Print this pageAbstract: Wales Viola Field, Montague County, Texas
The Wales field is one of several small oil fields in west-central Montague County, Texas associated with isolated structural highs. These fields, which include the Brite and three Boedeker fields, produce oil from the Upper Ordovician Viola Formation. In this area, the Viola consists of hard, finely crystalline, light olive gray (5Y6/1) limestone that is finely fractured and dolomitized at some stratigraphic levels (Williams, 1982). The Mississippian Barnett Shale uncomformably overlies eroded Viola Limestone and provides an effective seal for hydrocarbon accumulation, the westernmost limit of the Viola is about 1.5 mi (2.4 km) west of the Wales field. Structurally, the Wales field is in the northernmost part of the Fort Worth basin about 20 mi (32km) southwest of the Mu nster arch, a northwest-trending buried granite ridge. Locally, the field occurs along a northeast-trending structural high that has approximately 80 ft. (24m) of structural relief.
In early 1962, completion of the E.R. Perkins No. 1 Wales established Viola production on the John W. Wales Estate. Subsequently, nine Viola wells were completed in the pay, but only one is currently producing oil. In the main part of the field, the IPF of wells drilled on the Wales/Health tracts ranged from 140 to 160 barrels of 44° - 45° API oil per day on a 16/64 inch choke. Gas-oil ratios ranged from 1200-1 to 1500-1. Cumulative oil production during the last 30 years totaled 315,017 BOPD. Other wells in the field area produce oil from the Pennsylvanian Caddo Conglomerate and Strawn sandstones.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90960©1995 AAPG Southwest Section Meeting, Dallas, Texas