--> Interpreted Reflection Seismic Events Near the North Central Oil Corporation Well, Newark Basin, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, by R. T. Ryder, J. J. Miller, J. S. Grow, and N. M. Ratcliffe; #90986 (1994).

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Abstract: Interpreted Reflection Seismic Events Near the North Central Oil Corporation Well, Newark Basin, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Robert T. Ryder, John J. Miller, John S. Grow, Nicholas M. Ratcliffe

In 1985, North Central Oil Corporation drilled a 10,500-ft well in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to test for oil and gas in Triassic-Jurassic strata of the Newark Group in the Newark basin. The hole was located about 5 mi southeast of the border fault on the crest of the Revere anticline, a transverse structure that plunges northwestward toward the border fault. This drill hole, No. 1 Cabot-KBI, penetrated in descending order 2900 ft of lacustrine red and gray shale (Passaic Formation of Jurassic and Triassic age), 3600 ft of lacustrine gray and black shale (Lockatong Formation of Triassic age), and 4000 ft of fluvial sandstone and red shale (Stockton Formation of Triassic age). Although the drill hole was abandoned, it revealed excellent gas shows throughout the Lockatong Formation and parts of the Stockton Formation.

Acoustic and density logs from the well were converted to a synthetic seismogram that ties stratigraphic intervals in the borehole with seismic events on the nearby, 33-mi-long Seitel NB-1 seismic line. Formation contacts, probable intraformational unconformities and lithologic units such as 50-ft-thick fluvial sandstones in the Stockton Formation are identified and traced for tens of miles away from the well. Moreover, beneath the drill site in the Stockton Formation, the 48-fold seismic line shows a large anticline that is subparallel to the border fault. This anticline has no surface expression; but, in combination with the intersecting Revere Anticline, provides an obvious exploration target. Our interpretation suggests that the No. 1 Cabot-KBI drill hole ends about 1500 ft above he border fault and the underlying middle Proterozoic basement. As recognized in other interpretations of the line, the border fault dips southeastward at approximately 30° beneath the basin to a depth in the upper crust that exceeds 25,000 ft. The maximum thickness of the lower Mesozoic sequence along the line is located several miles southeast of the drill site, where it is estimated to be about 17,000 ft. High-amplitude seismic events from the Stockton formation on the southeastern flank of the large anticline may indicate undiscovered gas accumulations.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994