detailed oil and gas resource appraisals for three pilot areas. These pilot areas are: the Gulf of Mexico, the Permian basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, and the Mid-Atlantic offshore continental shelf. The resource-appraisal studies for each of these areas include: (1) assessments of the undiscovered oil and gas resources by major stratigraphic units or by depth intervals, which are reported as probability curves; (2) assessments of the distributions by size and number of the undiscovered oil and gas fields for each of the stratigraphic units, which are reported as probability and frequency distributions; (3) assessments relating to the distributions by de th of occurrence of the undiscovered resources; and (4) the projected finding rates for the undiscovered resources for each of the stratigraphic units.

New developments are reported in the resource-appraisal methods as designed for a modified play-analysis approach; in the methods for assessing the probable distributions of the size and number of remaining undiscovered oil and gas fields; and in the applications of finding-rate methodology to the appraisal of oil and gas resources.

Results of the pilot studies, particularly for the Gulf of Mexico and the Permian basin, illustrate the applications of the methods for resource appraisals, field-size distributions, and finding rates, and will be available at a later date.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90961©1978 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma